Preparing for the Conversation You’ve Been Avoiding
A calm, practical workshop for first-time managers who know a difficult conversation is needed — but don’t want to say the wrong thing or make it worse.
In 60 minutes, you’ll decide whether the conversation is actually needed and leave with a simple, written plan for how to open it clearly and fairly.
Do you keep replaying a conversation in your head, knowing it needs to happen, but not quite sure how to start it?
Are you worried that being too firm will damage trust… but being too soft will make things worse?
Do you understand the theory of difficult conversations, but feel stuck when it comes to applying it in real life?
This Isn’t About Scripts Or Saying The “Right” Thing
There’s no shortage of advice on how to have difficult conversations.
What most of that advice skips over is the part that actually matters:
how to think clearly before you open your mouth.
Most difficult conversations don’t go wrong because managers lack courage or care.
They go wrong because the manager isn’t sure:
whether the conversation is actually needed
what the real issue is
how firm is fair
what they’re really responsible for
So they overthink, soften things, or avoid the conversation altogether.
This workshop focuses on the part most advice misses — helping you slow down, clarify your judgement, and prepare calmly, so you can approach the conversation without making it worse.
What We'll Work Through Together
This workshop is deliberately focused.
Rather than trying to cover everything about difficult conversations, we’ll slow down and work through one clear preparation process together.
In just 60 minutes, you’ll get clear on what this conversation is for, what role you need to play in it, and how to approach it in a way that’s proportionate, fair, and steady
Hey there, I’m Andy Lee
I’m a leadership coach who works with first-time and accidental managers.
Most of the people I support were promoted because they were good at their job. They care about doing things well, they want to be fair, and they take responsibility seriously. What they weren’t given was a clear way to think about managing people day to day.
I know that position well. I’ve been an accidental manager myself, and over the last 20 years I’ve managed people across corporate environments, startups, and fast-moving teams. Along the way, I’ve supported first-time managers inside organisations who were trying to navigate situations they’d never been trained for.
What people tend to thank me for isn’t motivation or confidence tricks. It’s clarity.
Clarity about what actually matters in a situation.
Clarity about what their role really requires.
Clarity about the next step to take, and how to take it calmly.
That clarity is what gives people confidence. Not because everything suddenly feels easy, but because they know what they’re doing and why.
This workshop is built on that same approach. It’s not about saying the perfect thing or handling a situation flawlessly. It’s about slowing down, thinking clearly, and preparing in a way that helps you act fairly and consistently as a manager.
A calm, practical workshop to help you think clearly before a difficult conversation