LET'S TALK

 Difficult Conversations in the Workplace  | By Sabrina Thomas | January 21, 2020

Ashira Prossack is a writer for Forbes, and she helps companies understand, engage, attract, and retain Millennial and Gen Z employees, and coaches the next generation of talent to build business and leadership skills. In her article “How To Have Difficult Conversations At Work”, she gives tips and advice on how to proactively have a voice in the workplace, specifically with difficult conversations. Touching points on being direct, planning out the conversation, managing your emotions and offering a solution, this article offers true help to get through tough dialogue with colleagues. There are so many great tips Prossack gives to combat avoiding these conversations, and there are a few worth pointing out.

Being direct is possibly the hardest part of a difficult conversation. It is tempting to want to beat around the bush, when in reality it is wasting time. It is better to rip off the band-aid and start with the main issue. You know that feeling where all of the weight is lifted off of your shoulders and you can breathe a little deeper? This is what being direct will feel like.

Planning out the conversation gives us an advantage to think about everything we have to say, as well as prepare for how the other person may react to it. It is helpful to think of any questions that may arise, and answer them before going into the conversation. A strategy that I personally find helpful is making a list, and making a bullet point for every topic I want to talk about. As Prossack says, “The more prepared you are, the easier it will be to stay even tempered and not get flustered, and therefore deliver a more solid critique.”

Managing our emotions during a difficult conversation is one of the most critical things we can do! In a workplace, we always want to have conversations in a professional manner, and not let our emotions get the best of us, which is very likely in a difficult conversation. Prossack says “don’t let your emotions dictate your delivery.” We should be able to separate our feelings about a relationship from a conversation at work.

Offering a solution allows us to continue the dialogue, rather than hit the other person with a critique and leave it at that. No matter what the conversation is about, there is always a solution, or even just a suggestion, that will benefit the person or the business as a whole.

Always remember that having tough dialogue is better than having no dialogue at all. No one ever looks forward to having these conversations, trust me, I know. But they are conversations that need to be had, and can only be avoided for so long. As painful the thought of having difficult conversations in the workplace is, they can only benefit everyone.