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 intimacy in business, setting boundaries. Evan felt lucky to have had Trish as his mentor. He told me, I've never seen anyone build

relationships as fast as she can. She can read a room in the first minute or two, and then

say just the right thing to turn people into

raving fans. It's uncanny.

Evan had been studying with a master, but now Trish was moving on to run an international division. As one of her final

acts, she asked me to help Evan develop better people skills. When I asked her to define people

skills, she went straight to the point.

He needs to be more emotionally honest, she told me,

and he needs to stop being afraid he'll screw up the business. If he would just take some

personal risks he'd actually be taking fewer risks for the business. The two

behaviors that Trish just described, emotional honesty and personal risk-taking,

combine to create what I call intimacy in business.

Now, don't let the word intimacy confuse you.

Intimacy in business is not about sharing personal information,

and it's not about holding hands and singing Kumbaya.

Intimacy in business is the ability to connect with people on an emotional level.

People who create intimacy in business are able to achieve two specific results.

First, they're able to safely raise difficult topics, and second, they're able to set and hold boundaries without damaging relationships.

Doing both those things well requires emotional honesty and personal risk taking.

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