The Neuroscience of Managing Difficult Conversations:
Transform the way you conceive of and manage difficult conversations to find optimal solutions for everyone involved.
Our brain often experiences difficult conversations as threats that cause the thinking part of the brain - or prefrontal cortex - to shut down and the emergency response system in the brain run by the amygdala to engage. This creates a number of issues that make managing difficult conversations particularly hard, including going into fight or flight.
There are ways, to circumvent this from happening so that we maintain access to our prefrontal cortex and stay out of fight or flight and using our reasoning skills to create collaborate solutions that work for everyone.
What you will learn:
Why difficult conversations often trigger a "threat" or "defensive" response, causing us to lose access to the prefrontal cortex (the executive of the brain responsible for creative thinking, empathy, and problem-solving) to the amygdala (the emergency response team)
How difficult conversations in modern workplaces triggers the same evolutionary survival mechanisms as ancient physical threats: Fight, Flight, Freeze, or Appease
The mindset shift that will stop difficult conversations from eliciting the threat response
How to prepare for difficult conversations to keep yourself composed and make sure you get what you need from the interaction
Why leadership presence is critical for managing difficult conversations and how to develop a strong leadership presence
How to return to a composed grounded state during a difficult conversations when you feel you are being triggered
How to use non-verbal communication and mirror neurons, to calm others and help them return to a state in which they can listen, be reasonable, and collaborate.
How to stay strong in your position while also staying empathetic and collaborative with the other parties
