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 […]
Never Before! I am excited to do something new with you. After 17 years, I’m doing my first interview. I look at people like Dave Stachowiak on the Coaching for Leaders podcast. I see what it takes to create a great interview week after week, and I think, “Man, oh, man, that looks like a
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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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Calm in the Storm Rana had reason to be upset. Her reputation for making large-scale sales was well-known. She’d been hired by a company and placed on a division leadership team that had been together for years – in some cases, decades. That leadership team, which included women, had no interest in welcoming this outsider
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Stepping in a Heap Edwin was already shaking his head when he popped onto my screen for our coaching call. “Oh, boy, I really stepped in it,” he said as an opener. I knew Edwin had a sincere drive to do the right thing. When he felt himself off the mark, he suffered. Although he
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A missed promotion Ritu had expected a promotion. Not only did she not get promoted, but a peer, whom Ritu thought a much less effective leader, did get promoted. Ritu complained to her boss, the CEO, Delwin.
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Consequences of a hijacking Kimberly lowered her eyes and spoke quietly. “I didn’t like myself very much at that point.” I said nothing. “The minute I got back to my office, I knew I shouldn’t have said what I said. I can’t believe I thought, even for a minute, that Max didn’t have my best
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Leader in denial Chin Sun seemed unable to recognize her own feelings. This was apparent during our coaching when she spoke about her boss, Martina. Managing up was a major goal Chin Sun had for herself through the coaching, so we talked about Martina a lot.
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Shrinking your blind spot Martin was disruptive. There was a long history of complaints against him. After the most recent grievance meeting, he was “given” a coach: me. The fact that people were upset with him was something Martin knew the way a reckless driver, seeing chaos in his rearview mirror, wonders how all THAT
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Unheard feedback Martin was described to me as clueless yet gifted. In my mind, he fell in the category of leaders too talented to lose but too troublesome to keep. Because his expertise was unique, Martin had been with the company a long time. Complaints about him stretched back years. Any people reporting to him
