Scenarios, skills, and a cadence for feedback, reviews, and the conversations managers avoid
Managers use Exec to practice the conversations no one ever trained them for: giving hard feedback, running performance reviews, and telling someone no. Managers talk to an AI report who gets defensive the way people actually do, and every session ends with a scorecard that grades clarity, listening, and follow-through.This guide covers what to build first, which skills to track, and when to schedule practice so it happens before the conversation it rehearses.
When you created your workspace, Exec read your company website and drafted roleplay ideas that fit your business. If you said you were training managers and leaders, those ideas already lean toward feedback and coaching conversations. Pick the one closest to a conversation your managers actually dread, answer a couple of quick questions, and Scenario Studio builds it in about two minutes.Run it yourself before showing anyone. Talk out loud as if the report were sitting across from you, end the session with the green End button, and read the scorecard. If the character feels off for your culture, edit the scenario and tell the agent what to change in one sentence.New to running sessions? Start with Complete Your First Roleplay.
Here are the builds leadership teams get the most out of. Copy a prompt, fill in the bracketed fields, and paste it into the Scenario Studio chat. The full collection lives in the Prompt Library.
When to use: Managers soften feedback until the message disappears.
I am a [JOB TITLE] at [COMPANY], and I want to build a scenario where I am giving difficult feedback to a direct report, a [REPORT ROLE], about [BEHAVIOR OR PERFORMANCE ISSUE].My goal is to deliver the feedback clearly and agree on a specific change.For me to succeed, I must state the issue with a concrete example in the first two minutes, listen without retracting the message, and end with a written-down commitment and a follow-up date.This conversation is challenging because the report gets defensive, brings up a peer who does the same thing, and questions whether the feedback is fair.
When to use: Reviews turn into negotiations or surprise the employee.
I am a [JOB TITLE] at [COMPANY], and I want to build a performance review scenario with a direct report, a [REPORT ROLE], whose rating this cycle is [RATING] and who expected better.My goal is to deliver the rating with evidence and leave the report clear on what changes it next cycle.For me to succeed, I must give the rating early instead of building up to it, support it with specific examples from the period, and turn the conversation toward a concrete development plan.This conversation is challenging because the report disagrees with the rating, cites their strongest project, and asks whether this affects their compensation.
When to use: Managers dodge money conversations or make promises they cannot keep.
I am a [JOB TITLE] at [COMPANY], and I want to build a scenario where a strong performer, a [REPORT ROLE], asks for a raise that I cannot approve this cycle.My goal is to say no clearly while keeping the person motivated and retained.For me to succeed, I must give the answer directly without blaming an invisible process, explain what would change the answer, and agree on a path with dates.This conversation is challenging because the report mentions an outside offer and asks me point blank whether they should take it.
Schedule practice before the conversation, not after. The highest-value week to run the difficult feedback scenario is the one before review cycles open. HR teams tell us reviews go noticeably better when every manager has hit Gold on the practice version first.
Every scenario grades managers against evaluation criteria you control. For leadership training, the criteria that decide whether feedback lands are:
Message clarity. The report can repeat back the feedback in one sentence.
Leading with the point. The hard part arrives in the first two minutes, not the last two.
Listening under pressure. Acknowledging pushback without retracting the message.
Commitment capture. Every conversation ends with a specific agreed action and a date.
Managers see how they scored on each criterion after every session, with lines they actually said and stronger phrasing they could have used. See Interpret Your Results for how to read a scorecard, and Skills for tracking these across your leadership group.
Manager training works best when you tie it to the moments the conversations actually happen:
Before review cycles.Assign the difficult feedback and performance review scenarios to every people manager, minimum score Gold, due before reviews open.
Quarterly. One scenario per quarter on the current leadership theme, such as delegation, comp conversations, or restructuring news.
For new managers. The three-week program below, assigned in their first month.
