Many people sugarcoat what they say to save another’s feelings. I think this is because most people shy away from potentially confrontational conversations or don’t know how to effectively communicate something negative or that is constructive criticism. If you are unable or unwilling to have honest, hard conversations with your peers and employees, it’s detrimental to your business. It also effectively trains the next generation of up-and-coming leaders to continue a work environment in which communicating about negative topics or trying to course correct doesn’t happen.

It reminds me of a quote from Zig Ziglar: “The only thing worse than training employees and losing them is not training them and keeping them.” This is true because if you can’t be honest with peers and employees, it becomes part of your company’s culture. It is likely your company is headed for lower results and isn’t a place employees will want to work long-term.

I have heard hard conversations referred to as “courageous conversations.” These types of hard or difficult conversations usually deal with performance issues, attitude issues, disagreements on important business issues, or the like. These conversations need to happen or your business will suffer. Importantly, they need to happen in a timely manner to have the best effect.

There is much information online and numerous books on this topic. The general gist is that as part of sharing negative information, you also must accentuate the positive. If you manage people, you should spend time learning about having hard conversations because they do not come naturally for most people. The goal is to make difficult conversations constructive and a benefit to you, the other person, and your business.

In having difficult conversations, you can and should tailor what you are going to say based on who you’re speaking with. If it helps, practice what you plan to say or use an outline. If you instead default to sugarcoating important conversations and messages it will be part of your company’s culture, nothing will change, and opportunities will be lost.