F
rom addressing performance issues, arranging and monitoring assignments and navigating conflict, to motivating hybrid teams across different geographies and time zones, how
leaders approach conversations significantly impacts an organisation’s culture and effectiveness.
NAVIGATING DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS IN THE WORKPLACE Sarah Rozenthuler is a business leadership coach, chartered psychologist, dialogue coach and author with over 15 years’ experience working with international teams. Her new book, ‘Now We’re Talking’, tackles the issues around dialogue and how to conduct it more effectively. It offers insightful and practical advice to leaders and managers. It explains how to communicate effectively across
diverse audiences and demonstrates how difficult situations can be handled to produce more positive outcomes. “This is particularly important now that many
teams are globally dispersed,” she explains. “Cultural differences and hybrid working mean effective communication is extremely important, but issues can become even more complicated if some team members are working in-person while others are online.” Research has shown that about 60% of managers
would like to increase their confidence to have a difficult conversation. Currently, 70% report avoidance on this issue. Without intervention, many issues in the workplace fester. “It is unlikely that difficulties or grievances will go away or
resolve themselves without intervention,” she says. “There are two main patterns observed in organisations when it comes to addressing difficult conversations. Either there is a tendency for managers to dive into them unprepared and end up worsening the situation. Or they try to avoid tricky issues altogether, hoping they will go away. “This avoidance behaviour is quite common among
managers, with research showing that 70% have at some point avoided difficult conversations,” she explains. “The lack of effective models or templates for handling such conversations exacerbates this problem, as managers often don’t know how to approach them successfully. However, problems rarely go away just because managers ignore them.” Sarah emphasises that, when approached properly
with preparation and purpose, dialogue can be used to improve decision making and communication within organisations. “Research suggests that around half of decisions in
organisations fail to achieve their goals, often due to various factors such as personality clashes or conflicting agendas,” she explains. “Yet effective dialogue can help by slowing down the process, allowing for a shared understanding of the underlying issues, and facilitating alignment and buy-in among stakeholders. This ensures that decisions are not only made, but also implemented effectively and that when decisions are agreed on, they have full cooperation and buy-in from team members.”
WHAT IS AUTHENTIC DIALOGUE & WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? Fortunately, there is a middle ground between the two extremes of either rushing into conversations unprepared or avoiding them altogether. It involves creating a reflective and safe space where individuals can engage in deeper listening and truthful speaking. This entails not only listening to others, but also being attentive to one’s own thoughts and feelings. “When I think back over my own past corporate life,
I can’t remember a difficult conversation that I have had with a manager or an employee that has gone particularly well,” Sarah says. “There is really no blueprint that we learn from our managers because they don’t know how to handle difficult issues either.” Active listening is a key part of this approach. It is a
skill managers can and should start to cultivate if they wish to be more effective. When people feel listened to, it can lead to a sense of settlement and lower resistance, ultimately fostering better communication and decision making within organisations. “There might be a personality clash, or you might
have stakeholders or team members with very different agendas in a meeting. Careful listening and effective dialogue help to slow things down and create a shared understanding,” she says. “That will help you uncover the real problem
you need to solve. You might think you have got a recruitment issue, but actually, what is really underneath that is a retention issue caused by low morale. Through effective dialogue, you can work out what the problem is you really need to solve.”
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GLOBAL LEADERSHIP
DIALOGUE
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