Courageous Conversation Workshop✍️
As a professional we find ourselves in a position where we have many crucial conversations. Especially as a founder or employee of a start-up company. Either with co-founders, employees, partners or investors. They involve harsh truths and can have huge stakes.
It is really important to know how you come across during these conversations and what influence these conversations have when you execute them badly. So, how to prepare and execute these conversations and how do you make sure that everyone leaves the room with a positive feeling after these convo’s? Some key take-aways:
- Do you know how you come across during crucial conversations? We tend to either favour a lot of empathy (we don’t want to hurt the other person) or a lot directness (we say what needs to be said, without thinking about the other person).
- A good conversations start with preparations. This might sound like a cliché but it’s really underestimated
- Think of your intention, what do you want to reach with this conversation?
- Venting; give yourself some time to complain about the other person to a neutral party. This prevents you from actually venting to the person itself, as it distracts from the real message
- Story process: base your story on the facts. Make sure you get a clear picture of what is factual and what are your personal assumptions as this gets often mixed. Really reflect on the intentions of the person you are having an issue with. Give the other person the benefit of the doubt, why to explain why they do the things they do from a positive perspective. Download the e-book for a step-by-step guide.
- Set-up the conversation and create safety
- Be honest: if you are not trusting a teammate or client to meet the agreements you have made, its very likely that your teammate or client also notices the lack of trust. So you can better be upfront about it and explain your feelings or concerns.
- Communicate your feedback with directness and empathy. You can use the SBI model for this. Download the e-book for more information on this.