Connections Leadership

"Use Your Heart, Head, and a Little Humor to Turn Your Difficult Conversations into Healthy Dialogues"

A Customized Workshop for Leaders

"It takes two to speak the truth - one to speak, and the other to listen." - Henry David Thoreau

The CORNERSTONE of Great Leadership

...is the honesty of your conversations which will ultimately build your integrity and trust. Take a moment to thoughtfully reflect on the following questions:

- Do I hold back sharing something important because I am afraid of expressing it?- How often have I protected someone from what I consider a tough message?

- Can I share my opinions honestly in meetings?

- What is not being said that if it were, would change everything for the better?

- Do I give my manager sensitive information that he/she should know in a timely open manner? If not, why not?

- Have I allowed anyone on the team to hold the rest of the team “hostage” from doing its best work?

- Am I “current” with all of the conversations I need to have with people?

- Do I spend time “being right” versus being “curious” about others’ point of view?

In our experience leaders may either use a confrontational style or totally avoid a difficult conversation and hope that it goes away. Unfortunately, when these situations are not resolved, or performance corrected; the leader's integrity is at stake; and the employee's career may be derailed.

Why this is Important!

According to the American Management Association, the cost of replacing an employee can range from 30% to 200% of their annual salary! We believe that this fact is worthy of stepping up and having difficult conversations to improve performance and keep them on track. We believe that the employee may take your feedback to heart and overcome their issues, and you save the cost of replacing them.

The unacceptable behavior may not develop into a career limiting blind spot. You can literally safeguard the employee's potential and SAVE their CAREER!

Your integrity as a leader is strengthened because you are seen as doing the right thing.

All team members perform better because you “set the bar” for expectations for both performance and acceptable behavior.

Past participants have told us it's a formula that works:

" I loved the role plays...not because I was any good but because I learned the most from practicing."

"The art of listening is so important! It truly is a key to personal growth in leadership.

“It’s easy to NOT have difficult conversations, but we become better people by having them.

I think this workshop was very useful...especially learning the process of Polaris, and understanding how we “jump to conclusions.

“I would especially recommend this workshop because of the cross organizational focus...no pressure from your peers.

“I was very apprehensive about the role playing, but it turned out to be the best part of the workshop. I can’t believe I am telling you to do more of them! Great “hands on” learning!

Michael Wollner and Duane Sharp, our professional role players are highly skilled and able to make your practice conversations look, feel and sound like the difficult conversations that you face in real life.

Bio's of Michael and Duane are in Consultant Network.