Managing difficult conversations

Abstract

Whether you are a pharmacist, resident, preceptor, or manager, situations where you find yourself faced with difficult conversations will arise in the workplace. Difficulty may occur anytime you find it hard to talk about something or when opinions differ, emotions are strong, or stakes are high.1,2 Examples of such situations include providing feedback to your preceptor or a supervisor, critiquing a colleague’s work, or speaking with a colleague or employee about poor performance. Not surprisingly, the more crucial a conversation is, the less likely individuals are to have one. Delivering bad news is challenging, and the tendency to avoid confrontation hinders our ability to resolve issues rationally. While difficult to initiate, crucial conversations are essential to address problems and maintain relationships. When faced with any difficult conversation, there are three possible outcomes. You hold a crucial conversation that goes well, you have a conversation that goes poorly,...