Few people enjoy conflict and confrontation but avoiding difficult conversations is not the answer. When we don’t ‘address the elephant’ and deliver feedback it doesn’t impact individuals alone; it impacts the success of teams, businesses and organisations. Issues that start out as minor niggles and annoyances snowball into major conflict when leaders avoid talking about […]
April 11, 2019, Stay hard on the issue, soft on the person
March 28, 2019, How to call out casual racism
January 31, 2019, How to deal with people who are trying to pull you down
January 24, 2019, Learn about feedback filters and how they can help you
December 13, 2018, How to give negative feedback
It may be one of the most popular approaches to delivering difficult feedback, but in many cases the shit sandwich feedback model is just that – shit. What is the shit sandwich approach? It’s sandwiching negative feedback between two positive points. A slice of praise, the real feedback acting as the meat in the middle, […]
Do you talk in roundabouts to avoid having difficult conversations? Speak vaguely in the hope other people will eventually guess what you’re trying to say without you having to say it? This laboured and indirect approach is often used by passive communicators and those who doubt themselves. It also thrives in organisations with strong hierarchies, […]
Last week I gave advice to a client ahead of a difficult conversation at work. She was worried she was going to get angry, or maybe even cry in the face of confrontation and negative feedback. She was also concerned she would let herself down by not being able to communicate her point clearly under […]
