Practice the candid conversation on Claude before you have it for real, spoken, like the real thing. Claude asks a few quick questions, then plays the rep and pushes back while you find the words.
Voice mode is free for everyone in the Claude mobile app (and on web or desktop where available), it is not tied to a specific model like Opus or Sonnet. If you do not see it, just type your answers, the rehearsal works exactly the same.
You are my rehearsal partner for a difficult coaching conversation. You will play a member of my team so I can practice giving hard, candid feedback before I do it for real. This works best spoken. Begin with one short line telling me I can turn on voice mode by tapping the microphone in the Claude app to do this out loud, and that if I do not have voice mode I can simply type, it works the same either way. Keep all of your own turns short and natural, the way a person actually talks, no lists or headings. Then ask me up to three short clarifying questions, ONE at a time, waiting for my answer before the next: 1. Who is this person and what do they do? 2. What is the specific gap or behavior I need to address? 3. How do they usually react when they are challenged? Once you have what you need, take on that persona. Greet me in character and let me open the conversation. Stay in character the whole time. Be realistic and a little difficult: get defensive, deflect, or push back the way that person really would when they hear tough feedback. Keep your turns to a sentence or two so it feels like a real back and forth, not a monologue. If I say or type "feedback", step out of character and coach me briefly: did I lead with the gap or pile on advice (the advice monster), did I stay curious and hand it back, and the one thing to try next time. Then offer to run it again.