Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High
One of the toughest challenges as a leader is broaching crucial conversations.
Our bodies are hardwired to flee from danger and one of our biggest threats in the workplace is the threat of conflict and confrontation. It may sound more benign than running from a saber-toothed tiger, but actually, all of the same fight, flight, or freeze responses are activated in our bodies when we need to have a tough conversation, as when we’d need to literally run for our lives!
These conversations are so hard to approach because we know they are costly. The three key elements of what makes a conversation “Crucial” are that there are high stakes, strong emotions, and opposing opinions.
You’ve certainly had to navigate plenty of these conversations in your work as a leader and at home. Anytime you have to give feedback on an employee’s work, have to give a not-so-positive employee review, had to break up with a significant other, ask a family member to repay a loan, or address mistreatment or disrespect with a colleague, you surely had to face a crucial conversation where the relationship was on the line, feelings were sure to be hurt, and people had strong ideas about what was really right and wrong in the situation.
As we prepare for the move to the HCMD there will certainly be even more situations that will require us to have crucial conversations.
About the Book
“Learn how to keep your cool and get the results you want when emotions flare.
When stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong, you have three choices: Avoid a crucial conversation and suffer the consequences; handle the conversation badly and suffer the consequences; or read Crucial Conversations and discover how to communicate best when it matters most. Crucial Conversations gives you the tools you need to step up to life’s most difficult and important conversations, say what’s on your mind, and achieve the positive resolutions you want. You’ll learn how to:
- Prepare for high-impact situations with a six-minute mastery technique
- Make it safe to talk about almost anything
- Be persuasive, not abrasive
- Keep listening when others blow up or clam up
- Turn crucial conversations into the action and results you want
Whether they take place at work or at home, with your neighbors or your spouse, crucial conversations can have a profound impact on your career, your happiness, and your future. With the skills you learn in this book, you’ll never have to worry about the outcome of a crucial conversation again.”
-Description from Amazon
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