Practical Leadership, by Ross Mercer
Practical Leadership is a series of four books for new and mid-level managers. Each book takes one problem that management training usually skips and gives you the words and tools for it.
The four books
- Book 1: The Difficult Conversations Script Book
Word-for-word scripts for feedback, conflict, raises, and layoffs.
- Book 2: Leading Your Team Through AI
How to guide, reassure, and reskill your people when AI changes how they work.
- Book 3: The Team That Stays
Keeping trust, belonging, and your best people on teams reshaped by automation.
- Book 4: Clear Decisions in a Fast World
Make sharp, confident calls when AI floods you with more data and options than ever.
Who it is for
People who were promoted because they were good at the work and now lead the people doing it: team leads, first-time managers, and managers of managers in office and knowledge work. Most of them never got training for the hard parts: the feedback nobody wants to give, the AI change nobody prepared for, the good person quietly on their way out, the call that has to be made before you feel ready.
How the books are built
- Scripts, not theory. Where a conversation is the hard part, you get the exact words, what to say when the other person pushes back, and what not to say.
- A toolkit for each book. One-page cards, fill-in worksheets, and checklists as fillable PDF and editable Word files, so you can prepare a conversation or decision in minutes.
- US workplaces. Written in US English for US workplaces. Where a step has legal weight, such as a PIP, a firing, or a layoff, the books tell you to bring in HR or an employment lawyer. They are not legal advice.
- Sources you can check. The free guides (13 so far) list the sources behind every figure they use.
Where to get them
The paperbacks are on Amazon. The e-books and toolkits are sold only on this site, with instant download. Questions about an order go to contact@ross-mercer.com.