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Issue 5 > 'Fierce conversations' can change your business.

'Fierce conversations' can change your business.

Jo Donovan argues the benefits of straight talk and offers seven steps to approach authenticity.

If you are a regular reader of this column or have been involved in coaching with me, you know that I greatly admire Susan Scott, the author of 'Fierce Conversations' and head of a firm promoting straight talk. Scott's work is the most intelligent and effective organizational change work that I've encountered.

Business leaders who take the steps to model straight talk and provide an environment where people engage in real conversations as a way of relating with each other and customers derive a multitude of benefits.

For one thing, they can forget about anonymous 360 evaluations. If people learn to engage in thoughtful, honest conversations, constructive sensitive feedback will be given and received continually with no need for outside consultants. Furthermore, when employees feel safe to talk honestly with senior management, much better decisions emerge. These are just a couple of the benefits that emerge when straight talk is the norm.

The stated philosophy behind the 'Fierce Conversations' book and training programs is: 'We believe that the central function of a leader is to engineer intelligent, spirited conversations that provide the basis for high levels of alignment, collaboration and partnership at all levels throughout an organization and the healthier financial performance that goes with it.'

We all know that sometimes the truth is hard to handle, and even harder to deliver. I don't know how many times clients have set a goal involving speaking their truth—and then put it off. It's amazing how many excuses we can create for avoiding those hard—and needed—conversations. We can do a long, slow dance when opting between speaking our truth and showing up authentically, or keeping mum at critical moments.

Stifling our truth repeatedly ends up making us sick. If employees engage in only careful, safe conversations, they feel a chronic frustration. They know they are stopping short of being themselves at work. They are usually left out of meetings and critical decisions, since they're seen as having nothing to add. Relationships flat-line or fail. And, people who are known for playing it safe are easy to replace. As Scott says: 'No one on their death bed says: 'So glad I played it safe, never revealed who I really am, never told anybody what I was really thinking.'

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