HBR Presents.

I'm Yario Wilkins, and this is coaching real leaders, part of the HBR Presents Network.

I'm a longtime executive coach who works with highly successful

leaders who've hit a bump in the road. My job is to help them get over that bump by clarifying

their goals and figuring out a way to reach them so that hopefully they can lead with a little

more ease. I typically work with clients over the course of several months, but on this show, we have a one-time

coaching meeting focusing on a specific leadership challenge they're facing.

Today's guest is someone will call Nick to protect his confidentiality. He's a leader in the

medical field and has been a hospital chief for

over a decade. It's a role that involves a lot of people management over and beyond his

clinical responsibilities. He's viewed himself as someone who's pretty good at interpersonal relations.

It's something he's gotten positive feedback on in the past. But more recently, he's been surprised by how some of his interactions with female colleagues have gone.

And while he's considered himself a supporter of gender equity,

he now wonders if he's part of the issue, and even more so, what he can do about it.

The gender equity is very good in our hospital, including amongst leaders.

And I see myself interacting with women in different positions

and in my own department, in my own group.

And I want to see how to make that better,

because these two instances sort of cause me to rethink

how I'm thinking about my interactions and whether I'm

sensitive enough to understanding the reactions or what I say. Am I listening enough? Should I be

listening differently to a man and a woman? In the last few years, issues related to diversity,

...