Crucial conversations take place every day. Often times, conversations have ulterior motives from one party or another, and can affect outcomes in all areas. The last crucial conversation that I participated in was with an employee that I oversee. This person has been struggling with their follow through and delivery of materials for the projects that I oversee. This individual and I have spoken several times about the need to improve in those areas and I have provided coaching, mentoring and even advice on how to improve. Nothing has seemed to sink in to the employee and corrective action has now taken place. The crucial conversation involved that disciplinary conversation that included the possibility of termination if there is not sustained and immediate improvement in two areas: client follow through and delivery of materials for the clients that we service.
The stakes of this conversation were high because there is an employee’s livelihood at stake. He is in jeopardy of losing his job as a result of bad choices and emotions were running very high during this exchange. Our opinions were vastly different, he doesn’t see the need to improve what he believes he is doing correctly. The power of dialog and the pool of shared meaning were not evident. I explained my viewpoint on what is happening and there was not a lot of other message exchanges. This employee said he did think that he had made improvements and we agreed to disagree. The only thing different that would have helped would have been me asking him to tell me his opinion of what his behavior improvements have been over the last few weeks. In order to start with the heart (Patterson, Granny, McMillan, & Switzler, 2012) in any conversation, there needs to be clear types of communication. This can happen only by being prepared before any conversation happens. If there is nothing prepared, what can be left to deal with is a sucker’s choice (Patterson, Granny, McMillan, & Switzler, 2012). Usually, this can lead to both parties being unhappy with the results of their time together. This can then lead to a demise in lines of communication. In the crucial conversation with my employee, I started with the heart and it did help the tone of the conversation. I showed support and asked for respect in return. The suckers choice was not evident
