How Difficult can a Difficult Conversation Be? And What to do About It!

1st a question: “Do you think that the number of difficult conversations taking place in the workplace is on the increase?”

Well actually there are no firm stats to prove this one way or another.

However, a recent CIPD study found that 15% of employees had experienced bullying or harassment in the workplace in the preceding 2 years.

Ok? No, but even worse another 33% said they had witnessed this behaviour which suggests to me that there are many more occasions and times when certain sorts of conversations need to be taking place and probably at an earlier stage than when they actually do?

Challenging Conversations

For want of a better term let’s call them, ‘Challenging Conversations’ and perhaps we should ask how many managers and supervisors are being trained in how to identify the need for such conversations and how to initiate, conduct, record and follow-up on them?

The linked question then of course is how many Organisations and Businesses have proper policies and procedures in place, both to protect the corporate body, but also to ensure all employees can and do enjoy good relations and are able…