**Managing Difficult Conversations - Brisbane**

**Managing Difficult Conversations - Brisbane**

You know that sinking feeling when you realise you need to have "that conversation" with someone at work. Maybe it's addressing poor performance with a team member, pushing back on unrealistic deadlines from your boss, or dealing with a colleague who's constantly negative. Your stomach churns, you rehearse what you'll say in your head a dozen times, and then somehow the conversation either gets avoided completely or goes sideways in ways you never expected.

Here's the thing - we're never really taught how to navigate these tricky workplace conversations. Most of us just wing it and hope for the best, but that approach usually leads to awkward silences, defensive responses, or conflicts that drag on for weeks. The good news is that having difficult conversations effectively is absolutely a learnable skill, and once you've got it down, it'll change how you handle pretty much every challenging interaction at work.

This training isn't about becoming some sort of corporate diplomat who speaks in HR-approved phrases. It's about giving you practical tools to tackle the conversations you've been putting off. You'll learn how to prepare for sensitive discussions without over-thinking them into paralysis, how to stay calm when the other person gets defensive, and most importantly, how to keep the focus on solving problems rather than winning arguments. We'll also cover how to handle situations where emotions run high, because let's face it, that's when most conversations completely derail.

What makes this different from other communication training is that we focus on real workplace scenarios. You won't be practising with theoretical examples about fictional teams. Instead, we'll work through the actual situations you're facing - whether that's dealing with a micromanaging boss, addressing a colleague who takes credit for your work, or having performance conversations that actually lead to improvement rather than resentment.

**What You'll Learn**

How to prepare for difficult conversations without overthinking yourself into circles
Techniques for staying calm and focused when the other person gets emotional or defensive
Ways to frame feedback that gets heard rather than dismissed
Strategies for handling pushback and resistance during tough discussions
Methods for finding common ground even when you fundamentally disagree
Tools for following up after difficult conversations to ensure lasting change
Approaches for dealing with colleagues who avoid or shut down during conversations

**The Bottom Line**

After this training, you'll stop dreading those challenging workplace conversations that used to keep you up at night. You'll have a clear framework for approaching any difficult discussion, whether it's with your team, your boss, or a problematic colleague. More importantly, you'll discover that when you handle these situations well, they actually strengthen working relationships rather than damage them. The conversations you've been avoiding will become opportunities to solve problems and move things forward, rather than sources of ongoing stress and conflict resolution that never really gets resolved.