People often can face frustrating or stressful situations in the workplace, so it is important to approach such situations with grace and kindness.
Harvard Business Review offers the following practices that can help with daily interactions and difficult conversations.
- Meet confrontation with grace. If an employee approaches you with difficult news or challenges your decisions, try to be patient and courteous. Use a tone that signals you are there to listen and help solve the problem rather than enforce your authority.
- Give credit whenever you can. Recognizing your employees and showing gratitude will ignite their enthusiasm, hard work, trust and loyalty.
- Give people space and clarity. Do not catch team members off guard. Schedule conversations in advance or ask whether it is a good time to talk, giving them an idea of what you want to discuss. This will provide them with an opportunity to prepare and show them you are interested in listening to their response.
