The Look & Sound of Leadership
An ongoing series of Executive Coaching Tips designed to help you be perceived in the workplace the way you want to be perceived.
10
Getting Your Voice Heard
<p>A brilliant but rather shy leader is challenged by her management to be bigger, more executive, speak up more. She is grateful to work with a coach.</p><p>You can build muscle around getting your voice heard by creating homework for yourself. Think of it like going to the gym: working out regularly helps you build muscle. <b><br/> <br/> When creating homework, ask yourself three questions:</b></p>What am I going to pay attention to?What specific behavior am I going to start or stop?How will I measure success? (5% improvement)<p><br/></p><p><b>Du...
Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office
<p><b>Tom interviews Dr. Lois Frankel about women in the workplace and other ideas in the just-published third edition of </b><b>Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office</b><b>.</b><b> </b></p><p><br/></p><p><b>Listen to the full, unedited conversation </b><b>here.</b></p><p><br/></p><p><b>Get the “Nice Girls” </b><b>book, here.</b></p><p><br/></p><p>If you’re curious about a chemistry call, pop Tom an <b>email</b><b>.</b></p><p><br/></p><p>There are always more resources in our <b>monthly...
How to Conquer Nervousness
<p>Before testifying in a high-stakes case, a theorist and his coach swap horror stories about their nerves hijacking them and the lessons they learned.</p><p><b>Tom’s top four idea for conquering nervousness:</b></p>Write happy endingsCelebrate incremental improvementExternalize your nasty voiceIgnore your nerves<p>Applying these techniques using our free PDF about mastering nerves. </p><p><b>The clip of Emma Stone battling her anxiety before a global audience is </b><b>here.</b></p><p><br/></p><p><b>Each month, we share additional tools in our </b><b>monthly email. </b></p><p><b>If...
Humility as Strength
<p>A leader is getting pressured to stop being so prickly and gain some humility. With her coach, she explores whether it’s even possible for humility to ever be a strength. </p><p><br/></p><p><b>Core concepts in this episode:</b></p>Humility is confidence without defensiveness.Assess yourself on the humility scale. “How do I respond to challenges?”Humble leaders are confident in their authority.Ask frequently: “How might I be wrong about this?”Humility requires active listening.<p><br/></p><p><b>Questions addressed in this episode:</b></p><p>> Are humble leaders perceived as weak?</p><p...
Leading When Ego at the Top Is Unchecked
<p>A chief officer is infuriated by the behavior of his egomaniacal CEO. With his coach, he explores how to be a healthy leader while reporting to a boss he doesn’t respect.</p><p><b>Core concepts in this episode:</b></p>Egomaniacs rattle our sense of self.They will not change.Worrying does not help.Be accountable for how you show up. Manage yourself.Don’t take anything personally. They’re just a piece on a chess board.Ask yourself: “Am I seeing this person clearly?” Don’t allow emotions to drive your actions.Ask yourself: “How do I want to show...
How to Grow Your People
<p><b>A senior vice-president worries that attention on his people’s development will get overwhelmed in the volume of work. He asks his coach for tools to make the process effective and efficient. </b></p><p><br/></p><p><b>Download our </b><b>free tool</b><b> that maps the Three Conversations Development Plan.</b></p><p><br/></p><p><b>Core Concepts </b></p><p>Prioritizing professional development is hard.</p><p>The 3-Conversation model makes development easy for the leader and meaningful for the person.</p><p><b>The three conversations in summary: </b></p>Define ‘what,’...
How to Motivate and Inspire
<p>After a leader turns around the performance of one of his direct reports, he and his coach explore how it happened. And how to make it stick. </p><p><br/></p><p><b>Core ideas in the episode:</b></p>Workplaces improve when positive feedback is presentOur natural human negative bias is a barrier to giving positive feedback.Learn to notice when things go well.Tell people how they are helping solve the puzzle that is work.Research says the most effective feedback ratio is 4-to-1, positive to developmental.<p><br/></p><p><b>Positive Feedback might sound like t...
How to Guarantee Psychological Safety
<p>A toxic boss destroys psychological safety on her team. One of her direct reports talks to his coach about how to survive. And how to keep his own team safe. </p><p><br/></p><p>Core ideas in the episode:</p>Don’t take other people’s bad behavior personally.You are not a victim. You have choice.Document repeated bad behavior.Openly discussing mistakes without blame creates safety on a team.As the leader, be willing to admit your own mistakes.Ask people: “How do you think that went?” and “What could we do differently?” Then listen without debate or reb...
How to Supercharge Introversion
<p>Concerned his introversion makes him less effective, a corporate vice president asks for coaching – from an extrovert! Together, the coach and client explore ways to assure his introversion is a strength.</p><p><br/></p><p>Myers Briggs Type Indicator assesses four preferences. One is Introversion and Extroversion. Download a free sample of the profile report here. </p><p><br/></p><p><b>The six tools unpacked in this episode are:</b></p>Manage your energyMonitor your self-talkHave ideas readyManage your calendarShare comfortably about yourselfDevelop both your thoughts and your skills<p><br/></p><p><b>Listen to Tom’s conve...
How to Manage Defensive People
<p>A leader with a direct report who is, she says, the most defensive person she’s ever known, devotes an entire coaching session to gathering tools to help her cope. </p><p><br/></p><p>All the tools and ideas and scripts in this episode are in an easy-to-understand infographic. Download it for free here. </p><p><br/></p><p>To work on “deserving” dive into The Four Agreements.</p><p><br/></p><p>Dig into more tools for managing defensive people in our podcast library in these three categories:</p><p>Communication Skills</p><p>Management Skills</p><p>Relati...
