Episode 61 - Why Great Leaders Step Toward Conflict
About this episode
Robert Adams discusses the importance of addressing conflict in leadership and provides a framework for having difficult conversations.
The conversation you keep avoiding is already having itself. Just without you in the room. In this episode of A Student of Leadership, Robert Adams explores The Knife, the third piece of the Place Setting Framework, and what it means to navigate conflict with precision instead of avoidance or aggression. Most leaders default to one of two extremes: they avoid hard conversations entirely, or they react with too much force and call it honesty. Neither works. The leaders who build teams worth being on know which edge to use, and when. In this episode: Why conflict avoidance isn't kindness, it's comfort at the team's expense The three mistakes most leaders make when tension shows up The four-step precision approach to having the hard conversation well Why closing with belief is the step most leaders skip, and why it changes everything The Knife reframed: precision, not aggression. The blade faces inward, toward the work. The framework this week: Step 1, Step toward it. Don't wait for the right moment. The team is already drawing conclusions from your silence. Step 2, Name it clearly. Specific. Behavioral. No ambiguity. Ambiguity is not kindness. Step 3, Separate person from pattern…
More episodes of A Student of Leadership - Real Leaders. Real Growth. One Table.
- Episode 63: Developing People in a Time-Starved Environment
- Episode 60 - The leader who broke down so you don't have to
- Episode 59 - The manager who saved her team by actually listening
- Episode 58 - The 3-minute coaching conversation that changed everything
- Episode 57 - Decisions under pressure
- Episode 56 - When leaders run empty
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the A Student of Leadership - Real Leaders. Real Growth. One Table. podcast page.