Oct 27, 2020 - Difficult Conversations Program

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Oct 27

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Oct 27, 2020 - Difficult Conversations Program

Gain the confidence you need to master difficult conversations in only six weeks!

Dissolve your workplace frustrations and have a real impact in your workplace by using our proven methods to transform difficult conversations into powerful change.

The Surdek team invites you to join us on this six-week interactive and experiential coaching program where we will teach you how to successfully have difficult conversations with individuals as well as groups of people.

Date & Time

Oct 27, 2020 — Dec 1, 2020
7:00 PM — 9:00 PM
Weekly call on Tuesday nights

Location

Zoom video conference

Language

Français

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Are you having a hard time with difficult conversations?

When it comes to having difficult conversations, do you feel:

  • You are so uncomfortable with them you avoid them at all cost?
  • You are not legitimate to initiate them with your colleagues?
  • You lack the skills or confidence to engage in them?
  • You need to skirt around a topic to avoid conflict instead of having them openly?

Imagine if these conversations were like this instead:

  • You know how to prepare yourself to give productive feedback to one of your colleagues.
  • You feel confident and comfortable engaging in any conversation with your boss or your colleagues.
  • You can encourage and support your team to talk about lingering problems in a constructive way.
  • You can listen and interact calmly with a colleague talking to you from a place of anger or frustration.
  • You can be the change agent with your team that you really want to be!
“It’s much more than a learning experience: your perception will completely change how you see these conversations.”
Marilyn, Participant - Mastering Difficult Conversations Program

In over ten years doing organizational coaching, what I found is that many people, including change leaders, struggle with difficult conversations.

They feel uncomfortable having real discussions because they fear conflict or worry the situation will spin out of control. Because of this, they feel nothing is going to change and that certain situations at work are just going to drag on forever and stay unresolved. Often all this leads them to feel powerless, angry and frustrated with their colleagues.

The end result of not having the real conversations in an organization is that it creates an environment where people are left feeling unhappy, fearful and sometimes even disengaged. The cost of not doing anything is actually much higher than the perceived pain of you taking action!

If this is what you are experiencing, the reality is that your life at work will never change until you invest the time to learn a process to have these kinds of conversations. You need a place where you can practice in order to help you identify and overcome your limiting beliefs about them. Only then will you feel more confident, capable and empowered about having them.

Get a taste of what this experience is all about.

Get an overview of the structure and the content of the program from our lead coach Steffan Surdek.

What you will get

When you take part in this coaching program, you will:

Learn our proven methodology

We base our approach on three basic principles: Preparation, initiation and management of the conversation. Discover these principles to better manage difficult conversations in all aspects of your life, with both individuals and groups.

Get time to practice and hone your skills

On every weekly call, you will receive live practice and coaching time either in small breakout groups or with the entire group. This time allows you to get advice and coaching on how you can approach important discussions differently.

Get support on current real-life situations

At the start of each call, you will have time to bring up any current real-life situations you would like us to discuss during the session. This is a great opportunity for group discussion and coaching. Between calls, you can also get support from coaches and other participants through our private Facebook group.

Here is what some of our clients have to say about us.

“I can say that Steffan is the person who has had the most profound impact on my personal development in my career of over 25 years as a leader of people.”

Alain, General Manager, former consulting client

“You go back to your life and you are not the same. I am really lucky to have crossed paths with Steffan in my personal development journey.”

Yiwen, Scrum Master, participant in leadership retreat

“Steffan is amazing at making people think by nudging them outside their comfort zone. We learn the material, but we learn a bit more about ourselves also.”

Maurice, Founder - Go Pyrate! Participant in Management 3.0 training course

“When launching ourselves in an experience such as this, there is always a bit of apprehension on what we will say or what other people will think. Steffan really succeeds in giving us a safe space.”

Josée, Scrum Master, participant in leadership retreat

“Only a few people have the capability to influence and grow others and have an impact on their professional and personal lives: Steffan is definitely one of them.”

