A short YouTube monologue by Clegg (Feb 9, 2024) advising leaders not to avoid conflict. Clegg argues that avoiding difficult conversations to spare feelings harms employees and organizations, that honest but helpful feedback is true kindness, and urges leaders to "get comfortable being uncomfortable." The video closes with a subscription call-to-action.
Chapters
Don't Avoid conflict just to be nice. Avoidance of conflict happens most often when someone doesn't want to challenge the status quo or to potentially hurt somebody's feelings. However, is that really being nice? If you have an underperforming employee and you don't guide them to change their behaviors, that's not being nice. That's harming them. Your organization. In reality, most people avoid conflict because it's uncomfortable for them. They don't want to deliver bad news or difficult or critical feedback. These are really bad reasons to avoid having a tough conversation because all you're doing is kicking the can down the road and it will rear its ugly head at some point. I've seen so many employees and I get phone calls each week from employees that have no idea why they get terminated. The great leaders find a way to be honest, yet to be helpful. That's being kind. Avoidance isn't nice. And in reality, you're not really sparing anyone's feelings because no one wants to get terminated due to underperformance, especially if they don't understand what's going on. So when you have a tough conversation, just go ahead and have it. It's not going to get any easier down the road. Do the right thing. Get comfortable being uncomfortable Please subscribe to the YouTube channel where all things are leadership and personal development.
