On this episode of the Inspiring Great Leaders Podcast, Craig Johns speaks with Todd Davis about navigating difficult conversations, leading at FranklinCovey and managing tensions that might arise with it.

We also dive deeper into understanding the factors that hold us back from approaching people during difficult conversations, managing the tension and how we should start a difficult conversation.

Todd Davis – Navigating Difficult Conversations

Todd Davis is a senior consultant and thought leader at FranklinCovey and has over 35 years of experience in human resources, talent development and executive recruiting. 

He has been with FranklinCovey for 28+ years and, until recently, spent 18 of those years as Chief People Officer and Executive Vice President. He was responsible for the global talent development in over 40 offices reaching 160 countries. Prior to FranklinCovey, he worked in the medical industry for 9 years where he recruited physicians and medical executives along with marketing physician services to hospitals and clinics throughout the country.

Todd Davis talks about:

• 
  
• Empathy as his number one strength
  
• Helping people is his most important skill as a leader and a coach
  
• The ability to influence
  
• Navigating difficult conversations
  
• The holdbacks of being able to approach someone during difficult conversations
  
• The balance of courage and consideration
  
• Examples of difficult conversations from a corporate perspective
  
• When is it a good idea to have that difficult conversation?
  
• The results of not having that difficult conversation
  
• Preparing to have a difficult conversation
  
• Separating the behavior from the issue
  
• Useful sentence starters to be able to separate the person from the problem quickly
  
• Appropriate body language
  
• How important is less?
  
• Managing the tension
  
• Key leadership skills in the current world
  

Tweets

“The most considerate thing you can do is to help the other person be more successful than they already are.” on the Inspiring Great Leaders Podcast.

“I think the best leaders are those who focus on influencing, because that brings out the empathy part of leadership. It’s where I’m taking the time to see things through their eyes. I’m not agreeing with him. I’m not disagreeing with him. But I’m really making sure he feels heard and understood and that I’m truly  looking at things through his lens.” Todd Davis talks about the ability to influence on the Inspiring Great Leaders Podcast.

“Leadership is communicating to people their worth and their potential so clearly that they come to see it in themselves.” Leadership by Todd Davis on the Inspiring Great Leaders Podcast.

Resources Mentioned in this show:

Todd Davis LinkedIn
FranklinCovey website
Craig Johns www.craigjohns.com.au
Craig Johns craig@nrg2perform.com
Craig Johns LinkedIn
Craig Johns Facebook
Inspiring Great Leaders Podcast
NRG2Perform www.nrg2perform.com

Books

Everyone Deserves a Great Manager: The 6 Critical Practices for Leading a Team
Get Better: 15 Proven Practices to Build Effective Relationships at Work