Difficult Conversations: Essay Sample

Communication is a very important factor in organization because it increases efficiency of processes carried out. It involves the conveyance of information from person to another. Communication facilitates easy management of complex organization and is a very important tool for leaders. Therefore communication is an important component of good leadership. Communication between individuals is usually through conversations. Conversations are not always smooth and can become very difficult. It is important to understand the various aspects of communication through conversations in order to have easy time in case of difficult conversations (Stone and Patton, 1999). An example of a difficult conversation involves the justifying yourself to the boss about coming to work late for the third time in less than three weeks. The first and second time can be due to circumstances and could be understood but the third would be a trend and would result to penalties. However, the reason for lateness could still be because of circumstances and such a conversation would require convincing the boss about the circumstances and trying to seek pardon for the lateness. This conversation has very high stakes because the penalty for lateness could result to loss of employment.
Diffusing the situation would require understanding the various important elements of the conversation. These elements include the information or substance of the conversation, the feelings in the conversation for both the employee and the boss and thirdly would be identity of the employee which is usually at stake in such conversations because of the need to set things right (Stone and Patton, 1999).
In the above case the actions to resolve the issue involved maintaining honesty about the cause for lateness for all those days. Honesty is important because it helps maintain the identity of the employee where by the negative feedback is presented as it is and would make it easier for the employee to express his or herself to the boss. It would also involve expressing the right feelings which include feelings of disappointment and feelings of the need to apologize for the lateness. Expressing the feelings is also important because it should be done with congruence with the body language and other non-verbal cues. It requires confronting the situation head on addressing it without hesitation. Avoiding the situation would only worsen the situation (Stone and Patton, 1999).
Communication through conversations is very important. It is a direct form of communication that brings out all aspects of communication. For the case of a difficult conversation the understanding the various aspects of communication such as the message, the feelings of both the employee and boss is very important. Honesty is very important because it allows enables to have confidence in confronting the situation and not avoiding it. The difficult conversation is very important because it provides learning opportunities of factors such as reading non-verbal cues that might help in diffusing the situation (Stott, 2007).
In case of another difficult conversation, preparation is very important. First would be the arrangement of facts about the situation to be discussed, secondly would be confronting the situation as it is without sugar coating it or understating the facts. It would also involve the expressing of the right feelings associated with the situation such as sadness for negative information. It would also involve the complete expression of the feelings towards the difficult situation (Stott, 2007).

References

Stone, D., & Patton, B. (1999). Difficult conversations: How to discuss what matters most. New York, N.Y.: Viking.
Stott, K. (2007). Difficult conversations. Nursing Standard, 61-61.