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.

Core concepts in this episode:

• 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 up?” You have choice about what you prioritize and how you react in the workplace.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Crucial Conversations provides scripts and thoughts that will help you manage yourself when dealing with difficult people.

Tom and host Dave Stachowiak discussed “How to Handle a Boss Who’s a Jerk” on this episode of Coaching for Leaders. Great tools if you have a challenging boss.

Before sharing your reactions in the workplace, consider the politics around you. These two episodes will get you “Leading with Political Savvy” Parts 1 and 2.

Each month, there are additional tools in our monthly email.

If you’d like to explore Private Coaching, reach out to Tom. tom@essentialcomm.com.

This episode is tagged in three categories in our podcast library:

Managing Yourself

Leadership

Perception – How You Perceive Others

RELATED EPISODES

239- 5 Strategies for Dealing with Narcissists

189 - “Don’t Take Anything Personally”

245- Giving Upward Feedback

114- Gravitas

133- The Narcissist Executive

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your reviews!

Wishing you a year of growth and development!

From The Look & Sound of Leadership team, thank you so much for listening.

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.

Download our free tool that maps the Three Conversations Development Plan.

Core Concepts

Prioritizing professional development is hard.

The 3-Conversation model makes development easy for the leader and meaningful for the person.

The three conversations in summary:

1. Define ‘what,’ ‘why’ and give homework;
2. The person reflects on the homework and how they plan to improve;
3. Periodic check-ins about the homework. ‘What are you learning?’

The leader’s role in these conversations:

• Clarify the ‘what’ and ‘why’
• Listen and encourage
• Ask, ‘What are you learning?’

You can sign-up for more resources and tools in our monthly email.

If you’re thinking about coaching for yourself, or for someone on your team, let’s talk. tom@essentialcomm.com.

This episode is tagged in three categories in our podcast library:

Feedback

Leadership

Management Skills

RELATED EPISODES

132 Coaching Your People

212 How to Coach Your People

258 How to Manage Defensive People

83 Leadership and Listening

206 Understanding Feedback

Thanks, as always, for your reviews!

Happy holidays.

Until next time, thanks so much for listening.

From The Look & Sound of Leadership team

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.

Core ideas in the episode:

• Workplaces improve when positive feedback is present
• Our 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.

Positive Feedback might sound like this:

1. Recognize what’s going well – and be specific
2. Appreciate how it’s helping solve the puzzle
3. Express your thanks

Developmental Feedback might sound like this:

1. Describe what happened – and be specific
2. Explain how it affects the puzzle solving effort
3. Express your hope for a different outcome

You can Sign-up for more resources and tools in our monthly email.

If you’re thinking about coaching for yourself, or for someone on your team, let’s talk. tom@essentialcomm.com.

This episode is tagged in three categories in our podcast library:

Managing Yourself

Perception – How You Perceive Others

Relationship Building

Related episodes to listen to are:

146 - Building Empathy

119 - Creating Devoted Followers

212 - How to Coach Your People

255 - How to Deepen Relationships at Work

260 - How to Guarantee Psychological Safety

Thanks, as always, for your reviews!

Until next time, thanks so much for listening.

From The Look & Sound of Leadership team