Leadership Coaching - Dangerous Conversations

How many conversations do you have during an average day? And how many of these simply function as social lubricants helping you slide through the day without having to address the important issue facing you? How many of them really matter?

Most on-the-job conversations involve the exchange of information, instructions, advice, and opinions and have relatively predictable outcomes. While these conversations are quite suitable for normal business transactions they are quite ineffectual in the coaching process. Coaching conversations need to be much more potent. They are characterized by purposefulness, emotion, and awkwardness. The Great Expectations model of high performance coaching rests on a unique conversation which challenges the Leader Coach to engage in an intense form of dialogue. This is the Dangerous Conversation.

Dangerous Conversations confront the questions that need to be asked and challenge the Talent to answer them honestly. These conversations have no predictable course or conclusion and are fraught with uncertainty for both parties. As a Leader Coach, your role is to be honest, authentic, and unattached to a specific outcome. In doing so, you create a conversation in which the Talent is able to generate rich new insights and knowledge.

For more on how to have a Dangerous Conversation, click here to watch Igniting Performance...One Conversation At A Time - a webinar presented by one of my colleagues at Bluepoint Leadership Development.