SUCCESS STORIES

A communications/marketing director of a large religious institution has to explain to a highly tenured employee why his performance is no longer acceptable.  The goal of the conversation is to convey the raw fact that he must leave the organization and to do so with compassion and support. This workshop participant had a tendency to get caught up in his emotions in business situations. Through role playing and feedback using the conversation he was planning, he learned how to avoid getting stuck in endless objections and how to be more clear about his role in bringing the situation to closure.

A woman struggled with how to discuss her concern that her spouse is spending too much time engaged in legal struggles with his ex-wife, instead of attending to his new family. At the beginning of the workshop she believed the message was that he was too emotionally invested in keeping the ex-wife in control. Through the exercises covered in the workshop she discovered and was able to focus on her core message. It turned out to be her need for him to pay attention to her so that he could support her, his current wife. She realized through this exercise that she needed to do some work to find her core message. The exercise provided an insight that she now knows to apply to all her conversation planning: the fact that what she initially believes is the reason, may not actually be the core of what she wants and needs to convey.

A family of adult children had recently divided their deceased mother’s possessions. The behavior of one of the siblings shocked and angered the other four. The workshop participant struggled to find a way to speak up about the issue despite her fear of rejection or anger and despite the family tradition of avoiding direct expression. She realized the core message was that she didn’t want this bad feeling to fester and cause future issues. The sibling received the conversation with gratitude and they agreed that habit of not talking needed to be broken and communication would remain open between them. This conversation has set a new standard in that family as well as for the workshop participant.

A young woman who combines her roles as mother, wife and entrepreneur has no trouble speaking up, but she is often surprised by the negative reaction she receives due to the perception that she is coming on too strong. The steps of the workshop allowed her to work on matching her delivery to her message. By learning about her own habits of reaction and seeing that others are very different she has new insights about how to modify her choice of styles.

A marketing executive had trouble providing his creative agency with his feedback in a timely and direct manner. He was concerned about their relationship and he felt that since the client was happy, there was no need for him to voice his critical opinions even though he could not let them go. Through the workshop he began to realize that this was just one example of how he postpones conversations which he believes may seem emotional, in his business and personal life. Now he’s started to focus on speaking up right away, before he lets his habits hijack him.