In her book “Fixing Feedback”, Georgia Murch makes the brilliant statement:
People hear your content, but smell your intent.
When I ran People Change at Australia Post for a few years, one thing I noticed about leaders preparing for a hard conversation – whether it was performance or redundancy – was an obsession with following the script.
Leaders often forgot the intent, the authenticity and the care that can makes a tough conversation respectful, human and understandable.
No-one knows your colleague the way you do, and that colleague knows you too. So please don’t turn into a robot at the very moment that they need to talk to their leader.
Yes it’s important to follow the directives of your organisation at these times, to calm your team, and to make the chaos feel manageable – but you don’t have to read 100% from the script.
As Georgia would say; don’t let the content overwhelm your intent.
>>What tips do you have for tackling today’s tough leadership conversations?
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