Elevation Occ Psy

01/04/2026

🚨 A bit of fun (with AI) for April Fools Day!!! 😉

But on a serious note....

If there’s one thing we do know from research and practice, it’s this:

Avoidance doesn’t remove difficulty, it extends it.

It often makes conversations more emotionally charged, more complex, and harder to navigate over time.

The real work isn’t avoiding difficult conversations.

It’s feeling able to step into them with clarity, confidence, and support.
And that’s exactly what most people aren’t given.

If you’ve ever delayed a conversation because it felt uncomfortable, uncertain, or high-stakes, you’re not alone.

But you don’t have to figure it out on your own either.

If this resonates, feel free to connect or get in touch, this is exactly the kind of work I support individuals, managers, and organisations with.

01/04/2026

01/04/2026

19/03/2026

We need to talk about difficult conversations at work.

Not the “how to give feedback” kind.
Not the neat, scripted, role-play version.

The real ones.

The conversations where:

There’s a power imbalance
You’re not sure how the other person will react
The stakes feel high (reputation, relationships, job security)
And you’re already rehearsing it in your head… or avoiding it altogether

Because here’s what my research consistently shows:

👉 Difficult conversations aren’t just about what is said
👉 They are shaped by how safe the conversation feels
👉 And even more importantly, by how the other person responds

In other words —
It’s not just the message that makes a conversation “difficult”…

It’s the perceived risk.

Risk of being dismissed
Risk of damaging relationships
Risk of negative consequences

And this is where organisations often get it wrong.

We train people in:
✔️ Communication skills
✔️ Feedback models
✔️ “Having the conversation”

But we don’t spend enough time on:
✖️ Power dynamics
✖️ Psychological safety
✖️ The receiver’s role in shaping the conversation

Because difficult conversations are not a solo act.

They are co-constructed in real time.
So if we want better conversations at work, we need to shift the question from:

❌ “How do I say this?”
to

✅ “What kind of environment are we creating for this to be said safely?”

If you’ve ever avoided a conversation at work…
…it probably wasn’t because you didn’t know how to say it.

It’s because something didn’t feel safe enough to.

I’d love to hear your thoughts:
💬 What makes a conversation feel “difficult” to you?
💬 And what actually helps make it easier?

CommunicationAtWork
PeopleAtWork WorkplaceWellbeing InclusiveWorkplace

26/02/2026

Additional certification received! ✨✨

24/02/2026

Enjoyed running a session today as part of Zest Psychology’s Let’s be Zestie: Manager as Coach series, focused on difficult conversations at work, and I’m reminded (again) how rarely these conversations are actually about performance.

In my research, the conversations people find hardest tend to sit around:
health and wellbeing
boundaries and workload
emotion and distress
identity and inclusion

They’re difficult not because people lack skill, but because care, risk, and uncertainty are all in the room at once.

One of the tools I shared today was the Difficult Conversations Compass, a simple reflection map to help people orient themselves before, during, and after a challenging conversation.

Not a script.
Not perfect wording.

Just a way of slowing things down enough to notice:
what really matters
where the risk sits
and what’s most likely to make the conversation feel hard

What really resonated today was how closely this work connects with Dr Anna Kane’s doctoral research and work on Authentic Confidence, particularly the emphasis on connectedness.

Handled with awareness and care, difficult conversations can strengthen trust, belonging, and our ability to show up authentically with others.

In that sense, they’re not a threat to confidence, they’re often a pathway to it.

I’ll keep sharing insights from this research here, and if you’d like to explore Authentic Confidence further, or learn more about how Zest Psychology supports individuals and organisations to build confidence and navigate difficult conversations, do get in touch with them.

Always glad to stay in conversation with others navigating this space.

18/02/2026

Difficult workplace conversations aren’t about saying the right thing.
They’re about being ready to hold:
• discomfort
• uncertainty
• emotion
• responsibility
That’s where real change happens.

18/01/2026

🏂❄️🏂❄️🏂❄️🏂

11/01/2026

Night one! ✨✨

09/01/2026

Finland - here we come again!!! ❄️🏂❄️🏂❄️🏂

18/12/2025

If I had to describe the heart of my research in a single line, it would be this:
Difficult conversations are not communication problems. They are relational and organisational problems expressed through communication.
When relationships and systems are healthy, conversations become easier. When they are not, no script is enough.
This shift in perspective changes how we design leadership development, how we think about “communication issues” and how we support people at every level of an organisation.