As the leader of your business, it is important that you learn how to communicate well with your team members. While it can be quite easy to praise employees for their accomplishments, it can be very difficult to reprimand bad behavior or suggest changes that need to be made. Your communication skills will make all the difference in how your team members respect you as a leader. Practicing saying the tough things will make you even better at saying things that are easy to talk about. Here are four easy ways that leaders can work up the nerve to say tough things.
Work on cutting straight to the point
Whenever it is time to talk to someone about a tough situation, it is best to cut straight to the point. In Steven Covey’s famous book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, he states that nearly every employee who he surveyed admitted that they would want to hear the bad news first without a bunch of small talk to begin the conversation. If you are able to cut to the point, you will spare the feelings of yourself and the team member who you need to talk to about these though things.
Don’t wait for the perfect time, make the time now
Putting off your tough conversations will only make it harder to finally have the meeting that is necessary. You need to make the day of having your tough conversation today. Remember, the longer you put off having this tough conversation, the harder it is going to be to really make it happen.
Don’t single people out in public settings
One of the worst things that you can do when talking about tough topics at work is to single out employees in meetings or other public settings. This public humiliation is not going to do anything to help solve the problem. When there are issues that need to be resolved at work, they are much better talked about behind closed doors. This way, no one will get embarrassed and emotions will not fly in front of other employees.
Build up your own self-confidence as a leader
The more self-confidence you have as a leader, the easier it will be to talk about tough things. A confident leader will be sure that their team trusts them. Yow won’t have to worry about your team disagreeing with you just for the sake of it. Building up your self-confidence as a leader is always a great thing to do.