Taking the Stress Out of Stressful Conversations

Human beings love to gossip, chatter and jest, but some conversations can be stressful, confusing, and even embarrassing. To avoid conflicts and the avoidable pain it can bring, we tend to dodge a stressful conversation.

The emotional entanglement and the feelings that get stirred up throws most of us out of balance, and we are unable to work harder to improve our handling of the problem, making it worse.

• While giving bad news to others, like giving feedback or firing someone, one can find it difficult to strike the right note.
• When a small sentence or even a word can be taken as a negative provocation and trigger an adverse reaction. Suddenly the conversation becomes intensely charged emotionally.
• A conversation where one resorts to profanity, manipulation, shouting to thwart the other person.