Insights on Difficult Conversations and a Free Tool – Behind the Scenes
Every leader must have difficult conversations. It is the nature of the role. In m conversations with successful founders and CEOs, they often share with me running a business is easy, but lead people is hard. Difficult conversations are a part of life as you ask people to do new things and challenge them to grow. Today’s behind-the-scenes video shows how you can improve in delivering difficult conversations. Let me give you insights that will add to the structure of your difficult conversations.
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Behind the Scenes: The Transcript
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Disclaimer: This transcript was created using YouTube’s translator tool and that may mean that some of the words, grammar, and typos come from a misinterpretation of the video.
Today, we talk about “Difficult Conversations”. Every leader has to make difficult conversations. Every leader avoids them at some level. And I say this because I’ve worked with hundreds of founders, CEOs of fast-growth companies. And I know that there’s some avoidance in there. I’ve got stories and stories and stories of the pain that avoiding difficult conversations has had.
[00:00:21] But I want to make sure that you understand this one thing as we move forward. A difficult conversation with someone that you want to keep the relationship going builds trust. Get back on the same alignment together. Is very different than a difficult conversation where you’re letting someone go. This conversation is really focused on the former, the one where you want to repair the relationship and keep moving forward.
[00:00:45] The employee that you want to raise their standard, or you don’t, there’s a behavior that you want to catch before it gets too bad and gets toxic. Difficult conversations are just a part of leadership. And in fact, many leaders believe that to be a great leader. You have to be willing to have more difficult conversations than those around you.
[00:01:04] I’ve been through this myself as a leader, firing people, getting them to raise their standards. None of it is comfortable. But what I’m going to give you inside of this video, and actually a free tool will help you do it with more confidence in the grace and that it will help you become a better leader. And in fact, it will help you create a place where people feel safe.
[00:01:26] They can come to you and they can get the feedback and move forward without feeling attacked. When I talk about difficult conversations, what we’re really talking about is when someone’s performance is not up to standard when someone’s behaviors are out of line, and any other thing that you feel needs a conversation.
[00:01:46] Some of these, I call the missing conversation. What is the missing conversation with some employees that are not been had yet? And if you can define what that missing conversation is, you’re going to want to use the framework that I offer and the free download to help you be prepared and deliver that difficult conversation.
[00:02:06] Now, I want you to make sure that you understand that you have to be able. Trust your gut in these things, because you don’t want it to fester and go too long. If it’s actually festered, you’ve waited too long. You want to give more feedback that is, you know, smaller bits instead of huge things, we add three or four or five things together because that looks like you’re attacking the person.
[00:02:29] You wouldn’t be able to give feedback in a way that builds someone up, gives them a plan to move forward, and helps them really. Move forward with grace and that makes you the leader that they really want. I share all this with you because I want you to show up as your fullest, best expression of yourself.
[00:02:50] And I want to give you the tool that I’ve given my clients, and I’ve used this over and over again, to help you become a better leader. And if you want that free tool, just go to genehammett.com/difficultconversations. Just difficult conversations. All you have to do is Google genehammett.com/difficultconversations, and you’ll be able to find a page where we give you free access to this tool.
[00:03:14] Now, what’s inside the tool is about a 15-minute video or so. I’m not sure exactly how long ago. But I will tell you it’s very powerful. It goes through the empathetic framework, which is 10 steps because difficult conversations are difficult. And so I couldn’t make it down to three steps, but 10 steps to prepare you for that.
[00:03:33] You can share it with people in your team. You can share it with people that you want to have a difficult conversation with so that they kind of know what’s coming down. Right. But you can use this tool inside your organization any way you want. Just give me credit for it. Just tell people where you got it.
[00:03:49] And if they want to find more information about me, they can look up the podcast “Growth Think Tank”, or they can just go find this tool at genehammett.com. Well, I want to wrap this up today, but I want to share this one thing with you. Difficult conversations are very important to the success of your business.
[00:04:07] Here’s why. Because employees don’t always get it right the first time. Your job is to help them see how they can improve because they want to improve. And your job is to give them the grace and the confidence to move forward that you’re not attacking them or judging them. That’s really important inside these difficult conversations.
[00:04:29] That framework will give you support in doing that with the 10 steps so that you can be intentional through all of them. My name is Gene Hammett. I work with fast growth leaders or those that want to grow faster than they already are. I typically coach founders, CEOs, and their teams, and I help them really see what they can’t see for themselves, help them go beyond where they are today.
[00:04:50] And I help many founders become the CEO that the company really deserves. If you want to check out more content like this, you can follow us on YouTube. You can follow us on Instagram. You can follow us on Facebook, but the key thing here is. You can really get more out of it by having a conversation with me, if you’re not sure what your next step is, just go to genehammett.com.
[00:05:13] Click on, “Start Your Journey”, and I’d love to support you to be an extraordinary leader. “As always lead with courage. Well, see you next time.”
Disclaimer: This transcript was created using YouTube’s translator tool and that may mean that some of the words, grammar, and typos come from a misinterpretation of the video.
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