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 dynamic one-on-ones.

Bennett was a Brit working in Kuwait. He was enjoying living overseas and found the work to be a healthy stretch.

He led a team of four and reported to a guy named Sabah who Bennett said was terrific.

During our video link coaching conversations, Bennett and I had spent a lot of time discussing

trust. He was concerned that because he was a foreigner

certain bridges were closed off to him and others were completely hidden. He was

eager to deepen the trust with his boss and his direct reports.

He and I had discussed cultural differences, differences in personality types and styles, and

the nature of trust itself.

Then one day I asked Bennett if he and Sabah had had one-on-one meetings.

They did.

Once a week, usually 30 minutes, Bennett described them as pleasant, not particularly productive.

I asked if he'd ever had one-on-ones that were productive.

He had.

I asked about them. He said,

Oh, that was a long time ago. I was very junior. I was reporting to a woman named

Roberta. I remember two distinct things happened in those meetings.

Most of the time we focused on accountability. She held me accountable. She was

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