“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 […]
How to Motivate and Inspire Read More »
Vulnerability as a tool Jacqui was a highly analytical introvert. I learned early in our coaching that she used silence to think. That is not to say she didn’t speak up. When she felt strongly about something, the words flew out of her. From our very first conversation, I knew Jacqui felt strongly about a
How to Manage Defensive People Read More »
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
How to Deepen Relationships at Work Read More »
Senior Leadership Loses Faith in Her Carolina was one of three leaders helping spin off a division into its own company. Every week, she and her colleagues reported to the senior leadership … and Carolina was driving them crazy. I had coached her boss, Matt, the COO, when he was a rising junior executive at
How to Talk So People Understand You Read More »
Building an executive Courtney, an old friend and fellow executive coach, was exploring an interesting topic with one of her clients, a woman named Divya. During their coaching conversations, Divya had wondered what it actually meant to be executive. She wondered, if you took away her company’s culture and quirks, what traits do great executives
How to Build an Executive Read More »
A Scary Wake-Up Call Deepa was shocked. She began a denial, then smiled and said, “I hadn’t the slightest clue.” Deepa and I were almost halfway into a six-month coaching engagement. At the outset, I had gathered feedback about her from senior leaders, peers and direct reports. Her report had two resounding themes. First, everyone
Building Listening Read More »
Networking + Elevator Pitches Pavni had plans for her future. In a year or so, she wanted to leave her leadership role in a global corporation to become a chief officer at a mid-sized company. She worried that a major roadblock would be her distaste for networking. We spent an entire coaching conversation exploring her
Networking Conversations – Part Two Read More »
“Plant, Don’t Hunt” Pavni was thinking ahead. She was in year two of a three-year project. When the project ended, she wanted to leave her giant multi-national corporation and leverage her momentum to get hired as a chief officer with a mid-sized company. She’d mentioned this during our coaching conversations, but today she lingered on
Networking Conversations – Part 1 Read More »
“People Get Hurt in Politics” Hui Min was tired of losing. As an art director in animation, she was constantly competing for scarce resources. She saw other people get what they needed when she didn’t.
Leading with Political Savvy – Part 2 Read More »
A Dream in Peril Syed and I hadn’t spoken in years. I had coached him when he was a young rising star at a Silicon Valley tech giant. I had enjoyed my time with Syed. I found him to be an interesting thinker. He had no modesty about what he didn’t know. In those days,
The Conflict Resolution Wheel Read More »
