Having Tough Conversations in the Workplace

By:
C&R Editor
on Mon, 06/18/2018

Having a tough conversation with an employee, peer or boss is one of the hardest things we do in management. Unfortunately, most managers would prefer to avoid confronting issues altogether. Only making matters worse is the strong tendency to avoid an issue until you “can’t take it anymore” and then blowing-up on an employee. Equally as frustrating for managers, and quite common, is how previously coached items continue to happen. To help make these conversations a bit easier, Joe Sample, president of VoiceSifter will be presenting during a webinar on Wednesday, June 20 at 1 p.m. EST. Hear more from him below about confronting issues with employees without being confrontational. And be sure to register for the webinar. 

C&R: Can you give us a little more insight on what your webinar will cover? Who should tune in for your webinar?

Joe: The webinar is going to focus on a few key areas:

  • Creating an environment that helps prevent tough conversations from needing to occur;
  • A step by step guide to having tougher conversations;
  • How to ensure that the tough conversation was worth the time and emotional energy;
  • And, some key insights that have been gleaned over the years from having a lot of these types of conversations.

Honestly, the topic is for everyone.  We all have people that we work with whether they are employees or bosses and in order for any environment to be high functioning, knowing how to take part in a difficult conversation whether you are receiving the information or giving it is really important to your personal and company success.  

C&R: Why is this topic important now?

Joe: The topic is critically important now because culture is one of the most important competitive advantages remaining today and without the ability to be successful in this space, your culture will suffer and thus so will your business through lost productivity and attrition.

C&R: What is your personal connection to this topic? 

Joe: I have owned and operated quick service restaurants for about 16 years now and in order for us to be incredibly successful, we have to retain our people in a way that our competitors can't. We also have to be able to determine who is right for us and who isn't as quick as possible. We are successful with both of these in part because we are good at having tougher conversations. So, it isn't so much about VoiceSifter as it is my other background. VoiceSifter is the way we are leveraging these insights to create additional conduits of communication with our employees that aren't desktop and company e-mail based employees.

C&R: If you had to choose one piece of advice to share with people regarding confronting issues with employees, what would that be? Why? 

Joe: Have the conversation!  Don't wait! Stop hoping things will get better or that they surely should know the impact they are having on you or the company. Everyone in the company is waiting for you to do your part. Do it, just don't do it angry.