Polite But Ineffective Irene was a fascinating blend of ‘artist in the clouds’ and a crisp leader who got stuff done. Five years ago, she’d become the head of a fine arts organization. She had a clear vision of where she wanted to take the organization and seemed to have the full support of her …
Team turmoil Dalita didn’t like kerfuffles. She felt her emotions deeply but contained them tightly. Her happiest moments and her biggest upsets appeared almost the same. Containing her emotions exhausted Dalita. She could feel the kerfuffles grinding on her spirit.
Drawing Together Neela loved leading teams. During our very first coaching conversation she talked about the various efforts she’d put into building her current team. Then COVID hit. While the team’s productivity remained steady, she felt their spirits had withered.
Promotion prompts worry Shalawn was chief medical officer at a regional clinic. Her clinic, along with seven others, had been bought by a national corporation and unified into a network. The corporate owners had taken notice of Shalawn and were promoting her to chief medical officer for the entire region. All eight medical officers at …
Teams at risk Rafael was two months into running the largest team of his career. He wasn’t certain, but he sensed the CEO was about to pit his new team against another team. If that happened, one team’s business would win out over the other’s. No jobs would be lost, but years of work would …
Thwarting panic Roddy was telling me about his latest encounter on Zoom with Craig. “Right at the beginning, when he first started in on me, I had my same old reaction. My heart rate jumped, like Craig was right there in the room with me.“
This month’s coaching conversation includes a leader’s story about being buoyed by her team. She and Tom also swap answers to a favorite question of her team’s: “How’re ya coping?”
Video exposure Greta was beaming. In the middle of our Zoom coaching conversation, her 10-year-old daughter had come in asking for something. They had spoken in German (Greta lived in Switzerland). I had no idea what they had said, but the exchange had been sweet to watch. Greta had rubbed the girl’s cheek affectionately as …
“Is that clear?” Arlen worried he wasn’t making his points clearly with his direct reports. When I asked him to tell me more, he said, “I’m always asking them, ‘Is that clear?’ and they say yes. But later, it becomes obvious it wasn’t clear at all. I don’t know how much is me and how …
Diagnosing pain Jimmy was a division president I had coached. Over the years, he’d brought me in to facilitate offsite events with his team. Together we’d created many agendas and provided his group with a lot of different experiences. Now he felt it was time for Shanique, one of his direct reports, to conduct her …
