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LinkedIn Learning

Having Difficult Conversations

via LinkedIn Learning

Overview

Learn how to have difficult conversations with colleagues, employees, and managers. Develop your communication skills to improve your relationships, teamwork, and business performance.

Conflict is inevitable—in work and in life. Managers must address performance issues, and colleagues with competing priorities must figure out how to work together. These situations call for having difficult conversations. In this course, Marlene Chism explains how to have difficult conversations, build your communication skills, and improve your relationships, teamwork, and business performance. She explains how to identify underlying differences in work styles, goals, and power dynamics and change the way you view conflict. She provides a model to move the conversation in a positive direction and to determine next steps. Plus, learn how to check for resistance with a single useful phrase.

Syllabus

Introduction
  • Difficult conversations
1. The Foundation
  • A new way to view conflict
  • What makes a conversation difficult?
  • Identify the power structure and patterns
  • Learning break: Story of a difficult conversation
2. Dos and Don'ts of Difficult Conversations
  • What you should never do in a difficult conversation
  • Best practices before a difficult conversation
3. How to Prepare for Difficult Conversations
  • Prepare for a difficult conversation
  • Control the direction of the conversation
  • How to avoid exaggeration and escalation
4. Where to Start: How to Initiate the Conversation
  • The blueprint for a difficult conversation
  • Find your why
  • Visualize a positive outcome
5. Dealing with Resistance
  • How to deal with resistance
  • Use radical listening to stay present
  • Avoid resisting resistance
  • Learn the magic phrase to test for resistance
  • Handling people who are not willing to change
6. How to Make Tough Decisions
  • Personal versus professional situations
  • Learning break: Story of personal conflict
  • Determine your next steps

Taught by

Marlene Chism

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