Many people get through life trying to avoid confrontation at all costs. It has the potential to get awkward and combustible, so it is seldom a pleasant situation. Unfortunately, at a certain point, there is no ignoring it any longer, and you have to have a game plan for handling it.

Courtesy of the site Charter, they name a variety of professional situations that call for unavoidable confrontation. Everything from giving someone an undesirable task, to firing someone can require confrontation.

So how do you manage it tactfully?

Charter says a major factor is to have compassion. You might want to push through the situation as quickly as possible, but don’t allow that to make you seem callous.

Get to the point, but do so while acknowledging that it is not an ideal situation. If you can, try and direct the conversation towards a positive future, such as stating your confidence in the person’s ability to accomplish the tough task you have just given them.

And while you don’t want to procrastinate on giving someone bad news, you don’t have to blurt it out immediately either. It is fine to take time to constructively ponder how you want to do it.

Privacy will typically be appreciated for receiving the bad news. And it can be helpful to give the person some space afterward so they can process their thoughts, such as if you had to inform someone they are not getting the promotion they wanted.

Nothing will ever completely take the sting out of a confrontation, especially if it involves firing someone. But you can still do your best to treat the other person as humanely as possible, and maybe eventually that is something they will appreciate you doing.

If there is more you wish to know about handling confrontation, check out the article from Charter here.

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