Marcia Reynolds: The Discomfort Zone: How Leaders Turn Difficult Conversations Into Breakthroughs

Leaders, managers, and mentors are charged with getting people to stretch their limits. However, no matter how brilliant we might be, people don’t like their brains being bent out of shape. You have to, instead, help them discover what blind spots, gaps in logic, and sources of resistance are holding them back.
But helping others to see their blind spots isn’t always fun. You have to be willing to challenge how a person thinks. You have to break through their wall of resistance to expand their perspective. You have break down their sense of “already knowing” so that they are unsure of their thoughts before they can accept what else would be true and possible.
If done the right way, there is a moment in the discomfort that changes everything. The person sees through the cracks. They see their limitations. They see what they can do and they see who else they can be. And they always remember the leader who had the courage to help them see.
During this talk, Reynolds will share how you can:
Create the conditions for your tough conversation to have a powerful impact, opening the minds of people you work with.
Understand the physiology of listening and learning so you discover a new more powerful way of interacting with people.
Manage your emotions during an intense coaching session.
A clear and welcome departure from other books on the topic, Reynolds’ approach is not about how to deliver a difficult message. Rather, she provides leaders a framework—informed by the fields of neurology and psychology—for helping employees overcome mental barriers to see their circumstances, challenges and opportunities in a new light.