Make It Safe Before You Say the Hard Thing
Use safety and mutual purpose to begin an underperformance conversation clearly and respectfully.
You have delayed the conversation for two weeks. The work is late, the team is covering, and the employee is about to hear concern in every word you say. > Safety is not politeness. It is the condition that lets candor work. Make the purpose safe before the facts get sharp A difficult conversation usually fails before the facts arrive. The other person first decides whether this is safe: are we solving a shared problem, or am I being judged? Crucial Conversations frames this as restoring safety and finding mutual purpose before pushing content. Safety does not mean softening the…
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