Articles
Balance Curve publishes articles designed to support and assist our clients. Some of our articles are found below and on LinkedIn.
All Conflict Management
The Power of Curiosity and the Art of Asking Questions
Mastering Hard Conversations The Power of Curiosity & The Art of Asking Questions Communicating with “difficult” people can be a challenge. Whether you like it or not, there will be times when you must navigate uncomfortable conversations with people who have a different perspective to you. By bringing a mindset of curiosity to the situation,…
Read More
Anticipating and dealing with objections
It’s easy to be thrown off-balance during a hard conversation. Sometimes you’ll prepare for the conversation and think you’ve got it under control and then find yourself blindsided. An unexpected question or objection completely throws you off-balance. Suddenly what seemed simple becomes complicated, and you feel completely out of control. To prepare well for a…
Read More
Resolving disputes – Finding Common Ground
Sometimes you will find yourself involved in a dispute or conflict at work. Despite your best efforts to explain your position and be reasonable, the other person will simply refuse to budge. It can make your life, and the life of those around you miserable. What can you do in these sorts of situations? “Find…
Read More
When people choose silence, rather than expressing their issues, organisations lose
Leaders are expected to not only have hard conversations, but also do them well. And this is the expectation in the private and public sectors. The New South Wales Government, for example, has developed a set of capabilities – the NSW Public Sector Capability Framework – used to help develop their leaders. Many of the…
Read More
Mastering Hard Conversations – The Art of Self-Reflection
Conflict in the workplace is inevitable. Whether you like it or not, there will be times when you must navigate uncomfortable conversations and make tough decisions. The first step in becoming better at this is becoming good at the art of self-reflection. That is, understanding what’s going on for you in relation to the situation…
Read More
What makes hard conversations hard?
We ask this question in our Mastering Hard Conversations program because often people don’t give it a great deal of thought and we find understanding what is causing discomfort is very useful. Some common responses in our workshops include: ‘I don’t like conflict.’ ‘Hard conversations put the relationship at risk, and I value the relationship.’…
Read More
What are hard conversations and why should you have them?
Conflict in the workplace is inevitable. As a leader – whether that be as CEO or part of senior management, or a leader within your team or thought leader within your organisation – being skilled in dealing with conflict and having uncomfortable conversations has enormous benefits. Hard conversations are the conversations that you find uncomfortable,…
Read MoreDealing with really difficult bosses
Some bosses seem to be permanently ensconced at the high end of the “difficult to deal with” continuum. They don’t just have their moments – they’re frequently really difficult to deal with. Under pressure they’re intransigent, aggressive, and highly emotional. Think Donald Trump. Bill Eddy, President of the High Conflict Institute, suggests that approximately 15%…
Read MoreDiscussing Performance – How to avoid having a civil war
It’s unbelievable how quickly “performance” conversations can spiral out of control. Formal performance reviews have their own particular challenges, but even informal performance conversations can be tricky. I recently observed one of my workshop role-plays where a participant was playing a team leader having a conversation with a member of his team who wasn’t performing…
Read MoreUnderstanding Difficult People
This is a continuation of my last blog on Dealing with Difficult People. If you haven’t read that blog, here is a link as it’s worth a quick read: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dealing-difficult-people-mark-rosenberg?trk=pulse_spock-articles. If the first step in dealing with a difficult person is “Self-Reflection” – getting a handle on what’s going on for you, the second…
Read More