From Everyday Leadership to Solution-Focused Conversations – a Microanalysis of the Change in Interactive Functions in Training Supportive Leadership Conversations

Building on De Jong et al. (2020) and Bavelas et al. (2017), this study examines how a three-day solution-focused (SF) leadership training influences the interactive functions in supportive leadership conversations. While SF principles are widely used in therapy and coaching, their impact on everyday leadership interactions has received less attention. Using Microanalysis of Face-to-Face Dialogue, we analysed six supportive leadership conversations—three before and three after the training. Each utterance was coded based on the 15 interactive functions identified by Bavelas et al. (2017). Our findings show that leaders asked more questions (requesting), listened more attentively (attending), and contributed less content after the training, while conversation partners contributed more and attended less. These shifts align with SF principles. Comparisons with prior studies of De Jong et al. (2020) and Bavelas et al. (2017) confirm that asymmetry in interactive functions—one interlocutor mainly asking and attending, the other contributing—is a typical feature of SF dialogues. This pattern also emerged in our supportive leadership conversations after SF training. Despite individual variation, the shift in our data supports the idea that SF dialogues foster a purposeful reconfiguration of interactional functions. Further research should explore long-term effects, contextual factors, and the integration of SF principles across broader leadership practices.