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Leadership prompts

Feedback, 1:1s, team decisions, the conversation you're avoiding.

• work Summarise the Invisible Rules of a Professional Environment You Are New To

  Understand the invisible rules of a professional environment you are new to before you accidentally violate them.

• work Translate a Difficult Feedback Conversation You Need to Have Into a Script

  Get a structured script for a feedback conversation you have been avoiding, including how to open, deliver, and close it.

• work Summarise What You Have Learned From Managing a Difficult Person

  Convert a draining experience managing a difficult person into the professional capabilities it actually developed.

• work Reconstruct the Strategic Logic Behind a Board-Level Risk Presentation

  Turn an operational risk register into a board presentation that drives a real decision.

• work Translate a Corporate Strategy Document Into What It Actually Means for Your Team

  Translate a corporate strategy document into what it actually means for your team, including what it leaves ambiguous.

• work Write a Performance Feedback Comment That Is Honest and Useful

  Write performance feedback that is specific and honest, including the part you find hard to say.

• work Run a Pre-Mortem on a Project Before It Goes Wrong

  Imagine your project has already failed and work backward to stop it happening.

• work Audit a Software Architecture Decision Record for Hidden Assumptions

  Pull the assumptions out of an Architecture Decision Record before they become production bugs.

• work Write a Concise Self-Assessment for a Performance Review

  Get a structured self-assessment that your manager can actually use and quote upward.

• work Summarise the Risks in a Plan You Are About to Execute

  Get a risk summary for a plan you are about to execute, including the pre-mortem question and one adjustment to make now.

• work Explain the Difference Between a Strategy and a Plan

  Learn the actual difference between a strategy and a plan before the next meeting where someone calls a plan a strategy.

• work Assess the Systemic Causes of a Recurring Workplace Problem

  Find the systemic cause of a recurring workplace problem rather than fixing the same symptom repeatedly.

• work Translate a Performance Improvement Plan Into Specific Daily Actions

  Turn a performance improvement plan into a weekly action rhythm you can actually follow.

• work Translate a Vague Manager Request Into a Clear Brief

  Turn a vague request into a brief you can act on and a message that asks the right questions without seeming lost.

• work Decide Whether to Address a Colleague's Behaviour or Let It Go

  Run four questions to decide whether a colleague's behaviour is worth addressing before the decision becomes permanent.

• work Set Expectations on a New Project Before Work Begins

  Set the five expectations at the start of a project that prevent the most common misalignments later.

• work Compare Remote and In-Person Communication Styles for a Distributed Team

  Find the communication gap in your distributed team and the one change that addresses it without requiring mode alignment.

• work Reframe a Poor Performance Review Without Ignoring the Signal

  Extract the useful signal from a poor performance review without collapsing into it or dismissing it.

• work Run a One-on-One Meeting That Produces Outcomes Not Just Updates

  Restructure one-on-one meetings so they produce decisions and development rather than just updates.

• work Give Feedback That the Other Person Can Actually Use

  Script a feedback conversation using four elements that keep it specific, useful, and non-defensive.

• work How to Manage Upward Without Being Perceived as Political

  Learn to keep your manager appropriately informed without it looking like you are managing perceptions.

• work Explain the Difference Between Delegation and Abdication and How to Avoid the Second

  Understand what effective delegation requires, find what was missing, and design the delegation conversation.

• work Reframe Negative Feedback From a Performance Review

  Extract the valid core from critical performance review feedback and convert it into a development action.

• work Explain How to Give Feedback That Is Heard Rather Than Defended Against

  Learn the structure that makes feedback heard and apply it to a specific situation.

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