We’re in a different environment today, it’s really important like with your business to change with the times to remain fluid, and dynamic.
Now, the topic of today’s discussion is tough conversations. I haven’t met a business person alive who hasn’t had to have tough conversations regularly with a member of their team, or the member of their key stakeholders.
I want to share a story I had with one of my past employees who’ve been with me for several years. Now, this employee was unwell and, unfortunately, they had taken some money from our business. It was accountable and we are actually to identify that the money was missing very quickly. They did it in a non-discreet way.
Because this employee has been with me for over 10 years, I had to have the tough conversations and sit down with them and go through the process and understand why they had done this. And if there are extenuating circumstances, at the end of the discussion, I sat down with them, and to prepare for the discussion, I took all my notes into the room with me. I made it very simple and went point by point. That made it very easy for me to identify the issues and not to get too emotional.
When the employee started explaining to me the issues that they had gone through, I got a better understanding of the situation. We spoke the unspoken, it was such a tough conversation to have, but we worked out the best position for this person was not to be working with us anymore and we did a fair leave program for them. They sought help the local psychologists to overcome their issues.
Every business I know and every business person I know always has to have tough conversations. So the simple ways to do that is to document it, and just to go through a very simple unemotional process, and to understand and listen to what the employee is saying or the stakeholder is saying when you’re having these discussions.
So feel free guys reach out and make contact. I’ve had a lot of responses from people lately and I look forward to chatting with you soon. Thank you.
