Leadership Hackathon: The Art of the Uncomfortable Conversation

You give clear feedback, and the person on the other side shuts down.

The conversation starts calmly, but quickly turns into defense, justifications or conflict.

You know what you need to say and have your own established approach, but you have found that it does not work for every person and every situation.

 

What will we cover?

 

Difficult conversations are rarely difficult because of the words.

 

They become difficult because two people experience the same situation through different emotional filters, beliefs, identities and behavioral patterns.

 

Communication meets Behavioral Intelligence.

 

In this practical masterclass, we will combine two perspectives:

 

The Hidden Dynamics of a Difficult Conversation (Rosen Rashkov) – Do you know what the three layers of a difficult conversation are? The answers to these questions are important because they will help us better prepare and conduct such a conversation more successfully, and together we will rethink the idea of ​​a “difficult conversation”.

Behavioral Intelligence (Iliyana Tarnina) – Do you know how to recognize what kind of person you are facing and how to conduct a conversation with them? Different behavioral profiles “hear” information differently. Let’s see together an example of how this happens and how important it is to “read” the person facing us. Is it possible that our own behavior can turn a conversation into a difficult one?

 

All of this will be covered through real business cases, practical exercises, and applicable models.

 

Who is this hackathon for?

 

For leaders and HR professionals who conduct high-stakes conversations.

 

What will you walk away with?

 

✔ Greater confidence in conducting difficult conversations.

 

✔ Better understanding of why different people react differently to the same situation.

 

✔ Practical tools for building trust instead of resistance.

 

✔ Higher behavioral awareness – both for the people across from us and for our own reactions.

 

Speakers:

 

Rosen Rashkov is a professional leadership coach. For the past 10 years, he has worked with managers and leaders from over 70 Bulgarian and international companies, supporting them to develop the skills that define leadership: communication, emotional intelligence, responsibility and working with people.

 

In his work, Rosen focuses on real-life situations where leadership manifests itself most strongly - especially when we need to give feedback, set a boundary, express disagreement or have a conversation that we would rather postpone. He believes that a difficult conversation is not a conversation to avoid, but an opportunity to build more clarity, trust and better working relationships.

 

Iliana Turnina is a certified behavioral profiler and business professional with over 20 years of international experience. He specializes in behavioral intelligence, profiling, body language and nonverbal communication, helping organizations better understand people in order to build better interaction approaches and make better leadership decisions.

 

For the first time, the two come together in a common format that unites the psychology of communication and behavioral intelligence in one practical experience.