How to Avoid Difficult Conversations

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Kelsey: Don't let your default response to conflict determine what option you've. Kelsey: It's not harmful to have a difficult conversation, in fact, it's quite often the opposite. You have to just keep challenging yourself again and again throughout that conversation. And so I think you have to reframe it for yourself and then notice your natural tendency.

People management consists of a fair amount of mediation and diplomacy, and you can’t expect to get the hang of it right away. You’re in the middle of a lot now. Initiating difficult conversations, and then getting all the way through them, takes planning and practice (and sometimes even a breather). Holding tension takes restraint.

Amy B and Kelsey interview Amy G about the types of conflict that new managers should expect to handle, as well as options for responding. They talk through real experiences and common scenarios. Like that time Kelsey needed to tell a direct report they were falling short of her expectations (but didn’t end up saying anything). Or that time Amy G started reporting to a friend. They also give guidance for intervening or not when team members are arguing and for discreetly clueing your group in about the office politics going on.

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