Feedback & Performance
How to give feedback to an underperformer without crushing them
The four-part structure that keeps the message clear and the relationship intact.
Read the post →Practical, no-fluff leadership training built from real workplace moments — the feedback you're dreading, the delegation that isn't working, the conversation you keep avoiding. Watch, download the blueprint, and know exactly what to do next.
You rehearse it in the shower, then soften it so much the message never lands. There's a script for this.
It feels faster to do it yourself — until it isn't. Learn what to hand off first and how to let go.
The underperformer. The attitude. The raise you can't give. Avoiding it is costing you more than having it.
Leadership is a language — and a language can be learned. But your team doesn’t just hear it; they live it. They experience your leadership in everything you say and do: the feedback you give, the work you hand off, the standard you hold, the way you show up when it’s hard and when it’s routine — and whether your actions consistently back up your words. Not your good intentions, your title, or how much you care. So instead of changing how you think and hoping your behavior follows, we start at the other end — the right words and the right moves for the real situations you’ll face, across everything a manager handles — and the confidence, and the leader, grow from there, one consistent action at a time.
Read the real situation in front of you — a hard conversation, a handoff that isn’t landing, a pattern forming on the team — and get clear on the outcome you actually need before you react.
Choose the right words for it. Not a vague intention — the specific, tested thing to say, with a spine and a heart, so the moment lands the way you meant it.
Then back your words with action, and keep backing them. Follow through in the hard moments and the routine ones alike — that consistency, far more than any single conversation, is what turns a manager into a leader.
It’s the whole reason The Working Leader exists: to close the gap between getting promoted and knowing how to lead — one real situation, and the right words, at a time.
Tell me what you’re actually facing at work — the conversation you’re dreading, the person you can’t reach, the call you’re not sure about. I read every one.
Most leadership content is a random pile of tips. The Working Leader is a structured syllabus that follows a manager's real journey — mapped season by season, from your first day in charge to the long arc of a leadership career. Season 1 is live now; here's the full twenty-season arc.
Your first months in charge: earning authority you weren't given, managing former peers, and shedding the individual-contributor reflex.
See the 10 episodes →Giving feedback that lands, running reviews people actually value, and turning around an underperformer before it's too late.
Stop doing it all yourself: what to hand off first, how to trust your team, and escaping the micromanaging trap.
The talk you're avoiding, conflict between two team members, handling pushback, and staying calm when emotions run high.
Earning trust in the small moments, building psychological safety, and creating a culture people don't want to leave.
Coaching instead of fixing: growing people beyond their role, spotting potential early, and mentoring without micromanaging.
Why you're always behind, protecting your time, managing energy over hours, and leading in a way that actually lasts.
Being understood, reading the room before you speak, listening so people feel heard, and communicating change without panic.
Leading people you rarely see: building trust at a distance, fixing remote meetings, and keeping a hybrid team connected.
Thinking beyond your own team: managing other managers, influence without authority, and building a reputation that opens doors.
Treating hiring as your highest-leverage work: interview questions that predict performance, spotting red flags, and onboarding that sticks.
The conversations no one trains you for: letting people go with dignity, PIPs that actually work, and handling the team afterward.
Four generations, one team: bridging communication gaps, managing employees older than you, and turning friction into strength.
Leading when the tools change fast: setting AI boundaries, protecting your team's judgment, and doubling down on what AI can't replace.
Making accountability normal, not punitive: clear expectations, real follow-through, and conversations that change behavior.
Handling the person who poisons the team, passive-aggression, being undermined publicly, and rebuilding after toxicity.
Announcing change without panic, handling resistance and change fatigue, and coming out the other side stronger.
Managing up without kissing up, earning your boss's support, presenting to executives, and influencing your peers.
Spotting flight risk early, what really makes people stay, stay interviews, and building a team people don't want to leave.
What a decade of leading teaches you: evolving your style, mentoring the next generation, and the legacy you leave behind.
Each blueprint distills one episode into a practical, printable plan — the checklist, the scripts, the exact next step. The first three are free — enter your email and we'll send them to your inbox. The paid packs go deeper.
Exactly what to do in your first three months so you earn trust instead of losing it. Yours free the moment you join the newsletter.
Word-for-word openers for the talks that keep you up at night — no more freezing in the moment.
A repeatable agenda that turns status updates into real coaching in 25 minutes.
The decision matrix, hand-off template, and check-in cadence to get out of the weeds for good.
Prep sheets, scripts, and follow-up templates for reviews, PIPs, and raising the bar.
Every blueprint across all eight pillars, plus new ones as each season drops. One price, yours forever.
A blueprint is the plan. A challenge sheet is the reps. Each one gives you a single, specific thing to try over seven days — with a tracker so the new habit actually sticks.
Get weekly challenges in your inboxThe full lineup of Working Leader audiobooks is on the way — the complete lessons behind every pillar of the curriculum. You're the Boss Now is free, as a PDF or as audio. Every other title is $14.99 and comes in both formats, one purchase.
Your first year in charge — earning authority you weren’t handed, setting expectations, and not becoming the boss you hated.
Leading the people who used to be your peers — resetting the relationship without torching it.
Feedback that lands, 1:1s that matter, and reviews that build momentum instead of dread.
Conflict, disappointment, and the talks you keep avoiding — said with a spine and a heart.
Diagnosing what’s really going on, the turnaround conversation, and knowing when to let go.
What to hand off first, how to stop being the bottleneck, and building a team that runs without you.
Beating “it’s faster if I do it myself” and shedding the individual-contributor reflex.
Building trust that survives pressure — the small, repeatable moves that actually shape a team.
Coaching instead of fixing, hiring right, and growing the next generation of leaders.
Steering through uncertainty, reorgs, and hard news — staying steady when everyone’s watching.
When you’re ready for structured, step-by-step training, these courses take you from your very first 90 days all the way to leading other leaders. All coming soon.
For the newly promoted: a clear plan, a confident voice, and a team that trusts you — through your first 90 days.
Scripts, frameworks, and live practice for feedback, underperformance, conflict, and letting people go.
A repeatable system for handing off the right work to the right people — so you stop being the bottleneck.
A weekly rhythm of feedback and 1:1s that drives real performance — no more annual-review ambush.
Lead beyond your own desk: through change, across a culture, and into developing other leaders.
Coming soon. Be first in line for early-bird pricing when the courses open. Join the list →
The books that actually shaped how I lead — each with a free 10-minute summary you can watch or listen to, plus a link to grab the book if you want the whole thing.
The best first read for anyone who just got the title — what the job actually is, from day one.
Care personally, challenge directly — the framework for feedback that finally lands.
The transition playbook for your first three months in charge — start strong, avoid the traps.
How to talk when the stakes are high and emotions are running hot.
Stay calm and in control with the manipulators, complainers, and energy-drainers on your team — practical tactics you can use in the moment.
Courage, trust, and leading with your whole self — the human side of the job.
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Join The Working Leader Weekly — one real management situation, and the words to handle it, in your inbox every Monday. Enter your email below and we'll send you the three free blueprints — the checklist, the scripts, and the 1:1 agenda — then one issue each Monday.
Every episode has a written companion — searchable, skimmable, and easy to send to your team. Here's what's new.
The four-part structure that keeps the message clear and the relationship intact.
Read the post →A day-by-day plan for the week that sets the tone for everything after it.
Read the post →Delegation isn't a time problem. It's a trust problem. Here's how to solve it.
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