The Complete Guide to Difficult Conversations in the Workplace

This is the complete guide to difficult conversations in the workplace — how to prepare for them, how to start them, and what to do when they go wrong. Written by Nicola Richardson, Founder of The People Mentor. The People Mentor helps small employers, managers and leaders handle difficult conversations, strengthen accountability and lead with … Read more

How to Manage Someone Who Acts Superior at Work

Written by Nicola Richardson, Founder of The People Mentor. The People Mentor helps small employers, managers and leaders handle difficult conversations, strengthen accountability and lead with calm, practical confidence. This article explores what acting superior at work actually looks like, why managers avoid addressing it, and how to have a direct, professional conversation that changes … Read more

Why Managing an Underperformer is Exhausting (and What Helps)

Written by Nicola Richardson, The People Mentor. After more than three decades leading teams, Nicola founded The People Mentor to help employers tackle the conversations most managers spend years trying to avoid. Her COMPASS Conversation Model provides leaders with a practical structure that works. This article looks at why underperformance takes such a toll on … Read more

Feeling Undermined at Work? Here’s Exactly What to Do

Written by Nicola Richardson, Founder of The People Mentor.Nicola has spent over 40 years working with leaders and managers on the conversations that feel too hard to have, including this one. This article explores what feeling undermined at work looks like, why it happens, and what managers, employees and small business leaders can do to … Read more

Your Middle Manager Might Be Neurodivergent. And Not Know It.

Nicola Richardson difficult conversations coach UK

Written by Nicola Richardson, Founder of The People Mentor. The People Mentor helps small employers, managers and leaders handle difficult conversations, strengthen accountability and lead with calm, practical confidence. I want to tell you about a registered manager I worked with a while back. She was brilliant. Genuinely brilliant. Her residents loved her. Her staff … Read more