High-Quality Conversations
14m
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Transformative Leadership Conversations with Winnie da Silva
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“‘The conversation is the relationship.’ Is a quote I come back to often from the book Fierce Conversations from Susan Scott. What this means to me… is that the quality of our relationships depend on the quality of our conversations, which of course then directly impacts the quality of our work together as a team.” - Winnie da Silva
In this episode, Winnie and Peter explore the concept of high-quality conversations and their importance within teams. They discuss the significant impact of conversation quality on relationships and team effectiveness, emphasizing that it is critical to all other building blocks in Peter’s methodology.
Episode Highlights:
"The Conversation is the Relationship"
- Winnie shares this quote from the book "Fierce Conversations" that underscores the idea that the quality of relationships depends on the quality of conversations. This, in turn, directly affects the quality of teamwork.
Survey on Conversation Dynamics
- Unequal participation, lack of candor, and poor understanding of others’ reasoning are common dynamics in meetings and discussions, and they stress that these are problematic.
Business Case for High-Quality Conversations
- Peter encourages the audience to consider the costs associated with low-quality conversations.
- Winnie and Peter assert that it's not enough to bring people together for work; it's essential to ensure the conversations are of high quality, with broad participation, candor, and the sharing of views and reasoning.
How to Work with Teams on High-Quality Conversations
- Winnie explains that working on high-quality conversations is a relatively straightforward process.
- They emphasize creating a climate for conversations where people feel psychologically safe to speak up and engage with others in open discussions.
- The aspiration is to achieve broad participation, candor, and mutual understanding within team conversations.
Three Steps to Implement High-Quality Conversations
- Describe the attributes of high-quality conversations, why they matter, and how they look.
- Identify barriers to these attributes, which can reveal hidden team dynamics.
- Encourage practice and the use of language and behavioral best practices to increase conversation quality.
Best Practices for High-Quality Conversations
- Winnie introduces six best practices that fall under three primary topics: Participation, Candor, and Understanding of Reasoning. For each practice, there are both "self" and "other" components to encourage improvement in conversations.
- Participation
- The objective is NOT that everyone speaks for the same duration.
- The objective is to ensurethat everyone has an equal opportunity to speak, and on important topics and decisions, everyone has been heard.
- Candor
- Winnie and Peter discuss the importance of managing self by speaking candidly and pushing one’s comfort zone on this.
- They explain that, when interacting with others, one can inquire about what others are thinking to encourage candid dialogue.
- Understanding of Reasoning
- Peter stresses the importance of sharing reasoning when stating opinions.
- In interactions with others, he encourages asking questions about the reasoning behind others' opinions.
Understanding of Reasoning
- Peter stresses the importance of sharing reasoning when stating opinions.
- In interactions with others, he encourages asking questions about the reasoning behind others' opinions.
Implementing Best Practices
- Winnie advises keeping these six best practices visible during meetings and on team agendas.
- The practices can serve as reminders for the team to work on their conversation quality.
Challenges in Implementing High-Quality Conversation
- Peter discusses the relative ease or difficulty of implementing changes in participation, candor, and understanding of reasoning within a team.
- He emphasizes that increasing candor is the most challenging, as it often requires a shift from historical norms of not expressing true thoughts.
Benefits of High-Quality Conversations
Winnie and Peter emphasize the significance of high-quality conversations in team effectiveness and describe the growing confidence and sense of accomplishment that teams experience when improving their conversations.
Resources
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn
Get the whole season and the companion guide at Winniedasilva.com
Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott
The episode High-Quality Conversations from the podcast Transformative Leadership Conversations with Winnie da Silva has a duration of
14:36. It was first published
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Resources
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Resources
Dea Katel Fischer on LinkedIn
Winnie da Silva on LinkedIn
Winniedasilva.com
Introducing Season 5 of Transformative Leadership Conversations
Powerful insights often occur when you least expect them. On Transformative Leadership Conversations, they're at the heart of every episode.
I’m your host, Winnie da Silva, and I’m driven by a passion to share the stories and strategies that shape effective leaders, teams, and organizations.
Since launching this podcast in December of 2020, we've delved deep into the individual stories of leaders, uncovering what makes their leadership stand out and the challenges they've overcome. In Season 4, Peter Axelson and I explored team effectiveness with the Team Development Masterclass, offering methodologies, tools, and exercises to enhance your ability to build effective teams.
This year, 2024, marks a fresh chapter. And I’m really excited about this new direction. Each month, we'll explore a different leadership theme from three angles: my reflections, a leader's journey, and an expert's viewpoint. What I love about this new approach is that you get a multifaceted and diverse experience from these three perspectives offering a prism of insights and strategies for each topic we explore together. And just like always – each episode will equip you with the inspiration, strategies, and tools to refine your own leadership and help you lead effective teams and thriving organizations.
Based on your feedback and my work with clients, I’ve picked themes relevant to you. They include topics like…
- The notorious Impostor Syndrome – what actually is it, how can you overcome it and even if you don’t have it, why should you as a leader care about it…
- Leading through change – I love this topic because it’s for everybody – we are all leading through some kind of change right now (and probably into the foreseeable future) – and I’m excited to go deep and practical here…
- Innovation – how important is it to be an innovative leader? What are the different ways in which innovation can manifest? And how do we get more of it?
- Building Your Leadership Brand – what does it mean to build a leadership brand, what elements might be included, and how do we do this so that it’s not just all about us and us selling ourselves?
- Hospitable Leadership – now, for those of you who know me well – I’m a bit of a foodie and our family absolutely loves making meals and hosting dinner parties at our home. And that’s got me thinking – could hospitality be a key ingredient for great leadership? We’re going to explore this topic and find out together!
...and there will be so much more. I’m so happy that you’ll be joining us and throughout this new year I want to invite you to join our community by sharing your thoughts, questions, and experiences. You can do that in so many ways! Subscribe and leave a comment on your podcast platform of choice, send me an email [email protected], listen to the podcast and leave a comment on my website atwww.winniedasilva.com, or find me on LinkedIn. Whether you’re engaging with us online, suggesting topics, or joining the conversation on social media, your voice is a vital part of this podcast.
You are always welcome to take a seat at the table where every conversation has the potential for transformative change.
Stay tuned for our first episode of 2024, where we'll dive into Imposter Syndrome, setting the stage for a year of transformative conversations.