andrea@confidentconversations.co.uk
It’s time to get comfortable with the uncomfortable
The line manager relationship is the single biggest influence on climate and culture within an organisation.
The level of communication and conversation skill held by line managers directly impacts those relationships.
Line managers being comfortable with the Seven Significant Conversations is a MUST if you want to operate at a consistently high level and be an employer of choice.
- Making the transition from mate to manager, buddy to boss, without resorting to extremes of style.
- Navigating the different levels and styles of conversation required to produce performance with confidence in themselves and their choices.
- Confidence in conversations with customers and clients, ensuring escalated issues are dealt with calmly and appropriately.
- Being able to be an assertive advocate for the team, while also ensuring organisational requirements are met.
- Setting boundaries that ensure a team feel cared for, without becoming overbearing or interfering.
- Understanding how to display emotional intelligence, especially if that is not a naturally occurring behaviour.
- Dealing appropriately, professionally and confidently with team members who are struggling or returning after extended absence.
- Knowing how to engage in meaningful conversations that develop and deepen connections, ensuring employees feel respected and valued.
- Giving effective feedback that redirects where needed and raises the bar where there is scope to do so.
- Confidence to challenge in a respectful way, whether that is with unsatisfactory performance or inappropriate behaviour.
- Feeling able to offer an alternative perspective in a polite but assertive manner.
- Promoting resourceful dialogue and solution-focussed debate.
- Engaging and involving team members in agreeing a solution to a situation that needs to change.
- Learning how to use coaching techniques appropriately whether team members are highly experienced or new starters.
- Knowing how to create collaborative action plans that have the highest possible chance of succeeding.
- Feeling confident enough to help a team member improve their own confidence through a coaching-style conversation.
- Having conversations that may not be wanted or welcomed.
- Confidently approaching topics that might have high stakes or risk factors to contend with.
- Dealing with issues before they become disciplinary HR cases and redirecting behaviours and attitudes to more appropriate and positive places.
- Recognising sensitivities or potential for embarrassment and negotiating those obstacles without avoiding the root issues.
- Where a genuine concern for a person’s welfare requires intervention in a positive and supportive way, without needing to be a cousellor or therapist.
- Recognising that a duty of care can be effectively performed in the right way, with the right conversation at the right time – and having the confidence to do that without overstepping boundaries.
- Not everyone who is mentally ill will have thoughts of suicide, and not everyone who has thoughts of suicide is mentally ill.
- They might be sitting opposite you in a performance review, worried about the outcome. Being considered for redundancy, coping with a relationship breakdown, devastated following a bereavement, fleeing a traumatic home life.
- As a trained, qualified suicide prevention tutor, I can help you feel more confident and comfortable to say and do the right thing in such circumstances.
