SalliAnne Maliguine Get the free guide →

Promoted Without Training?

Stop figuring it out alone. Practical tools for your first difficult conversations at work.

I'm SalliAnne Maliguine. For more than 25 years, I've led teams and coached leaders through the conversations no one teaches you how to have.

0

hours of formal training most new managers get before their first hard conversation.

Start With a Free Guide

 No cost · The exact words for hard conversations.

SalliAnne Maliguine, leadership coach
25+years leading & coaching
500+leaders coached
1promise: you'll never walk into a hard conversation empty-handed.
“I stopped dreading my 1:1s. SalliAnne gave me the actual sentences.”
Kate B., Pension System Director 

Your coach

Three decades in real leadership roles — not abstract theory.

SalliAnne has spent 25+ years leading teams and coaching managers and executives through high-stakes, human moments — the raises and the redundancies, the missed deadlines, the conversations that keep good people up at night.

She hands you the exact words before she asks for anything back.

Start here — free

What to Say When You Don't Know What to Say — a full playbook for the conversations leadership doesn't prepare you for: hard feedback, missed deadlines, burnout, defensiveness, saying no, leading former peers, and more. Five are previewed below — the guide covers well over a dozen.

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What's inside the guide.

A preview of what's inside. For each moment: the phrase that makes it worse — and the phrase that opens the door. The full guide walks through well over a dozen of these, not just the five below.

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seconds to access the full guide.

Performance slipped

Don't say

“You've really dropped the ball lately.”

Say this instead

“I've noticed a change in your work — what's going on?”

Missed due dates

Don't say

“This is late again.”

Say this instead

“The due date moved past us — let's figure out what blocked it.”

Someone's struggling

Don't say

“You seem off, everything okay?”

Say this instead

“I want to check in — no agenda. How are you really doing?”

Saying no

Don't say

“I guess I can try to fit it in.”

Say this instead

“I can't take this on without dropping X — which matters more?”

Handling defensiveness

Don't say

“Don't get defensive.”

Say this instead

“I can tell this landed hard — help me understand your side.”

The full guide gives you language for the conversations that come with leading people.

Because leadership isn't about having all the answers. It's about knowing how to begin the conversation.

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Ready for more?

Wherever you are in your leadership journey, there's a next step.

Start free. Go deeper when you're ready.

Free · 30 min

A Conversation With SalliAnne

A focused first conversation — no pitch. We name what's present and what support could help you move forward.

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$99 · 15 days

The Leadership Jumpstart

Fifteen business days of real leadership practice.

Learn what to say, how to think, and how to lead with confidence—one conversation at a time.

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Path 1 — the free guide

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