David, Leadership Coach, former consulting client

Find a plan that’s right for you.

This French language virtual coaching program begins on October 27th 2020.
To find more dates for trainings and programs, check out all our events.

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Get to know the coach who will be facilitating this program.

Steffan Surdek
Founder of Surdek Solutions

Steffan Surdek is an in-demand consulting principal, leadership development coach and corporate trainer. He has always been driven to expand the notion of leadership to include each member of the team. As a widely recognized consulting principal, Steffan’s work has a strong business impact, helping reshape business cultures and guiding them in becoming more collaborative and efficient. He is the founder of Surdek Solutions, a consulting and training company based in Montreal, Canada.

Steffan has over 1000 hours of experience delivering various training courses and workshops around Agile and Lean practices. He is a trained integral coach that helps people grow and develop themselves through experiential learning as well as through his leadership retreats.

Steffan is a recognized leadership expert that writes about leadership on various websites such as forbes.com, cutter.com and wellness.com among others.

How does the program work...

This program means to help you develop your skills in mastering difficult conversations. It is a group coaching experience, spread over six weeks where you will have the opportunity to learn and practice some new conversational skills.

In question and answer format below, here is more detail on how this coaching program works.

  • When will the calls happen and when do we start?

    For six weeks, we will meet via teleconference every Tuesday night from 7:00pm to 9:00pm (Eastern Time).

    We will use Zoom for our calls. Each week, you will receive an e-mail reminder for the call with the link embedded within the e-mail.

    The first call will be on October 27th, 2020.

  • What will be the structure of the weekly calls?

    The calls will have the following basic structure:

    • We will start the call with a group share about current or upcoming difficult conversations. We will also review the key learnings of participants in the past week.
    • There will be a group teaching moment where we will discuss a part of our approach to difficult conversations.
    • We will then have some dedicated practice time in small breakout groups or together as a large group.
    • At the end of the calls, we will do a group debrief of the key learnings on the call. We will also identify some things to practice before the next call so be prepared for homework!
  • Why are the calls in the evening?

    Our belief is that participants in any virtual coaching program that happens during the day have a higher chance of getting interrupted by their workday activities.

    Our intention is to create a bubble for you where you will be able to focus on the calls and get the most out of the program.

  • What kind of homework will there be in-between calls?

    The homework will be relatively light but aims to help you put something new into practice.

    For example, it may be for you to go initiate a conversation with a colleague and report back on what happens the following week.

    It could also be something like to prepare for a difficult conversation and share your preparation with us the following week.

    We may also provide you some articles to read or videos to watch depending on the discussion of the week.

  • What kind of real-life situations can I bring?

    You can bring personal or professional conversations that you want to prepare or practice as a group. Please keep in mind this is a group coaching program and that we need to answer the overall needs of the group.

    We strongly suggest though that you bring conversations that are appropriate in a group context and have a manageable level of risk for you to have in real-life.

    Remember you will be in a learning and practice environment. Because of the very limited knowledge of the context you are experiencing, we accept no responsibility or liability for anything that may come out of a conversation you prepared in our program.

  • What kind of support is available?

    You will have access to the following for the duration of the coaching program:

    • Answers to your questions and discussions with the other participants in a private Facebook group.
    • The opportunity to bring real-life situations for advice or support
    • Punctual support through direct e-mail.
    • Access to recordings of all the weekly calls.
  • How many people will be in the group?

    It is important in coaching programs such as this to build a safe and intimate environment for participants because the level of sharing can get very personal.

    For this reason and to give people the maximum amount of time to practice and share, the maximum size of a group will be limited to eight participants.

    If we have more than eight registrations for a group, we will look at splitting the group in two to keep the groups to this maximum size.

  • Can you offer this coaching program for an internal group at my company?

    Yes, we can offer this coaching program privately. We require a minimum of five participants in order to deliver a private group.

    For private groups, we will agree on a day and time based on the availability of the participants. We can also consider a daytime slot for groups if necessary.