Sometimes as a business owner you have to have fierce conversations. These are the not fun or pleasant but are certainly necessary dialogues that help solve and resolve problems before they become explosions. It could be someone not showing up on time, producers that aren’t producing or disputes with a business partner. We often delay and duck from these conversations because we don’t want to face them. Too often hoping the situation improves becomes your strategy.
But let’s face it, that just won’t work. If you as the business owner notices something, chances are everyone else has been living with it for far too long. I recently read the book Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott and she has some wonderful tips for facing these types of difficult scenarios.
She outlines the following approach:
- Identify the most pressing issue. This is the issue you are trying to solve. Don’t worry about the small stuff. What is the number one thing you want to achieve?
- Then clarify the issue. What is really going on, how long has it been going on and how bad is it?
- Then review the impact. How is the issue impacting me, others and what are your emotions on it?
- Think through future implications. This is the big one. If nothing changes what happens? What’s at stake for me and others involved in the issue and when I consider three possible outcomes, what are my emotions?
- Now look in the mirror. How did you personally contribute to this situation?
- Visualize the ideal outcome. When the issue is resolved, what difference will that make? What results will I enjoy and celebrate? What results will others enjoy?
- Commit to an Action. What is the most potent first step I could take to move this issue toward resolution? What’s going to attempt to get in my way and how will I get past it? When will I take this step?
See, all too often we focus on the conversation not the outcome. When you think through these steps often times the fierce conversations don’t seem so bad, they seem like a solution to a nagging problem you have had all along!
