Navigating Difficult Conversations with Kammeron Cran, Founder of The Team Space
Kammeron Cran. Image Supplied
“A leader is someone who thinks about the people they work with and how they can cultivate an environment where they not only love coming to work but feel fulfilled and part of something.”
Difficult conversations are a normal part of life.
In the workplace, a difficult conversation is one in which you have to manage emotions and information in a sensitive way, to deal with topics you don’t want to talk about, situations where you’re not sure what to say, conflicting opinions, circumstances where the outcome is uncertain and discussions which make you feel uncomfortable.
Many people avoid difficult conversations in the workplace because it makes them feel uncomfortable. Even experienced managers can find these conversations daunting, despite being an important part of their role, with excuses to avoid them, “I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings”, or “Now is not the time”...
Join Founder Kylee Stone on The Uncharted Leader podcast as she talks candidly with Kammeron Cran, Founder of The Team Space, about the impact difficult conversations can have on our wellbeing and her CARE-OF approach to turning difficult concessions into an opportunity to create connection, trust and mutual respect.
Download and listen to the interview on Apple iTunes, Spotify or Stitcher.
What’s one of your greatest accomplishments to date and what impact did it have on you, others, society or the world?
In 2018 I was granted a place on The Marketing Academy, a scholarship-based leadership program that takes 30 people annually on a nine-month personal, life-changing, leadership journey. It was a gruelling selection process and I feel like one of the luckiest humans alive to have met the rest of my cohort - “29 new lifelong friends!”
The scholarship exposed me to variety of thought leadership - from resilience, storytelling, neuroscience and psychoanalysis to creativity, artificial intelligence, organisational and communications theory - helping me crystallise my life’s purpose, “to create a world where work is a place of humanity and fulfilment and the lines between home and work are blended and balanced and where people are naturally encouraged to be aware of and develop their potential”.
It’s a bold vision, but I genuinely want people to experience joy at work every day - thrilled at the prospect of work and fulfilled by the experience of it. We know that humans need connection and belonging. When we create high-trust environments where people in teams can be vulnerable, they can have healthy debate resulting in sophisticated problem solving and increased creativity - not to mention the ability to lean into change and become aware of, and change, restrictive and damaging behaviours.
Imagine the performance benefits of that for organisations and the societal benefits for individuals.
What was one of the biggest challenges you experienced or overcame in your journey as a leader?
There are so many…. three that stand out! The first one was when I inherited a team with an engagement score of less than 15%. It was extremely regrettable how they’d been left to flounder, not that it was anyone’s intention, but there lay the problem - there had been no intention for this team. I was a very green leader of people in a formal sense so it was a huge learning curve, but the lessons informed much of what I hold to be true today about teams - building connections, listening, showing compassion, and having courage.
In my personal life, and perhaps the most challenging, was when I went through an extremely painful marriage breakdown. It broke me.
The relationship chipped away at my confidence, without me even realising it, and then I had to end it suddenly. That in itself made me question my own judgement. I was a strong independent self-sufficient woman, how did I end up a statistic?
I had overused my strength of resilience. It had created a blind spot. I had soldered on with ‘I’m fine’ but things were not ok. I had a big team, two young children and huge pressures. The gift I gave myself was asking for help. I was honest with my employer. I was honest with my boys. I was honest with the team. We had the most incredible support as a result and I inadvertently role-modelled how to keep showing up, keep moving forward despite adversity.
I could not have done this without being vulnerable and showing compassion to myself and being surrounded by the most wonderful family, team and leaders.
The final area, again at work, was when I was appointed to a new leadership role as the result of a restructure - I was the successful internal candidate. It was an extremely challenging environment and for some of my stakeholders I was not the popular choice due to other loyalties. It took me a long time to build trust, fighting my own imposter syndrome and, at the same time, holding my own nerve.
There were definitely days I wanted to give it away but what ultimately kept me there was my sense of responsibility to the team. I started the journey with them so you could say I felt it was my duty to continue cultivating trust and value in the environment. Inside the larger organisation, that was going through a huge amount of turmoil, we successfully managed to develop our team values, our own code and themes and we proactively built relationships and delivered results that people took notice of.
While it was one of the most difficult and challenging times of my career, it provided me with a sense of purpose and it ignited a new appreciation for the value, and power, of teams and teamwork.
KAMMERON AT WORK..
Kammeron is an organisational and team coach specialising in humanistic leadership. She is passionate about helping leaders create the space for some much-needed connection, compassion and courage within teams and organisations.
With over 25 years experience in the media industry, Kammeron has a wealth of experience as a senior executive. Having caught the leadership bug early in her career, Kamm (as she prefers to be called) has completed many leadership programs through the AGSM, Melbourne Business School and News Corp’s Leadership Development Program and other high performance programs.
Once Kammeron's children were in school, she embarked on her Coaching education and practice. In 2018, she was selected for a scholarship to The Marketing Academy Australia - a global leadership scholarship for marketers who want to change the world.
She is now a certified Executive and Organisational Coach (IECL), Team Coach (IECL) and Resilience Coach (Driven CReC). She is also a non-executive director of the charity Red Nose and a board member of the National Lotteries and Newsagents Association.
Connect with Kammeron on Linked In and visit The Team Space for more information on Kammeron’s passion for how to handle difficult conversations, psychological safety and cultivating purposeful teams.
Podcast proudly supported by TrinityP3 Global Marketing Management Consultants.
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