Most leaders don’t avoid tough conversations because they lack courage.
They avoid them because they don’t feel equipped to handle them.
Since my last carousel exploded on LinkedIn, I’ve read the comments, messages, and DMs… and a clear pattern is emerging. I’ve sent our countless one-page manager’s guides and am now developing a full-on Feedback Guide for Leaders.
Add your information in the contact us section if you want a copy when it’s ready.
Here are the 5 real reasons leaders avoid behavioural feedback:
1️⃣ Fear of the reaction
“What if they get emotional, upset, angry, or shut down?”
2️⃣ Fear of getting it wrong
“I don’t want to make it worse.”
3️⃣ Not having a clear model or structure
When you don’t know how to have the conversation, you avoid it.
4️⃣ Mixed cultural signals
Leaders say: “Challenge people.”
Teams feel: “Don’t rock the boat.”
5️⃣ Past experience
One messy conversation years ago is enough to create hesitation now.
Here’s the truth:
Avoidance doesn’t protect relationships.
It erodes performance, trust and engagement.
To help leaders and managers take that difficult first step and get the conversation started, we’ve created a cheat sheet with 7 ways to open the conversation. We share it with them in workshops to add to their toolkit.