Leap Forward - People Infrastructure Architect
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Manager craft7 min

How to run difficult workplace conversations without breaking trust

Key Takeaways

  • Name the gap in one present-tense sentence.
  • Hold silence; the response is your best data.
  • Close with one written decision, not five.

A field-tested framework for performance, conflict, and boundary conversations – the talks managers most often avoid and most often regret avoiding.

Most managers don't lack courage. They lack a structure that makes the next 20 minutes survivable. Without one, the conversation either gets postponed indefinitely or detonates the relationship it was meant to repair.

The framework we use at Leap Forward is built around four moves: name the gap, hold the silence, separate the person from the pattern, and close with a single decision. Each move has a specific sentence shape, and each is rehearsed before the conversation – not improvised inside it.

Name the gap means stating, in one sentence, the distance between what was expected and what happened. Not five sentences. Not a sandwich. One sentence, in the present tense, without adjectives.

Hold the silence is the move most managers skip. After you name the gap, you wait. Three breaths. Maybe four. Whatever the other person says next is the most important data you'll get in the entire conversation.

Separate the person from the pattern protects the relationship while you address the behavior. Two true things, in that order.

Close with a single decision keeps the conversation from spiraling. One agreement, written down before you leave the room.

The teams that get this right don't have fewer conflicts. They have shorter ones – and managers who don't dread Monday.

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