Managing Difficult Discussions Course

Is it right for me?

Do you worry about how to give negative feedback or deal with performance issues? Are you concerned about giving bad news? Our Managing Difficult Discussions course is designed to give you the skills, knowledge and confidence to tackle these scenarios in a productive way.

If you are a people manager, team leader or supervisor looking to make those challenging and difficult conversations less stressful and more effective then this course is for you.

Lots of practical sessions will ensure you have the opportunity to relate your learning to your real life work situations.

What will I get out of it?

By the end of Managing Difficult Discussions course you will be able to:

• List the communication skills necessary to give successful feedback in difficult situations
• Describe the preferred behavioural style for giving feedback
• State the most appropriate influencing technique to use in your situations
• Explain how to give successful negative feedback

Related courses in our range

• Professional Development Discussions
• Assertiveness - Influencing and Managing Conflict
• Performance Review and Objective Setting
• Recruitment and Selection Interviewing

What does it cover?

Communication

• Practical exercise to demonstrate and act as a refresher of the fundamentals of communication
• Barriers to communication especially in a difficult discussion

Choosing the right behavioural style

• Refresher of assertiveness and why it is important in this context
• Practical exercise demonstrating how behaviour breeds behaviour and the impact of choosing an inappropriate style
• Steps to using assertive behaviour

Influencing

• The two conversational approaches to influencing –- Push and Pull
• Three strategies for influencing –- Consult, Persuade and Inspire
• Practical exercise using the appropriate influencing techniques to achieve the desired result during your difficult discussions

Feedback

• Understanding feedback –- positive V negative
• Exploration of how the working atmosphere affects feedback
• Identifying your own style of feedback
• Using feedback models and approaches
• Using an Emotional Intelligence model when giving feedback
  • Practising the days learning with your own situations
  • Personal action plans – what will you do differently back in the work place?

Putting it all together

Action planning