Better business decisions. Backed by research.

How do I give tough feedback to a high performer?

Trained on the works that shaped modern leadership.

15K+ Ivy League case studies. 20K+ academic business articles. 5K+ business bestsellers. Cited answers. Practice conversations. Zero hallucinations.

Good to Great by Jim CollinsZero to One by Peter ThielThe Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben HorowitzThinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel KahnemanThe Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton ChristensenLeaders Eat Last by Simon SinekMeasure What Matters by John DoerrHigh Output Management by Andy GroveThe Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick LencioniThe Lean Startup by Eric RiesGood to Great by Jim CollinsZero to One by Peter ThielThe Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben HorowitzThinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel KahnemanThe Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton ChristensenLeaders Eat Last by Simon SinekMeasure What Matters by John DoerrHigh Output Management by Andy GroveThe Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick LencioniThe Lean Startup by Eric Ries

Harvard Business School Case Studies

Google’s Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter?

D. Garvin, A. Wagonfeld

OpenAI: Idealism Meets Capitalism

S. Ghosh, S. Bagai

Elon Musk’s Big Bets

D. Yoffie, E. Baldwin

Barbie: Reviving a Cultural Icon at Mattel

E. Ofek, R. Noe, S. Mehta

The Turnaround at Ford Motor Company

A. Edmondson, O. Jung

Copilot(s): Generative AI at Microsoft and GitHub

F. Nagle, S. Greenstein

How it works

1

Describe your situation

You have a hard conversation tomorrow. A reorg just landed. A hire isn’t working out. Type what’s happening — PathMBA meets you where you are.

I'm promoting my best IC to manager next month. She's never managed before and I'm worried about the transition. How do I set her up to succeed?
Searching 40K+ sources…
Common new-manager mistakesFirst 90 days frameworkCoaching vs. directing
Verified Sources (6)
1
Be Generous at WorkJodi Glickman (Article)
2
The Behaviors that Define A-PlayersJack Zenger, Joseph Folkman (Article)
3
Management Mess to Leadership SuccessScott Jeffrey Miller (Book)
4
The Importance of Giving CreditSachin H. Jain (Article)
5
Simple Ways to Make Your Team Feel ValuedKate Lee (Article)
6
How to Articulate Your Contributions as a Senior LeaderMelody Wilding (Article)
2

Get advice you can trace

Every recommendation links to a specific book, article, or case study. Not summaries of summaries — the actual source you can read.

3

Rehearse before the real thing

Practice the conversation with an AI that stays in character — defensive, emotional, resistant. Then get a coaching debrief with SBI analysis.

Practicing with Jordan

Senior Engineer · 3 turns

End Session
Jordan, I want to talk about the last two sprints. The missed commitments are becoming a pattern.

Jordan (Senior Engineer)

A pattern? I led the entire platform migration last year. One rough quarter doesn't erase that.
I'm not questioning your track record. I'm talking about the production outage on March 12th and the two sprint commitments this quarter.

Jordan (Senior Engineer)

The outage wasn't entirely my fault — QA missed it too. But… okay. What do you need from me?

New Manager Transition

3 phases · 9 steps · 4 completed

44%

Phase 1: First 30 Days

Schedule 1:1s with every direct report
Identify the team's top 3 pain points
Document your leadership principles

Write 3–5 core values that guide your decisions [1]

Share them with your team in week 2 [3]

Revisit after 90 days to test alignment [1]

Phase 2: Build Foundations

Establish meeting cadences
Set 90-day team objectives
Define escalation paths and decision rights

Phase 3: Accelerate

Run first team retrospective
Present strategy to leadership
4

Walk out with a plan

Turn any conversation into a step-by-step playbook. Phases, checkpoints, sub-steps — ready to print and follow through.

Scripts. Frameworks. Decision matrices.

Not a chatbot that rephrases your question back to you. A thinking partner that gives you the actual words to say, the model to apply, and the scorecard to track.

Conversation Scripts

YOU

“I want to talk about the last two sprints. Specifically, the missed deadline on the API migration and the production outage on March 12.”

IF THEY PUSH BACK

“I hear you — your migration work was strong. I'm not questioning your ability. I'm flagging a pattern so we can fix it together.”

CLOSE

“What does success look like for the next sprint? Let's define it now so we're aligned.”

Decision Analysis

PLUS

Promotes high performer

Retains key talent

Builds leadership bench

MINUS

Lose top IC output

No mgmt experience

Team dynamic shifts

INTERESTING

Could co-lead for 90 days

Mentorship pairing option

Trial period possible

Reflection Prompts

1

Am I giving feedback to help them, or to vent my frustration?

2

What would I want to hear if I were in their position?

3

Have I given them enough context to actually improve?

4

Am I avoiding this conversation because it's hard, or because it's wrong?

Deep Research

Research on new-manager transitions consistently shows the first 90 days are decisive. [1] Watkins argues that new leaders must “secure early wins” while building coalitions, [2] but Goleman's work suggests emotional intelligence matters more than quick results. [3]

A meta-analysis of 483 leadership transitions found that managers who prioritized relationship-building over task execution in month one had 2.4x higher retention at 12 months. [4]

[1][2][3][4]4 sources cited

The complete toolkit.

Verified Sources

Every claim backed by numbered citations you can click to read the original

Practice Mode

Rehearse difficult conversations with AI characters that push back like real people

Playbooks

Step-by-step action plans generated from any coaching conversation

Memory

Remembers your role, team, and ongoing situations across sessions

Rich Frameworks

Decision matrices, scripts, scorecards, and reflection prompts built into responses

Coaching Debriefs

SBI-structured feedback with radical candor after every practice session

The business leader you want to be is one conversation away.

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