TLDR; Great Framing = Candor + Compassion
All too often candor overshadows intention, and it deteriorates conversations.
Though I’ve spent my career in sales, I didn’t truly appreciate the importance of framing until I was managing others.
In two very real examples;
You can promote someone and still disappoint them.
You can fire someone and still end on good terms.
In that first manager gig, I was fortunate to have a leader who coached me through a number of hard conversations. To loosely paraphrase his advice:
Anyone can deliver great news, anyone can deliver bad news, and anyone can mess up both very badly. The key is how you frame it.
Since then, I’ve found the same to be true of all my conversations, at work and in life.
Thinking about what you’re saying is second nature. Thinking about how you’re saying it is the challenge.
It’s not easy, but the answer is compassion, paired with candor, and not deploying one without the other.
If you take a moment and adjust your framing as if you were in the shoes of your audience, it can make all the difference in how others feel about themselves and about you.
Great Framing = Candor + Compassion
See you Monday.