Handling difficult conversations with calm confidence
Always handy to have a friendly dog to practice with!
Do you find yourself regularly losing sleep over difficult conversations that are looming?
Do you ruminate over conversations that have happened, anxious about what everyone is thinking?
Do you wish you knew the right thing to say when people are on the attack, or making complaints?
Would you like to go into your next difficult conversation more confidently?
Maybe you'd like to have some extra tools in your toolbox to regulate yourself in difficult moments and come back to calm confidence?
I'm a coach who was previously a headteacher and I have something that can help!
I was a headteacher for 10 years, and have a total of 17 years of school leadership experience, so I know the territory. Difficult conversations are something I've been grappling with for years. They are also a regular topic of conversation in coaching sessions with leaders.
I found it difficult to navigate conflict as a leader, not wanting to upset people, but knowing there were things I needed to say and messages I needed to give.
I've pulled together all the things that I've found to be most important and put them into a mini-course that's really accessible.
Course curriculum
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1Handling difficult conversations with calm confidence
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2The resilience toolbox
What this course includes
This course is structured into 2 sections, each containing a sequence of short videos, backed up by PDFs.
The first section covers preparing for difficult conversations, developing emotional agility and understanding what's at play when you're in the firing line, receiving complaints.
In the second section, you'll find a 'resilience toolbox', which will help you navigate your own nervous system and adopt strategies that help you regulate yourself and find calm confidence when you need it.
As you put these strategies into practice, you'll develop more trusting and productive relationships with staff and stakeholders.
The resources include details of my 4-step plan for preparing for a difficult conversation - focusing on the facts, being led by your values, preparing to be fully present and considering possible reactions. I also give you strategies that you can use to deal with difficult conversations that you can't plan for, like someone coming to you with a complaint.
I'll walk you through how to take things less personally, and provide you with some scripts, so that you'll always know what to say.