RT 32 | How to Have Difficult Conversations as Entrepreneurs

 

#REALTALK would like to give special thanks to Alterna Savings for sponsoring today’s episode. For our Season 2 finale, we are covering the art of difficult conversations. This topic is inspired by our active club on Clubhouse called Founder Mental Health. Every Tuesday night, entrepreneurs are gathered to share and support one another.

We know that it is a trying time for entrepreneurs, who are navigating complex relationships and exhausting situations. As a leader, it is a privilege and our responsibility to take the lead. Our host Cherry Rose Tan shares tactical strategies on mastering difficult conversations with our Team, our Mentors, and our Friends. These strategies are also being applied by Cherry Rose to her team and her clients.

For Team, we can use the tools of container and alignment, creating temporary spaces for sensitive topics. Aside from our employees, we also have mentors, the people we seek for help and can see our blind spots. Cherry Rose encourages entrepreneurs to reach out to mentors, deepening the relationships and acknowledging their contributions to you. Cherry Rose also shared two tools to engage in difficult conversations with mentors: experience and introduction. These tools will help your mentor to know what you really need.

Cherry Rose talks about the importance of social networks, such as friends, to develop our emotional well-being. Even though we are experiencing this pandemic, let them know that you are still thinking of them and are willing to listen. Cherry Rose also shared tools on how to rekindle your relationship with your friends: accountability and acknowledgement.

Stay tuned and apply the tools we have shared with you!


WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

  • How to initiate difficult conversations with the key people in our lives

  • Different strategies in handling conversations with your team

  • What are microaggressions?

  • Best ways in openings conversations with your mentor

  • Why nurturing our relationships with friends matter, especially as entrepreneurs

QUOTES

“As the leaders of our companies, it is our privilege, but also our responsibility to hold space and to navigate our teams.”

“When we want to hold space, create an opportunity to talk about something that is uncomfortable, or is potentially triggering.”

“The reality is that without in person events, it can be really tough to stay in touch, and get the business support that we need.”

“Before COVID, it was a lot easier to stay connected with friends, because there were many events, and many memories that we could create with them.”

“It's important that as entrepreneurs, that we are reconnecting with friends, by holding space and listening actively, and letting them know that you are thinking of them.”

“If you're somebody out there who is struggling, know that you're not alone.”

RESOURCES

EPISODE BROUGHT TO YOU BY

 
 

Alterna Savings has been the good in banking for 112 years! Alterna is made up of Alterna Savings and Credit Union Limited and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Alterna Bank. Together, they have $9.6 billion in assets under management.

As the first full-service, member-owned co-operative financial institution outside Quebec, Alterna Savings shares its expertise with more than 183,000 members through a network of 36 branches across Ontario. Members and customers benefit from leading online brokerage, investment management services, and the largest surcharge-free ATM network in Canada through THE EXCHANGE® Network, with over 3,700 ATMs to serve them.

 
Cherry Rose Tan