I love it when someone “gets” the content that we deliver at workshops and seminars.  It makes me feel really terrific about the time and effort that is spent in putting it together so you have quality and timely content you can immediately use on your ROADMAP to leadership excellence.  

I presented our "Delivering Difficult Information Successfully" seminar to a very bright group of business people in Bristol, VA yesterday, and by George, I think they got it.

We discussed many of the elements that create an environment where you can deliver whatever information is necessary in a timely way and a high value way. 

That brings me to my commitment to finish discussing with you the ten (10) top techniques for managing how we communicate information successfully.  We covered the first five (5) last week:  Focus, Engage, Get Curious, Build Rapport and Increase Performance.  This week we will complete the list by discussing:  

6. Relieve Fear – What part of the situation and communication creates fear for you and/or them?
7. Dig Deeper – Is there anything else…I should; you need to know; that would be helpful; that would serve them; that needs to be said?
8. Set Context – What pieces of information do you think would be important to include in the communication and/or to be known for the situation?
9. Create Clarity -  Is there anything else that can clear up this situation and would help you understand what we are discussing?
10. Remove Judgment – What is your opinion of this situation, communication, problem, and how did you form that opinion?

Let’s put these together and make sense of them so you can apply them and use them in your daily communication while leading and managing. 

I’ve found that at every level of management and leadership there can be a certain FEAR about imparting difficult information.  The person who needs to deliver the information successfully may not know how and is reluctant to do it badly.  When you RELIEVE FEAR of the situation, you are finding out what people value and what is important to them so you can more easily share the difficult information.  Being conversational and friendly is very helpful.  

As you DIG DEEPER into the elements of why there is difficulty, what begins to emerge is information that you may have not had access to.  When people are given a chance to tell their story or communicate facts that are important to them, they feel listened to.  DIGGING DEEPER into the substance of any situation makes us much more clear in how to relate information or how to handle the situation. 

My favorite of all the techniques for communicating and delivering difficult information is SETTING CONTEXT.  Once you have communicated the why, what and how of the situation, you are clearly ready to create solutions and improve performance.  Unless there is understanding of what is going to be discussed, confusion and reactions can happen that were never intended.  SET CONTEXT each time with the why, what and who details.  It will also help you feel prepared for the opportunity of sharing the difficult information.  

CREATING CLARITY is key for all persons involved.  If you are clear about what you want as an outcome from the situation, they will be able to be clear.  I encourage you to create a “talk sheet” in advance of the issues and what you expect as outcomes from the discussion.  Providing that information advance helps the other parties prepare and to think through what is important to them.  All participants should be allowed to react and have opinions.  Once you know the feelings and the information, you can CREATE CLARITY. 

My very favorite of all the tips for delivering difficult information is REMOVE JUDGMENT.  It is classic and expected that we will have opinions.  In fact as leaders, you are expected to have opinions and judgments on many subjects.  The kind of JUDGMENT I want you to remove is the bias before and during the discussions.  We can form our judgments from our families, communities, churches etc.  Sometimes judgment is key – like getting out of the way of an oncoming bus.  However, if your judgments are keeping you from listening, truly listening to the people you are dealing with, they are not serving you.    

Remember, delivering difficult information successfully can help you increase performance and maximize productivity.  If people do not know they are not doing well, they can’t do well.   

Delivery difficult information successfully is a key skill you must develop in order to hone your leadership and management skills for your toolbox.  Once you have begun to master this skill, you are on your ROADMAP to leadership excellence. 

RELIEVE FEAR, DIG DEEPER, SET CONTEXT, CREATE CLARITY and REMOVE JUDGMENTS. 

Let me know how I and can be a resource to you and your organization.  We love what we do and would enjoy bringing value and sustainable results to your organization. 

My best,

Natalie

P.S.  We are launching our Ebook next week at the Healthcare Symposium in NH where I will be speaking to 400 people.  It will be on Wednesday April 25^th.  You will be the first to have the opportunity to get: "Teambuilding: The 6 Steps to Successfully Creating, Communication and Collaborating".  The website price will be $49.97 except next Wednesday on the 25^th it will be only $25.00.  Let us know now if you want to reserve your copy of the Ebook on Teambuilding.  It has all the information you need for your team:  Summary, 13 pages of content, worksheets, a challenge to how you run your teams and an MP3 – all for $25.00, but only if you say you want to reserve.  Let us know:  CoachNatalie@NatalieManor.com and I will save one for just for you.  It is the first of 10 ROADMAP Ebooks that we have written just for you.

P.P.S  I have two spaces left in the ROADMAP to a Woman’s Extraordinary Life.  Let me know and I will save you a spot.  We start in May and end in October at a fabulous two day Spa experience.