How do I handle difficult employees and letting people go?

You can hire and manage now, which means you have grown past the basics of leading people. The difficult employees and the letting-go still defeat you because they are the hardest part of the job, the part that involves conflict, disappointment, and holding someone's livelihood in your hands. Finding these hard does not make you a weak manager. It makes you a humane one. The difficult conversations feel awful because you care, and that care is not a liability; it is what makes you fair. But avoiding them, hoping a problem employee changes or dragging out a decision, only makes things worse for everyone, including them. Handled directly and kindly, even a firing can be done with respect. The goal is not to feel nothing. It is to be honest and humane while still doing what the role requires. With the next hard case, prepare for the conversation instead of dreading it, get clear on the facts, decide what is fair, and say it plainly and with respect. Do not let it fester. Difficult employees and letting-go will never feel easy, but done honestly and on time, they stop defeating you and become just another part of the work you can handle.