Strategies for avoiding difficult conversations

A lot of people don’t love courageous conversations to address performance or behavioural issues - here’s some techniques they employ to avoid them:

❌ Softening the message so they don’t make anyone uncomfortable

❌ Sending an email instead so they can think carefully about their words and avoid any difficult dialogue

❌ Waiting for the “right time” …. which never quite arrives

❌ Telling themselves it’s not urgent then they can delay the conversation until it feels really important.

❌ Rehearsing the conversation in their head over and over again until they’re certain how it will go

❌ Dropping hints and hope the person works it out themselves

❌ Deciding it’s easier to just fix the problem themselves then they can avoid it altogether

These strategies feel comforting in the moment but they don’t resolve the underlying challenge - they just slow things down, dilute your leadership impact, and make you work twice as hard to restore clarity later.

The real way forward doesn’t lie in scripts or shortcuts. It lies in understanding what makes these conversations emotionally, neurologically, and psychologically hard — and knowing how to create the right conditions for dialogue.

 This is the heart of our work:

✅ Understanding ‘who’ you want to be in these conversations and how you can convey this

✅ Finding clarity without losing compassion

✅ Creating connection that keeps your engaged and protects the relationship

✅ Anchoring the conversation in shared meaning

✅ Moving towards progress that feels practical and constructive

When leaders develop the confidence and skill to navigate these moments, they stop postponing them and start using them to strengthen relationships and deliver better outcomes.