Let’s face it, no-one likes confrontation. It’s natural to want to avoid dealing with difficult issues but learning to handle conversations head-on can transform teams – and prevent a culture of avoidance in your organisation.

In every workplace, managers face moments where they need to have a difficult conversation—perhaps about poor performance, challenging behaviour, or conflicts within the team.

Yet, many managers put these conversations off, hoping the issue will resolve itself. It rarely does. Instead, the problem grows bigger and more complicated, often resulting in lost productivity, reduced morale, and, in the worst cases, employee turnover.

Empowering managers with the skills and confidence to effectively deal with problems as they arise is crucial if you are going to build an effective, motivated teams that take accountability and achieve your business’s goals.

However, very few managers receive training on how to navigate what can be high-stakes conversations. In some cases, people inherit teams with people whose poor behaviours have gone unchecked.

A lack of training and knowledge means people often rely on instinct and react emotionally, which leaves them ill-prepared to manage their teams effectively. The result? Anxiety, defensiveness, and further conflict in the team. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

In our leadership and management programmes, we encourage people to approach conversations with curiosity, and a coaching mindset instead of immediately assuming blame. You don’t want to put people on the defensive; your goal is to understand the behaviour.

Take Hardeep, a newly promoted manager at a growing tech company. Hardeep noticed early on that one of her team members, Tom, was consistently missing deadlines and arriving late to meetings. Rather than addressing the issue directly, she thought: He’s under pressure right now, it’ll get better soon.

But things didn’t improve. After a few months, other team members began to complain about picking up Tom’s slack. Resentment spread, and productivity across the team declined. When Hardeep sat down with Tom and have a conversation, she discovered that he had been struggling with a workload far beyond what he could manage. The situation had been easily solvable months earlier, but by waiting too long, it had grown into a team-wide issue that affected morale and performance.

If Hardeep had received training on how to handle difficult conversations, she might have been more confident in addressing the situation early on, framing the discussion as an opportunity for support and growth rather than conflict.

Why do we avoid difficult conversations?

Putting off tough conversations is a natural reaction. Humans are hardwired to avoid conflict—it feels emotionally risky. Managers worry about saying the wrong thing, hurting someone’s feelings, or creating even more tension. Some managers also want everyone to like them. That’s another article!

On the receiving end, employees can become defensive or disengaged, which makes these conversations feel like minefields. Without the right skills, many managers rush through them or sugar-coat the message, ultimately missing the opportunity for meaningful change.

The impact of a culture of avoidance

The impact of avoiding difficult conversations is far-reaching:

• Performance issues escalate: What starts as a minor performance gap can snowball into a major issue.
• Team morale suffers: When problems are left unaddressed, it breeds resentment and disengagement among other team members. Poor behaviour may increase as people see others “getting away with it”.
• You start losing staff: Employees either become frustrated with a lack of feedback or leave because of unresolved conflict.
• Missed opportunities: Honest feedback, when delivered well, can be a catalyst for professional development.

How training can support you

There are lots of options available for training. Leadership programmes, including apprenticeships for managers and senior managers, can transform how these conversations re handled. Rather than leaving managers to learn through trial and error, structured training equips them with the communication, emotional intelligence, and conflict resolution skills they need to thrive.

Management apprenticeships offer real-time, practical learning on topics such as building confidence in communication, active listening, how to provide constructive feedback, and how to plan a path forward, together. We try to take the pressure off the HR teams by empowering management to deal with issues openly and effectively.

The Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship (CMDA) blends practical experience with training on key leadership topics such as navigating conflict, developing resilience and building emotional intelligence. It’s also a space to build a support system of peers who are all in the same situation with you and to work through situations together. Many of our students say this ‘safe space’ is one of the best parts of the course.

When managers are equipped to handle difficult conversations, the entire company feels the benefits. Teams become more engaged, performance improves, and problems are addressed before they escalate. Just as importantly, managers gain confidence and build stronger relationships with their teams, leading to greater retention and higher morale.

Organisations that invest in developing these skills through training programmes and apprenticeships see lasting cultural change. Difficult conversations become less about confrontation and more about collaboration.

If there’s one key takeaway for leaders, it’s this: addressing issues early is always better than waiting. Left unchecked, small problems can grow into toxic team dynamics or costly formal interventions. By investing in management training and apprenticeship programmes, you equip managers with the confidence, skills, and resilience to act sooner and with greater impact.

The real power of these skills lies not just in conflict resolution but in creating a culture where feedback and accountability are the norm. When managers can have open, honest conversations without fear, it builds trust and strengthens the organisation at every level.