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Tough Calls: How Leaders Decide and Announce Them, 80+ Tools
7,733 students
Tough Calls: How Leaders Decide and Announce Them, 80+ Tools
Necessary decision, disappointed people? Decide, announce and follow through, then give feedback that lands
Last updated 10/2026
English
English [Auto],
What you'll learn
- Make a hard decision and keep people's trust: take 80+ question lists, checklists, procedures and templates in 20 downloadable resources
- Set criteria and boundaries for a tough call and assess its impact on people
- Listen, challenge and commit before you decide
- Prepare and announce the decision with a tough call message planner
- Follow through: reactions, support and a reaction tracker
- Resolve conflict with feedback skills for difficult conversations
- Give feedback that supports growth and performance, and remove the barriers in managers' mindsets
- Build a feedback culture and use recognition and positive reinforcement
- Use four working files, including a consultation and decision review and a people impact comparison
- Learn with Mike, the #1 HR instructor on Udemy: 1,800,000+ enrollments, 170,000 students, about 200 books on Amazon
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Course content
11 sections • 17 lectures • 10h 47m total length
Requirements
- Experience leading people, or preparing to
- No HR background required
- English at intermediate level or above, since all lessons are in English
Description
This course contains the use of artificial intelligence.
A decision can be necessary and still disappoint the people who must live with it. Your responsibility starts before the announcement and continues after the conversation. Here are 88 tools for the whole path: 49 ready-to-use question lists, checklists, procedures and templates, 31 models and methods, 4 working files and 4 services shown on screen.
Open a lecture, take the message planner, and prepare your next difficult announcement.
Why good decisions are received badly
Leaders spend weeks on the decision and minutes on the announcement. People hear it without context, reactions are left to spread, and the manager avoids the follow-up conversations. Feedback in daily work is rare, so when a hard message comes, there is no trust to carry it.
What changes after this course
You decide with clear criteria and the people impact in front of you, announce with a plan, follow through on reactions and support, and handle the conversations that follow. Feedback and recognition become regular, so the next tough call lands on a stronger relationship.
What is inside: 88 tools, counted lecture by lecture
You do not have to take this number on trust. Open any lecture and read its description: every tool inside is listed there by name.
- 20 downloadable resources: lecture presentations plus 4 working files: a consultation and decision review, a people impact comparison, a reaction and follow-through tracker and a tough call message planner
- 49 ready-to-use tools inside the presentations:
- 15 question lists and scripts: tough call consultation, opening and loss acknowledgment script, reaction acknowledgment and boundary script, conflict de-escalation self-talk scripts
- 13 checklists: people impact comparison, consultation and decision review, tough call announcement review, reactions and follow-through
- 11 step-by-step procedures: tough call announcement, factual error escalation, interpersonal conflict resolution, difficult meeting management
- 6 templates and sample documents: feedback preparation, COIN feedback, weekly progress report
- 3 other working tools and 1 scorecard: feedback gap interview worksheet, feedback belief reframing tables, feedback stress reduction worksheet
- 31 models and methods explained with examples: Thomas–Kilmann conflict modes, interest-based negotiation, radical candor, situational leadership
- 4 services shown on screen: Bonusly, Slack, PeopleForce and 15Five
Where the tools are
Tough calls (4 sections, 13 tools). Criteria, boundaries, people impact, listening, commitment, the announcement and follow-through.
Difficult conversations (1 section, 35 tools). Conflict resolution and feedback skills.
Feedback (5 sections, 32 tools). Foundations, barriers, daily practice, culture and techniques.
Recognition (1 section, 9 tools). Recognition and positive reinforcement.
Who is teaching
I am Mike, the #1 HR instructor on Udemy, with 1,800,000+ course enrollments from 170,000 students, and the author of about 200 books on Amazon. I built the people system at Preply as it became a unicorn and worked at Wargaming, iDeals and Alfa-Bank across 20 years in HR. I hold PHRi, SHRM-CP and HCI sHRBP certifications and represent HRCI in Eastern Europe.
At Alfa-Bank I ran the outplacement of operations staff when the bank centralised and automated its regional operations and moved the function to a lower-cost location. People across the country had to be found new jobs, and it was my first outplacement project. I had a list of everyone affected, and the work was to make a necessary decision bearable for each of them.
How to use the course
Start with the tough calls sections, then use the feedback and recognition sections in your daily work. Section and lecture titles show how many tools are inside, and each lecture description lists them by name.
What is included
- 17 lectures across 11 sections, 11 hours
- 20 downloadable resources: lecture presentations and 4 working files
- 88 tools across the lessons, including 4 services shown on screen
- A 10-question practice test, a quiz and a role play
- Lifetime access to all materials
- Active instructor support in the Q&A section
- A Udemy Certificate of Completion
Where to start
Write down the next difficult decision you have to announce and who it affects most, then open the first lecture. Enrol now and start your first lesson today.
Who this course is for:
- Managers who must announce unpopular decisions
- Team leads handling difficult conversations
- HR business partners supporting leaders
- Executives going through restructuring
- New managers learning to give feedback