Music Heds up applications for our Coalition in 2026 are now open. If you really value community accountability and just people that bounce ideas off of, whether you're starting your own business, whether you have a business, whether you're just a leader in an organization and you're struggling with typical people problems. The coalition is all about creating an environment where you can work through these issues with other people that have been there, done that, and are still doing it. It's six months long, it's all virtual. We're working around your schedule. It starts in next August, but we are only opening this up to 10 people. I don't have any trouble admitting this. I am not somebody that likes to do things with massive groups. I like my network to be small, tight, very interactive, mutually problem solving, reciprocal, all those things. So this isn't some kind of big douchey mastermind. And I don't mind using that term.

If you're right for the coalition, you don't mind it either. Go to artofcoaching.com slash coalition now, even if you're moderately interested, fill out the form. We don't require you to be a millionaire or own some kind of business. We do require you to be somebody that invests in themselves, that knows the difference between a cost and an investment. then somebody that would actually like to, you know, come up with problems that help other people as well as get your soft. The commitment's pretty minimal folks. We do two Zoom calls a month. If you cannot carve out two hours a month to work through some of your biggest problems, well, not to be rude, but that says something else. So go to Art of Coaching.com slash coalition now. So really excited to announce this. Over the years I have talked about building out the AOC compound for a very long time and it will be done as of February 2026. This is something that is hard to put into words. I always want to play more home games and have this event space slash gym slash just different space for other people to come and congregate and be able to have fun, work on improving personally and professionally. And so we are back to running our private retreats. What this means is a couple times a year I open my home up. So whether you're somebody that's working on a business or you're working on some other problem, we do either one to two days full on, fully focused on your core issue. I've had people come out and they wanna work on putting together a business proposal or they wanna work on building an online course or they wanna work on writing their first book. So we put together a custom schedule for you. It is literally me, you, on my property,

working through these things. We'll work out together, we'll go on hikes together, we'll do meals, or if you don't want to do any of that, you don't have to do any of that. It's a lot of whiteboards, it's a lot of ideas, and it's a lot of application. If this is something you're interested in, email us at artofcoachin.com.

Again, that's info at artofcoaching.com. Welcome to the Art of Coaching podcast. I'm Rev. Otholomew and at a young age, poor communication nearly caused me my life. Now, I help others navigate the great area of social interaction, power dynamics, and communication so they can become more adaptable leaders regardless of their profession, age, or situation. This podcast is for everybody who is fascinated with solving people problems. So if you're in the no nonsense type who appreciates frank conversations, advise you can put to use immediately and learning how others navigate the messy realities of leadership, you're in the right place. I'm glad that you're joining us. Let's dive in. Hey, nice to have you join me for another episode of the Art and Coaching podcast. Today we're going to get into something that has been an issue that's been brought to us several times by several clients. I think many of you will find it applicable to any industry that you are in. We also oppose this in our Mighty Networks group because we always do case study interactive discussions or at least periodically and we try to get a wide range of perspectives. And I wanted to open this up and also give you a sneak peek at something that we discuss in there. And here's the gist, okay? Imagine you're leading an organization. And as you know, or you can imagine, your team is going to have folks from a lot of different generations. In our podcast, we've done a lot of episodes discussing how to deal with, engage with, interact with, more successfully lead managed coach, whatever you want to say, folks across the different generations. And mind you, one thing I always try to say is it is not just about aid your generations. Really, this is about multiple perspectives. So we're going to use that term because this is the way the term was used with me to our client and or with our client. And it's just simpler for most folks in the context of of this podcast. So in this case, and we always keep it private,

some folks are around 45 to 55,

and then other members of their staff are younger.

I'll say it only one more time.

We understand age alone doesn't dictate behavior,

so don't get caught up in that, okay?

But in this instance, how it was communicated to me,

is the older group tends to communicate in a way

that is really direct, blunt, almost sometimes focused if you will clear objectives, not a lot of sugar coating, so on and so forth. And then some of the younger folks on the leadership team perceived that as to direct at times they'd even framed it as confrontational harsh or even bullying simply because the delivery style isn't really their preference and sometimes maybe it's just also not delivered with a lot of professionalism. We don't know, right? And I'm not going to give you all the details because I want this to stoke some thought and I'm going to give my take. And so there's a difference of interpretation and perception and interaction has created

a lot of friction.

And this is stuff that we get brought in to help with. We've helped folks with this in hotel chains. We've helped it with sports organizations, financial organizations. It's a very common thing. And one thing that's important to note is that underneath the surface, the real issue is usually that certain members of a group are conflict avoidant. And while that can be generational, I would definitely say, and I'm fine with being rigged over the coals with this, whatever this current generation is now, but I'd say it spilled over into multiple generations. I think right now, just society is very conflict avoidant. I think it's fine for certain people when they get a put their little anonymous thing in a Amazon review or a Yelp review or whatever, but when it comes to actual face-to-face problem-solving professional human interaction and conflict resolution, there's a lot of folks now that are passive aggressive, I feel triggered, I feel this, and they label anything that is uncomfortable as conflict when in reality a lot of times it's straightforward communication. And I'm not going to get into every situation where that's true or not true. This is something that is fairly well recognized and talked about in many aspects right now. I mean, people love to be outraged and offended. And so one thing I told our mighty network group is I go, Hey, here's where I want your insight. What do you think are core first principles that need to be understood for a team like this to work together? Or what would you use to deal with these gaps? Right? And so to start this off, it's something. And if you want to pause this and use this with your team, say that. Say, hey, if you've experienced this kind of clash, what do you think would work or what has worked? And even if you haven't lived it directly, it's still good to think about. But we're going to discuss some of the things here, whether it's things we've done, whether it's things that we've written about just to give you some meat, some protein, and help you kind of think about this in a first principles way. Right? Now, remember, we always want to ground these. You have to solve the right problem. You always want to make sure that you're solving the right problem and think, all right, well, what's really going on? It's not just older versus younger. It's one group thinks that they're being clear and efficient. Another group perceives it as you're being harsh, aggressive, bullying.

Now why?

Miriam reasons.

Let's imagine it's poor delivery, okay?

And they're actually being harsh, aggressive, or bullying.

We resolve that one way and we can talk about that.

But the main thing you have to keep in mind is you've got to get a common language of say,

why do we perceive it this way?

Why do we have different threat detection systems?

...