Coaching & Workshops
The performance conversation that happens early is uncomfortable. The one that happens two years late is a legal problem. This session teaches managers to raise it while it is still fixable, and to document it properly when it is not.
Why it matters
Managers avoid performance conversations because they expect conflict and have no script. So the issue goes into the review, softened, or into nothing at all. Two years later the record says the person met expectations every single year and you are trying to justify a termination.
That gap is the single most common reason a defensible decision becomes an expensive one. It is also the reason good people stay stuck, because nobody ever told them plainly what was wrong while there was still time to fix it.
What the session covers
In the room
Short, specific, private, and framed as a fix rather than a verdict. Most problems end here if they are raised here.
"You missed three deadlines in March and did not flag any of them" is actionable. "You need to step up" is not.
What to write, when, and how to keep a record that reads as fair rather than as a case being built.
Signs you need this
The pattern is almost always the same: the problem was known for a long time and named for the first time when someone had already decided how it would end.
If two or three of these are true you are past the point where it resolves on its own. None of them are unusual, and all of them are cheaper to fix than to wait out.
Sound familiar
Afterward
When they are still fixable, and when the person still has a reasonable chance to fix them.
Documentation that reflects what was actually said, which is what makes a later decision defensible.
Nothing in a review should be new. That is the standard, and it is achievable.
How it runs
Every manager who supervises directly or conducts reviews. Best delivered to a whole management layer together so the standard is consistent across the organisation.
Sessions run on site or virtually, and they are built around situations attendees bring rather than case studies from a textbook. You get a fixed fee before we start, and the person who scopes it is the person who delivers it.
Practicalities
Questions
No. We prepare managers for the conversation and for sensible documentation. Anything touching protected classes, discipline policy or termination goes to your employment counsel.
Every manager who conducts reviews or supervises directly. It works best when a whole management layer attends together, so the standard is consistent.
We cover the point at which a performance improvement plan becomes appropriate and how to introduce one without it reading as a countdown. The plan document itself should be reviewed with HR and counsel.
Half a day, including practice. The practice is the part that changes behavior.
Yes, and many clients do. They are close cousins and a full-day combined session works well.
It happens, and a group session will usually surface it. We would raise that with you privately rather than address it in the room.
Not the decision or the mechanics, which belong with HR and counsel. We cover the conversations in the year before, which is where most of the difficulty is actually created.
It sits underneath whatever process you run. Good conversations make a mediocre process work and no process survives bad ones.
Related
The everyday version of the same skill, before it becomes a performance issue.
Feedback That Lands →Most performance problems start as unclear expectations.
Expectations and Accountability →Senior-led, delivered by the person you meet
Tell us how many managers and we will scope a session. No obligation, and we will say if one of the others fits better.
Tell us what is going on