Difficult Conversations with Difficult People

A workshop for the manager carrying a conversation they have not had yet — the one about performance, conduct, or a colleague who will not hear it.
Difficult Conversations with Difficult People
A 2–3 hour workshop for managers who need to have the conversation they have been avoiding: feedback that lands, conflict that resolves, meetings that hold.

Course record

Most managers know which conversation they are avoiding. It is usually the one that has already cost something — a performance problem that has gone three months without being named, or a colleague whose manner empties a room. This workshop is about having it well: early enough to matter, direct enough to be heard, and structured enough to end with a commitment rather than a mood.

What the workshop covers

  • The two kinds of feedback, and which one the moment needs. Evaluative and developmental feedback do different jobs. Delivering one when the situation called for the other is how good managers damage good people.
  • Why conversations go wrong. The habits that turn a difficult conversation destructive, and the framing and empathy that keep it useful.
  • Conflict, chosen deliberately. The ways people handle conflict at work, what each one costs, and how to move an exchange toward collaboration once avoidance has stopped working.
  • Running the meeting. Planning the conversation, opening it without an accusation, working through needs and interests, and what to do when it escalates anyway.

Who it suits

Managers and team leads with a conversation outstanding — a performance issue, a conduct issue, or a relationship that has quietly stopped working. It applies to peers as well as direct reports. Where the need is feedback rather than conflict, the companion workshop is Developmental Feedback That Changes Performance.

What a manager leaves with

The workshop runs on cases and discussion rather than lecture. A manager leaves with one conversation they are currently avoiding, a plan for when and how to open it, and an answer ready for the moment the other person pushes back. The measure is not that the conversation felt better; it is that the meeting ended with something agreed.

Request the Difficult Conversations workshop