Courageous Leader BLUEprint®– 20th edition

Welcome back leaders!

This is the twentieth edition of our Courageous Leader BLUEprint® newsletter. 

Every three weeks, you’ll get quick, thoughtful leadership insights without the fluff.

Read time: less than 5 minutes

Courageous leadership isn’t always easy.

In fact, I believe how we respond in the difficult times is what reveals our integrity.

I also believe that if leaders never experience difficult times – they’re either not paying attention, they’re avoiding situations hoping they’ll go away, or they’ve simply not been a leader long enough.

Difficult times will come. They are part of leadership.

And courageous leaders must have the integrity to do what’s right, even when it’s costly.

Perhaps, especially when it’s costly.

One of the most common scenarios I hear about is avoiding hard conversations.

Problems rarely go away on their own, and when leaders avoid hard conversations, the problem either gets worse, or creates additional problems.

For example, let’s say you find out someone on your team is creating discord amongst the group.

Perhaps they are complaining about upper management, a coworker, or time/resource demands.

It could be anything!

The tempting course of action might be to wait for this person to “get over it.”

Avoiding the conversation may feel easier today, but integrity asks us to consider the cost tomorrow.

But, there are many risks to this approach:

• Their performance suffers

• They infect others with their bad attitude, creating a toxic environment

• Their bad attitude negatively impacts how they work with other

  teams/vendors/customers

• Others on the team see that you’re not holding them accountable for

  performance and become resentful

• The person in question begins looking for other jobs

Of course, this list is not exhaustive.

Some leaders might look at that last point and actually be hoping for it!

Yes, sometimes there is no longer a good person/organization fit.

But, in many cases, turnover is an expensive and avoidable outcome.

Integrity is often tested in the gap between what we know we should do and what we actually do.

We know we need to address the issue.
We know the conversation needs to happen.
The question is whether we'll choose courage or comfort.

I believe that the right thing to do in these situations is to have the hard conversation.

It’s the right thing to do for your organization.
It’s the right thing to do for your team’s performance.

It’s also the right thing to do for the person in question.

If integrity requires us to have the conversation, how do we do it well?

Here are some keys to help with hard conversations:

• Prepare for the conversation – know what emotions or rebuttals may come up

• Approach it with what’s best for the person, the team, and the company

• Focus on behaviors, not character

• Address it as soon as possible – waiting can be costly

Perhaps one of the most important keys here is to prepare for the conversation.

Not as a way to delay it, but so you can approach it the best way possible.

Because preparation is so important, I've developed an AI workflow to help leaders prepare for difficult conversations. 

You can download it for free HERE