Comms Lab: Manage your emotion
Comms Lab: Episode 31
5 Strategies to Manage Your Emotions During a Difficult Conversation
Managing your emotions during a difficult conversation can be incredibly hard. In fact, this is usually one of the key reasons why the conversation is difficult in the first place!
In this video, I take a look at five strategies to achieve this almost impossible goal, taken from the communications and stress reduction literature. I hope you find them as helpful as I have.
Got feedback for me? Great! I’m always trying to make my videos better and more relevant. Let me know what you think in the comments section, or anonymously via jotform
0:00 – Our Brains Perform Better When…
0:54 – Five Strategies
1:03 – 1. Breathe
1:39 – 2. Take a Break
2:07 – 3. End the Conversation
3:03 – 4. Anticipate the Mismatch
3:48 – 5. Anticipate Distress Expressed as an Attack
4:52 – An Important Caveat…
References
- Achor S. The Happiness Advantage: How a Positive Brain Fuels Success in Work and Life. 2018
- Boghossian P, Lindsay J. How to Have Impossible Conversations: A Very Practical Guide. 2019
- Richards H. “The Impossible Conversation” – How to Change Someone’s Mind. 2022
- Richards H. Changing Minds – Goals and Priorities. 2022
Further reading
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Comms Lab
A path to highly effective communication skills
Hayden is an emergency physician at University Hospital Geelong and a senior lecturer at Deakin University, Geelong. He is somewhat obsessed with the science and art of effective communication, and in particular: difficult conversations. He believes that we can all get better at having difficult conversations, and that the process of learning to do so can be seriously fun.
Hayden is also an avid but terrible surfer, ad hoc gardener, and dad to two awesome kids. | LinkedIn |