People in Fear Imron was one of the most well-balanced leaders I’d known. He was thoughtful, generous and always open to having his ideas challenged. We’d been working together many years. I’d been beside him as he rose into a chief officer role at a tech company employing more than 15,000 people around the world. […]
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Keeping Rational Thought Online Imron and I had been working together many years. I’d been honored to be his coach as he ascended into the highest ranks of Silicon Valley corporations. In addition to being ethical and smart, with astonishing recall, he was comfortable being vulnerable. He came to our conversations with thoughtful questions about
A Dream Come True Ashish was both thrilled and terrified. He held a senior position at a global law firm because he had expertise in an arcane field of economic analysis.
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Bullies and Narcissists Shankar was never shy during our coaching conversations to talk about his feelings about Peter, his CEO. They’d known each other for years as senior executives in the world of high tech and had even served together on a senior leadership team. When Peter became CEO at a global tech corporation, he
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“Have You Told Him?” Jon was extolling the excellence of Matthew, one of his direct reports. When our coaching began, Jon had been endlessly annoyed with Matthew. Chunks of our time were spent with Jon frustrated by all the ways Matthew was not meeting expectations. Now, only four months later, Jon was calling him a
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Made to feel stupid Amit was telling me about an upcoming presentation. His boss, Regina, a member of the senior leadership team had asked Amit to present the results of an initiative his team had been working on. Amit was preparing to do battle.
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Introversion as an Obstacle Matt had been an officer in the Air Force before joining a publicly held manufacturing corporation. He’d risen steadily and was now enjoying his role as a vice-president in charge of a busy division. His background as an engineer gave him the knowledge to understand the work at a deep level,
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Brave or Shameful? Cindy hated that her story still had the power to make her cry. She hated the feelings the story still stirred up in her: embarrassment, powerlessness, rage, and, the fuel for her tears, shame. Cindy still had shame about what she’d done. Many years before, she reported to a leader who was
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Learning Likeability Grace’s performance reviews showed high marks for projects and processes. Her skills with people, however, scored quite low. During our first coaching conversation, talking about what she wanted from the coaching, she said, “I’d like to learn how to be likeable. I’ve always been the smart one, the good one, but I’ve never
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Disappointing Herself Tamara was quick to blame herself. One goal for her coaching was to be more assertive with her boss, Jess. We would rehearse conversations, and she would take them to Jess. Tamara’s “after reports” were full of harsh blame about everything she’d done wrong. One day, reciting another failure, she stopped. She said,
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