What are you keeping quiet about?

Hi everybody

I’m here again and only a little over a month has gone by.  It’s a newsletter-based miracle.

And what a month it has been.  I’ve been back to much more real-life training (will be on my way to the North East of England as you read this), delivered a series of workshops on Managing Difficult Conversations (more on that below) and started work with some great new coaching clients.

But the highlight was walking in Switzerland with twenty-odd like-minded souls brought together by Freshwalks.  The hilly walking was soggy to say the least but the socials, conversations and lake-side strolling more than compensated for that.

It was such a joy to spend quality time with inspirational leaders of all kinds, proof that it is good to talk.  The ideas flowed and I came back ready to take on the world.

So, i you haven’t tried Freshwalks yet, believe me, you are missing out.  Get booked on.

But if you’d rather walk with your team with coaching or training included, you can find out more about my walkshops, in collaboration with Freshwalks here.

And, if all of that is too much, can I just recommend a change of scene?  Different air and different scenery can make a big difference to your thinking.

Are you avoiding difficult conversations?

Since leaving the bar, I’ve spent a lot of time packaging what I know about difficult conversations into both coaching packages and interactive workshops.

And one of the things that comes up time and time again is a reluctance to speak up, to initiate the difficult conversation.

Whether it’s fear of confrontation or not wanting to upset the other party or just a sense that going along with the status quo is somehow easier, people find it very easy to keep quiet.

But, and it’s quite a big but, that sort of approach often misses the crucial bit of analysis – the consequence of that silence.

We can imagine the consequences of speaking up, but what we generally need to pay more attention to the consequences of keeping quiet because, undoubtedly, silence has a consequence.

If you don’t provide the constructive feedback, that team member will never improve.  If you don’t ask for greater responsibility or a promotion, you will stay where you are.

So the next time you are weighing up whether to speak or remain silent don’t forget to factor in the potential consequence of silence.

This month’s blog