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Difficult Conversations & Conflict Management for Leaders
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Difficult Conversations & Conflict Management for Leaders
Master difficult conversations, conflict resolution, employee accountability, and workplace communication.
Created byGretchen Lockard
Last updated 6/2026
English
What you'll learn
- Recognize and overcome the leadership habits that cause difficult conversations to be delayed or avoided.
- Prepare for challenging workplace conversations using a simple, repeatable framework.
- Deliver clear, direct, behavior-based feedback without damaging trust or relationships.
- Respond confidently to emotional reactions, including tears, defensiveness, anger, and silence.
- Resolve workplace conflict using practical mediation and conflict-management techniques.
- Conduct accountability conversations related to performance, attendance, deadlines, and workplace behavior.
- Navigate high-stakes discussions involving promotions, compensation, layoffs, restructuring, and organizational change.
- Document employee conversations effectively to support performance management and reduce legal risk.
- Build a culture of direct communication, feedback, psychological safety, and accountability.
- Apply proven scripts, templates, and conversation frameworks to real-world leadership situations.
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Course content
11 sections • 10 lectures • 37m total length
Requirements
- No prior HR or leadership experience is required.
- Managers, HR professionals, and business owners will gain the most value from this course.
Description
Difficult conversations are one of the most important leadership skills, and one of the least taught.
Whether you're a people leader, HR professional, business owner, or team manager, your success depends on your ability to address issues directly, resolve conflict effectively, and communicate difficult messages with confidence.
Yet most leaders were never taught how.
In this practical, real-world course, you'll learn how to prepare for, deliver, and follow through on difficult workplace conversations without avoiding them, escalating conflict, or damaging relationships.
Through proven frameworks, scripts, case studies, and workplace examples, you'll learn how to:
• Deliver feedback that is clear, direct, and actionable
• Address performance, attendance, and accountability concerns
• Manage emotional reactions such as tears, anger, defensiveness, and silence
• Resolve workplace conflict and facilitate productive discussions between employees
• Communicate difficult decisions involving promotions, compensation, layoffs, and organizational change
• Document conversations effectively and reduce organizational risk
• Create a culture where honest communication and feedback become the norm
Unlike many leadership courses that focus on theory, this course is designed around practical application. You'll leave with ready-to-use scripts, conversation frameworks, documentation tools, mediation techniques, and a downloadable conversation library you can use immediately.
If you've ever delayed a difficult conversation, worried about saying the wrong thing, or struggled to manage workplace conflict, this course will give you the confidence and tools to handle those situations professionally and effectively.
Because the leaders people remember are not the ones who avoided the conversation—they are the ones who told the truth, kindly.
Additional Content! The HR Edit Conversation Library — a 66-page companion guide featuring 50 real-world scripts for workplace feedback, conflict resolution, employee accountability, compensation discussions, performance concerns, difficult employee relations situations, and leadership communication challenges.
Who this course is for:
- New and experienced people leaders who want to handle difficult conversations with confidence.
- HR professionals looking to strengthen employee relations and leadership coaching skills.
- HR teams of one responsible for employee relations, conflict resolution, and manager support.
- Supervisors, managers, and directors responsible for accountability, feedback, and team performance.
- Anyone who wants to become a stronger communicator and more effective leader in the workplace.