Cancel Preloader

What You'll Learn

Run the performance cycle so a problem is visible months before it becomes a case,Give difficult feedback in the moment instead of saving it for a review,Tell a skill gap from a will gap from a system gap
and treat each differently,Build a performance improvement plan that improves performance rather than documents a decision,Write measurable goals for it
and run the three conversations it requires,De-escalate a conflict
and mediate one you are not part of,Run an exit interview that produces usable data rather than politeness,Turn exit data into a turnover action plan you can defend to leadership,Learn alongside Mikes 1.6 million students from 185 countries,Get the authors experience from Preply
Wargaming
iDeals and Alfa-Bank

Requirements

Responsibility for people whose performance or conduct you have to address,No legal or HR background required. Everything starts from the situation,Access to whatever performance process your company already runs
however weak,English at intermediate level or above
since all lessons are in English,Willingness to have the conversation you have been postponing

Description

This course contains the use of artificial intelligence.

Almost every employee relations case was avoidable six months earlier. By the time it has a name, the cheap options are gone.

How a situation becomes a case

Someone's work slips. The manager notices and says nothing, because the conversation is unpleasant and the quarter is busy. Three months later the slip is a pattern, the team has noticed, and now the conversation is not a correction but an accusation. Then comes an improvement plan written by someone who has already decided the outcome, and a resignation whose real reason nobody ever learns. I have been the manager who waited, and the delay was never about the other person.

What this course actually covers

Six blocks arranged as an escalation ladder. First, the system everything happens inside: the performance agreement, evidence, assessment of results and competencies, the review and the decisions that follow it. Second, the everyday conversation — why managers avoid feedback, the four specific things that block it, and a six-step model for saying it in the moment. Third, motivation: the twelve engagement factors, and why incentives stopped working. Fourth, the rung where things break between people — how conflict escalates, how to prevent the predictable ones, and how to mediate. Fifth, the rung where performance breaks: telling a skill gap from a will gap from a system gap, building an improvement plan that actually improves performance, and running the three conversations it requires. Sixth, the rung where it ends: an exit interview with thirty-eight structured questions, and what to do with the answers.

A note on the last two blocks

They come from two playbooks rather than lecture courses, which means they arrive with documents: a readiness checklist, an improvement plan template, conversation scripts with actual wording, a goals library, a thirty-eight question exit questionnaire, analytics dashboards and responsibility matrices. If you are building the process rather than handling a single case, that is the part you will use most.

Who is teaching this

I am Mike. I built the people system at Preply as it became a unicorn, and I have worked at Wargaming, iDeals and Alfa-Bank. More than 1.6 million students have enrolled in my courses across 185 countries, and over 150,000 specialists have gone through my programmes. I hold PHRi and SHRM-CP certifications and represent HRCI in more than ten countries.

What is included

Lifetime access to all 32 lessons
Active instructor support in the Q&A section
A Udemy Certificate of Completion
Working material: the six-step feedback model, the conflict resolution algorithm, the improvement plan template and scripts, the goals library, the exit questionnaire and analytics dashboard
Real cases from Google, Netflix and HubSpot

Where to start

Think of the person whose performance or behaviour you have been meaning to address. Write down the date you first noticed. That number, not the conversation itself, is the thing this course is trying to reduce. Enrol now and start today.

Who this course is for:

Managers with one person whose performance they have not addressed for months,Team leads facing a conflict they did not cause and cannot ignore,Leaders about to run their first improvement plan and unsure what belongs in it,People and operations specialists building the process rather than handling one case,Managers who inherited a team with an unresolved situation in it,Anyone who has watched a good employee leave and never found out why,Specialists preparing for a role where these conversations are the job