Quick Scripts for Difficult Conversations
17mIntermediate2025-03-06
Authors

Alisa Cohn
Executive Coach and Leadership Development Expert
Course details
Professionals often want to have the hard conversations, but they may stumble over the actual words they should use. In this course, executive coach and leadership development expert Alisa Cohn presents scripts that you can use in the most common, most delicate, and most difficult workplace scenarios. Practice how to terminate someone, as well as the conversation to have before you terminate someone. Learn how to lay someone off with compassion. Explore scripts for positive feedback and for direct, diplomatic, difficult feedback. Rehearse ways to hold someone accountable without making them feel bad, then dive into scripts such as telling someone you’re putting a new leader over them, handling it when an employee gets defensive or starts to cry, and telling someone they didn’t get the promotion without demotivating them. Go into delicate conversations well-prepared to say exactly what you need to say, in the best ways possible.
Skills covered
CommunicationLeadership SkillsWell-Being and Self-CareProfessional DevelopmentLeadership and ManagementOne-Off
Concepts
0. Introduction
- 01 - Scripts to make hard conversations easier
1. Scripts for Parting Ways
- 02 - Script to terminate someone
- 03 - Script of the conversation before you terminate someone
- 04 - Script to lay someone off with compassion
2. Scripts to Give Feedback
- 05 - Script for positive feedback
- 06 - Script for direct, diplomatic, difficult feedback
- 07 - Script to hold someone accountable
3. Scripts for Delicate Conversations
- 08 - Script to tell someone they'll have a new boss
- 09 - Script for when an employee cries or gets defensive
- 10 - Script for when someone didn't get the promotion