Coach a manager before they have a difficult conversation with an employee
Gives an HR partner a coaching plan and checklist to prepare a manager for a tough employee conversation without creating legal risk.
The prompt
Help me coach a manager I support before they have a difficult conversation with someone on their team.
The manager: [experience level, how they tend to handle conflict]
The employee and situation: [role, tenure, what happened - facts, dates]
Goal of the conversation: [e.g. address behavior, deliver tough feedback, discuss attendance, set expectations]
What's already documented: [prior conversations, warnings, emails]
Sensitivities: [e.g. recent leave, complaint raised by the employee, health issue mentioned, protected characteristic]
Give me:
1. Risk check - anything in the situation that suggests possible retaliation, discrimination, or leave/accommodation issues, and whether HR should be in the room. Mark [CONFIRM WITH LEGAL] where relevant.
2. Coaching questions I can ask the manager to sharpen their thinking (e.g. "What specifically did you observe?").
3. Conversation outline for the manager - opening line, the facts, the impact, the expectation, listening prompts, close and next steps.
4. Phrases to avoid and better alternatives (vague labels, assumptions about motive, comments on personal life or health).
5. If it goes sideways - how to respond to tears, anger, or "I'm going to file a complaint."
6. After the conversation - what the manager should write down within 24 hours.
Keep it practical; the manager should be able to read it in five minutes.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore HR & Hiring prompts
What to fill in
- experience level, how they tend to handle conflict
- role, tenure, what happened - facts, dates
- prior conversations, warnings, emails
- CONFIRM WITH LEGAL
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the Few-Shot structure (Few-shot prompting). A few-shot prompt includes one or more worked examples of the input and the output you want, so the model can copy the pattern instead of guessing it.
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