Handling Difficult Conversations

Building confidence and achieving constructive outcomes

The ability to communicate openly and productively with colleagues, customers and partners is a vital work skill. But at times, this can be a challenge. Conversations around performance or behaviour, customer complaints, disagreements or bad news, can all be difficult to navigate.

As a result, such conversations are often ducked or mishandled, with the result that problems are either kicked down the road or made even worse.

It’s vital then, that we learn to handle these tricky interactions skillfully, confidently and with emotional maturity.

This course provides a powerful framework for doing just this, and teaches a set of techniques that will help you navigate even the most difficult conversations with confidence.

With a focus on maintaining emotional control and finding a path to a successful resolution, the programme can be adapted to address a wide range of communication scenarios. It can be delivered at your offices or as live virtual training.

"Our trainer has been superb in her contact with us and personalisation of the course content including work specific role plays to meet our needs from start to finish… Working with Cambridge Exec has been a massive success and has provided a large section of our colleagues across the business with the tools and techniques to transform difficult conversations into every day conversations"

Alexandra Willians

Northern Gas

What participants will learn

This intensive session has been designed to have maximum practical impact in a short time. The topics covered include:

Preparing for a challenging conversation effectively
Ways to structure a tricky conversation to maintain control
Tools and techniques to build communication confidence
Setting clear expectations, including knowing when to say ‘no’
Handling difficult attitudes and strong emotions
Selecting the appropriate approach when passing on unwelcome news
How to remain calm, assertive and in ‘adult’ mode
Thinking through how the other person / people might respond – and how you’ll respond in return
How to spot what happens when your buttons are pressed and how to manage emotional responses
Increasing your emotional intelligence
Ensuring your conversations are always constructive
Managing resistance from the other person calmly
Coming to mutually satisfactory conclusions

Classroom or virtual delivery

This highly interactive programme can be delivered virtually or as traditional classroom training.

The classroom course is run over a full day, and can be delivered at your offices or a convenient venue. Virtual courses can be run in a range of formats to suit your delegates’ roles and learning requirements.

Whether virtual or classroom, the training is practical, packed with useful tools and tips, and highly engaging. It will equip participants with the knowledge and skills to make an immediate impact on their ability to approach challenging conversations with confidence.

Clients include:

Find out more and get a quote

If you have a group of staff who could benefit from the Handling Difficult Conversations course, we can deliver a session for your organisation at a time that suits you.

Participants can join a virtual session from the office or from home, or we can come to you to deliver the training in the classroom.

Fees depend on the number of participants and whether or not you would like the content adapted to address any specific issues relevant to your group.

Please contact us to find out more and to obtain a quote.

About us

Cambridge Exec is a boutique learning consultancy made up of a select team of specialists in workplace wellbeing, communications and people-oriented leadership and management. We deliver training and coaching, and conduct research and analysis that supports your people-centred workplace culture.

For twenty years we’ve been helping organisations ranging from small startups to international brands to build their people’s capacities, enhance wellbeing and boost engagement and productivity at work.