Does avoiding Difficult Conversations really impact your bottom-line?
In a word, YES. Every difficult conversation avoided costs you: Time, Money, Creativity, and Reputation.
From the CPP Global Human Capital Report: Workplace Conflict and How Businesses Can Harness it to Thrive:
- 85% of employees say they experience conflict
- 27% say they have seen negative interactions turn into personal attacks
- 25% of people surveyed said they have taken time off work to avoid conflict
Employees surveyed claimed they spent 2.8 hours a week dealing with conflict. That is 7% of your employee budget spent on dealing with issues that could be resolved more quickly. And that doesn’t even include the knock-on effects of bad decisions, absenteeism, missed deadlines, and poor productivity that result from working in an environment where people don’t speak up!
Additionally: Research conducted in 2010 (Provo, UT, US), found that employees waste an average of €1,300 and an 8-hour day for each conversation avoided.
Avoiding difficult conversations leads directly to further problems:
Conflict is unavoidable, but we can be better at dealing with it.
And avoiding it isn’t the answer.
Want your organisation to handle conflict better? Click here to get in touch.
Your Managers & Executives set the tone for the organisation.
They set the tone for how we deal with conflict.
They create the environment for how we tackle differences of opinion.
And they create the environment that communicates to people whether or not it is safe to speak up.
Everything starts and ends with your Managers and Executives and their relationships with their teams!
Problems
So, what are the key areas where management often avoid difficult conversations:
- Avoiding the difficult colleague or employee
- Not holding people accountable
- Not wanting to tackle the good performer who has broken the rules
- Not wanting to speak up about why they see a project about to fail
- Not disagreeing with people when it needs to be done
- Not having the difficult conversation with a boss, colleague, or direct report about performance, punctuality, behaviour, or absenteeism
Your managers need to be able to have these difficult conversations in order to help your organisation thrive. Conversations that need to be:
- Based on facts
- Delivered with empathy and compassion
- Based on clear objectives and motives
- Conversations that hold people accountable without plummeting into claims of bullying
Your managers need to take ownership for these problems and tackle them in the right way at the right time, every time.
Why we don’t have Difficult Conversations
What is stopping this from happening? Common reasons I hear are:
“I don’t want to rock the boat”
“I don’t have time”
“I won’t get supported from Senior Management or HR”
“I am scared it will backfire and they will react badly”
“It isn’t worth the hassle”
“If I try to manage, I will get accused of bullying”
These are the surface reasons that are usually given. Underneath it all, when I dig deeper into the conversation, the root cause is:
“I don’t know how and I’m scared I will mess it up.”
Solution
When we make it safe for managers to say this, we have a start. So, as an organisation, a question to ask yourself is, is it OK for managers to say this? If they do, how do you respond?
It starts with the first difficult conversation: are we honestly having them?
Then it’s about ensuring that managers know and understand the why, what, where, and how of having difficult conversations. That they develop the skills and confidence to have them.
And that is where CTC can help.
All of our courses have this core theme built in. Whether it is general Management Skills, Performance Management, Dignity at Work, Assertiveness Skills, Communication Skills, Conflict Management, or Dealing with Aggressive/Difficult Behaviour, we ensure that this tricky area is covered.
Interpersonal skills can no longer be seen as soft skills. This is directly impacting your bottom line. There is nothing soft about that.
About Me and how I can help your organisation
My name is Keith Clarke and I am the founder of Clarke Training and Coaching
I have delivered training to thousands of people around Ireland helping them with a wide range of different needs: everything from Assertiveness, Dignity at Work, Communications, Managing Conflict, Having Difficult Conversations, Management Skills, Performance Management, HR Skills, Customer Service, and Dealing with Aggressive Behaviour.
The biggest thing I have noticed from working for and with companies in Ireland (Private, Public, and Semi-Public) is that there is a core thread to most of the problems companies are having.
There are fantastic policies, procedures, performance management systems, and even technical skills and knowledge. This is not what I see businesses in Ireland struggling with (whether private, public, or semi-public). These things, as good as they are, are failing at the final hurdle. When it matters. When we need to actually get it over the line. But why?
People are not talking to each other.
I mean really talking.
Having the conversations that not only need to be had, but MUST be had.
And quite often, when the conversations do happen, we are having them too late and getting them wrong.
I have worked as a Planning Manager, Operations Manager, General Manager, and HR Manager over my 18-year career in Ireland, and looking back I can see where I was as guilty as anyone else of this. So, I see it from both sides.
In order to address this, there needs to be a shift in mind-set around ownership and responsibilities, a developing of the skills and approaches to dealing with people, which in turn will lead to managers and executives developing the courage and confidence to nipping issues in the bud.
Training and Coaching
Training at CTC is not ‘sit and listen’ training. All training is participative and interactive with a heavy coaching style. The aim is for participants to shift current thinking paradigms and walk away with something they can immediately start putting into practice.
CTC also provides opportunities for managers and executives to have personal one-on-one coaching to further develop based on their own immediate personal experiences and challenges.
Take the Next Step
If you would like to work with CTC or you are interested in discussing your needs further and how CTC can help you, please email Keith@CTCIreland.com or use the contact box below.
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