Tough Conversations™ for School Leaders

primary teachers & leaders secondary teachers & leaders

This course addresses the well-recognised occurrence of difficulties that school leaders face through often having to discuss sensitive, difficult subjects. Significant levels of stress for school leaders can be reduced when those conversations are handled with the skills taught in this professional development course.

Reducing conflict-related stress: The urgent need for principals

The 2011–2017 Principal Health and Wellbeing Report recommended the need for practitioner learning support in effective conflict resolution to reduce stress.

This course addresses the well-recognised occurrence of difficulties that school leaders face through often having to discuss sensitive, difficult subjects. Significant levels of stress for school leaders can be reduced when those conversations are handled with the skills taught in this professional development course

Expected learning outcomes

Improved knowledge of how to negotiate a solution to a problem using a scripted mediation process.
Better understanding of how to be less affected by someone becoming frustrated and how to manage their emotional distress.
Strategies to progress the conversation toward a pre-planned outcome.
Practical demonstrations of principals and school leaders managing difficult parent and staff behaviour, including what to do and say to achieve better outcomes.
Readings and literature for follow-up research.

Lesson Framework

Why people overreact.
Self-control factors in adults and young people.
How ‘frustration tolerance’ develops in people.
What to tolerate: how to sort what you let go and what needs your attention.
What people will do if you challenge them.
A step-by-step process to address a problem.
How to tame tigers: effectively dealing with offensive behaviour.
A video demonstration of the concepts applied to a tough conversation between a parent and a principal.

Please note that this is not a train-the-trainer course and it is not designed for the subsequent on-training of other workers back at your workplace.