THE HOLD THE ROOM TOOLKIT
That conversation is still on your list.
You've rehearsed it on the drive home. You've moved it from Monday to Wednesday to "after the next round of meetings". Maybe you tried once and it didn't land, so now you're carrying the problem and the awkward first attempt.
This toolkit gets you from rehearsing it to having it.
By Brooke Baxter ยท drawn from 20+ years in social work, where reading a room is the job.
Get my toolkitWHAT YOU GET
โ The Hold the Room guide and debrief workbook
โ The Frustration Audit
โ The ALIGN Feedback Script Builder
$47 AUD
Instant download. Read it tonight, have the conversation this week.
You know the one.
It's been sitting there for weeks. You talk about everything else in your 1:1s. You're a little shorter with them than you mean to be. You tell yourself you're waiting for the right moment.
The right moment isn't coming.
"I'll raise it once this project's finished."
"I tried to bring it up and somehow we ended up talking about something else."
"I know exactly what I want to say. I just can't get it out of my mouth."
You're putting it off because you care. That's the problem.
You don't want to hurt them. You don't want to get it wrong. So you wait for the perfect words and the perfect mood. Neither turns up.
Avoiding it isn't kindness. It just moves the hurt to later.
You don't need more courage. You need to walk in prepared: clear on what you want, honest about your part, and with the first two sentences already written.
That's what this toolkit gives you.
What waiting costs.
Every week it sits there, you carry it. On the drive home. In the meeting where you talk about everything except the thing. In how you are with them, even when you think you're hiding it.
They can feel it too, and so can the rest of your team.
Left long enough, a five-minute conversation turns into a performance issue.
Three tools. One conversation handled.
The Hold the Room guide
How to open, hold the thread when it gets tense, respond when it goes sideways, and close so the conversation actually ends. Includes a debrief workbook so the next one gets easier.
The Frustration Audit
Five questions you answer before you say a word. Question four, what's my part in this?, is the one most managers skip, and the one that changes the conversation.
The ALIGN Script Builder
Fill in the blanks. You write the script in your own words, so you walk in knowing exactly how you'll start.
Picture this week.
You've done the audit. You know your part in it. Your first two sentences are written.
You walk in, say it plainly, and stay steady when it gets awkward. Then it's done.
You stop carrying it.
This is for you if
- there's a conversation you've been putting off for weeks
- you tried once and it didn't land
- you care about the person and don't want to wreck the relationship
It's probably not for you if
- you want a script to read word for word without thinking
- you're looking for a way to win the argument
- it's a formal HR or legal matter that needs HR involved now
ABOUT BROOKE
I spent more than 20 years in social work and community services, first as a practitioner and then leading teams of them. Hard conversations were most of the job.
Now I'm a relational leadership consultant and the creator of the Relational Leadership Method. I work with people leaders across community, education and health, walking alongside them through exactly this kind of conversation.
Get the Hold the Room Toolkit
Rather work it through with me? $50 of your toolkit comes off a 90-minute Reset Session.
The conversation won't get easier by waiting. You will, by preparing.
$47 AUD ยท Instant download
Get my toolkit