Difficult Conversations & Managing Challenging Behaviours

Difficult Conversations & Managing Challenging Behaviours
Short Course · Virtual Workshop

Difficult Conversations & Managing Challenging Behaviours

A practical, two-part virtual workshop that gives your people the frameworks, language and confidence to navigate difficult conversations, manage challenging behaviours and stay composed when emotions run high.

Enquire about this course
2 × 90-minute sessions Practical conversation frameworks Real-world scenario practice Resources to keep
The Workshop Brief

Confidence for the conversations most teams avoid

To equip your people with practical tools and the confidence to manage difficult conversations, challenging behaviours and emotionally charged interactions — with professionalism and care.

Built to address

The pressures your teams feel today

  • Increased workload pressures
  • Difficult customer and stakeholder interactions
  • Managing complaints
  • Escalated emotions
  • Challenging employee behaviours
  • Psychosocial risks
  • Increased leadership responsibility during change and vacancies
The outcomes

What participants walk away with

  • Greater confidence approaching difficult conversations
  • Practical conversation frameworks they can use immediately
  • The ability to respond calmly under pressure
  • Tools to manage emotions and conflict effectively
  • Fewer escalations
  • Better outcomes with staff, customers and stakeholders
What We'll Cover

Two focused sessions, 90 minutes each

A clear arc — first the fundamentals of any hard conversation, then the skills to manage behaviour when emotions are running high.

SESSION 01 90 minutes

Difficult Conversation Fundamentals

Why conversations become difficult
TriggersAssumptionsEmotional responses
The Courageous Conversation framework
A simple model participants can put to use immediately.
Acknowledge before you solve
ListeningValidationEmpathyPsychological safety
Practical scenarios
ComplaintsFrustrated staffDifficult customersAccountability conversations
SESSION 02 90 minutes

Managing Challenging Behaviours

Understanding behaviour under pressure
AggressionDefensivenessAvoidanceEscalation
Staying calm under pressure
Practical de-escalation techniques.
Responding without reacting
Tools for maintaining professionalism in the moment.
Scenario-based practice
Role plays using real scenarios supplied by your team.
Difficult customer interactionsResistant staffPerformance concernsEmotionally charged conversations
The Training Experience

Tailor the workshop to your team

Below are a selection of modules we can draw from. Choosing the right mix ensures a comprehensive and engaging workshop experience that delivers real outcomes.

Courageous Conversations

  • The importance of having courageous conversations
  • Planning for courageous conversations
  • Implementing actions and follow-up to build trust
Objective: Conflict is inevitable, but managed well it can lead to growth. We cover best practice for courageous conversations and how to break avoidance or aggressive behaviour patterns.

Tactical Empathy

  • Cultivating emotional intelligence for stronger relationships
  • Practising mirroring and pivoting to enhance communication
  • Applying effective techniques in conversations and presentations
  • Adopting a dynamic approach to adapt to changing situations
  • Strengthening team collaboration and synergy
Objective: Develop emotional intelligence so participants can deepen connections and adapt in any environment — through mirroring, pivoting and advanced conversational techniques.

Emotional Intelligence

  • Leading with curiosity and empathy
  • Building resilience for effective leadership
  • Developing greater self-awareness
  • Strengthening team collaboration and synergy
Objective: Equip participants with tools to enhance emotional intelligence (EQ) and adaptability intelligence (AQ) — building resilience and self-awareness, reducing stress, and navigating change effectively.

Psychological Safety

  • The foundation for high-performing teams and innovation
  • Encouraging open communication and continuous learning
  • Addressing common misconceptions about psychological safety
  • Strategies for a culture of trust, inclusion and accountability
Objective: Give participants the tools to foster psychological safety within their teams — enabling open communication, collaboration and innovation while maintaining accountability and high performance.
Your Training Facilitators

Decades of experience, in one expert team

In a rapidly evolving world, continuous learning and development is essential. At Elevate, the focus is simple — clarity becomes behaviour, and behaviour becomes results.

DN
Daniel Norich
Director

As the Director and driving force behind Elevate, Daniel has spent over 15 years earning a reputation as one of the most trusted voices in sales, leadership and organisational performance. He works directly with CEOs, founders and executive teams, turning vision into clear priorities and priorities into behaviours that move a business forward.

Known as a “corporate counsellor” by those who have worked with him, he surfaces friction early, builds trust fast, and holds space for the honest conversations most organisations avoid.

Daniel helps organisations build the clarity, culture and capability needed to perform at their highest level.
VJ
Vicky Jones
Training Manager

After a 15-year media career across London and Sydney, Vicky made a deliberate shift — trading broadcast for real human impact. Armed with a BSc in Biology and a deep fascination with neuroscience and human behaviour, she brings a science-backed, deeply personal approach to leadership and performance development.

Over the past decade she has worked with thousands of leaders and teams across the private and public sectors, with an extraordinary ability to make people feel seen, challenged and capable.

Vicky helps organisations design and deliver learning experiences that stick — focused on leadership, performance and lasting behavioural change.
JB
Joe Bailey
Chief Intelligence Officer

Joe brings a rare ability to make the complex feel simple and the simple feel exciting. Whether breaking down AI capability or unpacking human behaviour, he blends sharp strategic frameworks with genuine empathy and a healthy dose of humour, creating sessions where people are truly engaged and challenged to think differently.

Driven by an unshakeable belief in human potential, Joe helps individuals and organisations do more than adapt to change — he empowers people to perform at a level they did not think possible.

Joe helps organisations build lasting intelligence capability, leading AI and human-centred intelligence training.
CZ
Corey Zielinski
Lead Facilitator & Business Development Manager

Corey genuinely connects with the people in front of him. Drawing on a background in psychology and years as an AFL player development coach, he understands what truly drives performance from the inside out — and that blend of academic grounding and real-world experience makes his facilitation feel different from the very first moment.

As a leadership and sales facilitator, he connects quickly, earns trust fast, and has a natural ability to channel what is already within people into focus, confidence and consistent action.

Corey helps organisations build high-performing, human-centred teams through facilitation grounded in real experience, real connection and real results.
What's Included

Everything your team needs to put it into practice

Difficult Conversations & Managing Challenging Behaviours Workshop

2 × 90-minute virtual workshops designed to build confidence and capability in navigating difficult conversations and managing challenging behaviours — through practical frameworks, real-world scenarios and strategies you can apply immediately back in your team.

Targeted Pre-Workshop Survey

A targeted survey that surfaces the real communication challenges and team dynamics at play, ensuring the program is designed around what your people actually experience day to day.

Scenario-Based Role Play Activities

Hands-on practice using realistic workplace scenarios, giving participants a safe space to build confidence, test different approaches and develop their own style for navigating difficult conversations.

Participant Resources

  • Participant workbook
  • Difficult Conversations cheat sheet
  • Practical conversation framework
  • Digital resources following training
Ready when you are

Give your team the tools to handle the hard ones well

Let's tailor this workshop to the conversations and behaviours your people face most.

Enquire about this course