Greg Stevenson identifies three conversations people avoid at work: addressing an underperforming employee, confronting a peer's behavior, and speaking truth to a boss. He argues that postponing these talks erodes your authority and damages the organization, and calls you to have the one you already know you need to have.
The conversation you keep avoiding is the one the role is actually asking you to have. So you know the one. The underperforming you keep giving another chance. The peer you need to challenge. The truth you have not said to your boss. You tell yourself you're being patient. You're not being patient. You're being afraid, and with a calendar attached. And the whole organization can feel the thing you are not addressing. The cost of the avoided conversation is never just the conversation. It is your authority quietly leaking every day you wait. So what is the conversation you already know you need to have?
