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 engagement and performance. Jason looked surprisingly young for someone who had been with the company almost 20 years.

He bounced up to greet me and I wondered if he had started in the mailroom as a teenager.

Now he was the global vice president of a department.

Having worked his way up, Jason knew the business and loved it, and people loved Jason, his team, his peers, and especially his boss all loved

Jason. But his boss also wanted Jason to help his team. One of the goals for Jason's coaching was that he develop his

four direct reports into more mature junior executives. When I asked Jason about his

team he was grateful for the chance to talk about them.

They're all smart, he said, and I think they're all capable, but things take way too long, and they're way too hard. It shouldn't be this hard to get the work done.

Well I'm all forgetting work done easily, I said seriously. Tell me hard how.

Well, Yasmeans the hardest.

It's like she's cut herself off from the group.

We're always trying to find Yasmean because she doesn't show up or she won't answer a simple

email.

But she gets her work done? I asked.

As an individual contributor, yeah, but I need her to be part of the team too.

Then there's Alejandro. Alejandro's demeanor is fine.

He's not dramatic, he's not a shoutter, but the only time he comes to me

is when he has something negative to say about something someone else is doing.

He's always very rational, and his complaints are always in the best interest of the company but he undermines people

...