Welcome back to the Look and 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.

I'm Tom Henschel, your executive coach, and today we're talking about creating new behaviors.

Andy was a brain. and he was was abrupt and people didn't like it.

Feedback about him included things like

talking to Andy is like shaking hands with a machine gun and I always

brace myself before I call him he sounds angry from hello. An executive producer of movies, Andy always had at least one phone glued to his ear.

His projects were at varying stages of urgency, but none was without urgency. Urgency was a way of life with Andy and all that urgency made him sound abrupt.

I could attest because his phoning never really stopped.

I had innumerable opportunities to observe him while he was

on the phone.

It was true.

He sounded angry from the instant he barked, hello.

And he knew the feedback.

He'd heard it before.

He admitted that yes, he did live with a sense of urgency.

It was with him even when he slept, and he liked it.

He didn't want to live without his sense of urgency, but he didn't like sounding abrupt

or angry.

He wanted to change the behaviors that created that impression. So where do we start?

He asked, with urgency, of course.

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