Five to Thrive 4/15/19

UMD’s Thriving Workplace Initiative is making the University of Maryland a great place to work by providing tools and support to foster engaged, inclusive and empowered faculty and staff across campus.

Each Monday, its Five to Thrive list offers five strategies crowdsourced from research, experts and our own UMD community to help your workplace thrive.

This week’s Thrive Tips explore the foundations of a good conversation. Try one this week and see what transpires:

• Use your own fears as fuel. If you are afraid to have a tough conversation, consider what might happen if you don’t.
• Don’t use praise as a primer for a tough conversation. Keep opportunities for praise separate from conversations on job performance or other tough discussions.
• Understand your intent before you speak. If your intent is good, you can admit frustration or anger and still deliver the message with clarity and compassion.
• Don’t use the time someone else is talking to formulate what you plan to say next. That’s the opposite of listening. Instead listen with intent; consider not just the words, but the emotion as well. Give yourself time to process that information before responding.
• Use silence to your advantage. Lulls in a conversation can slow them down and elicit a feeling of freedom to share more. They also allow everyone in the room a chance to participate.

Looking to have more meaningful, productive and fearless conversations in 2019? Join the Thriving Workplace Initiative for Fearless Conversations, interactive learning sessions to help transform your daily conversations and build a more thriving workplace. Watch a sneak peek here. Learn more about Fearless Conversations here.