***NSW Government Subsidised places may be available for qualifying applicants. Please see page 30 of the brochure or contact College office for more information.

Difficult conversations are an unavoidable part of leadership, but they don‘t have to damage working relationships or leave you feeling uncomfortable and unprepared. This course is designed to help managers and leaders approach sensitive workplace issues with greater confidence, deal with problems before they escalate, and have constructive conversations that lead to positive outcomes.

In this course, we‘ll explore what a critical conversation is, when you need to have one, and why we often feel tempted to avoid them. You‘ll learn how to prepare yourself, open the conversation constructively, listen and respond with empathy, manage strong emotions and work towards a practical way forward. Most importantly, you‘ll develop strategies to handle these conversations with greater confidence while maintaining professional and productive working relationships.

Agenda

TOPICS INCLUDE:

1. What Is a Critical Conversation and Why Do We Avoid Them?
2. Why Are These Conversations So Difficult? The Brain Science
3. Getting Ready: Self-Awareness and Choosing the Setting
4. Preparing Yourself: The Pre-Conversation Self-Audit
5. Opening and Guiding the Conversation
6. Questioning, Listening and Responding with Empathy
7. Getting Clear on Your Purpose and What You Need to Achieve
8. Dealing with Frayed Emotions
9. What to Do When You Hit a Brick Wall
10. Finding a Way Forward
11. Agreeing on Actions and Follow-Up

Tutor Profile:

Liz Paine is a people development specialist with an extensive history in coaching training and as an organisational development, human resource management and communication specialist. Although her experience in business management is vast and varied, Liz particularly loves her roles as workshop facilitator and leadership coach.

Liz‘s says she gets the biggest buzz from tapping into the potential of others and helping her clients to achieve their career or business goals.

Liz began her career as a drama teacher and applies this creative background to her approach to training so her workshops are always full of interesting activities. Her enthusiasm for participatory style workshops plus her ability to ensure there are always successful outcomes for all participants make her a sought after management consultant, leadership coach and training facilitator.

Liz is equally at home working with young people beginning their career as she is with senior executive staff. Through her two companies: “Learning Insight“ and “The Occasional Speaker“, Liz offers an extensive and diverse range of professional development programs focusing primarily around interpersonal communication, leadership, customer service and business communication.

Today Liz‘s clients include industry associations, both large and small private enterprise, government departments, Industry Training Advisory Boards and private training providers. Liz has developed and delivered training programs for organisations such as The Marina Industries Association of NSW, The NSW Boating Industry Association, Marine Queensland, Toyota Motor Corporation, St Josephs Family Services, various city and regional Councils, The Skilled Group, The National Safety Council of Australia, Principals Associations and schools, National Parks and Wildlife, and international training colleges (and of course one of her particular favourites: Macarthur Community College) . to name just a few.

Materials

Computer with internet access. The tutor, Liz Paine will contact you by email once she is notified of your enrolment.

Venue

This course is conducted online.