I recently had a conversation with my fourth grade students about leadership. I designed a Gamestorming activity to get a better understanding of their feelings about leadership. One of the themes that kept coming up was bravery, which started me thinking about bravery as it pertains to a school leader.

Early on as a school administrator I realized that I had to be brave enough to deliver difficult news and initiate and resolve challenging conversations. This led me to read a book called Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila and Heen.

This book lays out a step-by-step approach that helped me listen to understand, disentangle impact from intent, and distinguish blame from contribution. Most importantly the book helped me become more compassionate and empathetic.

Using the strategies outlined in this book may not prevent all conversations from being difficult but you will end up building deeper and more meaningful relationships when a conversation does become difficult.

Other Helpful Books
Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher, William L. Ury and Bruce Patton
Making the Most of Difficult Conversations by Mike Riera
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes by Kerry Patterson