Welcome 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 leading when ego at the top is unchecked.

Shankar was never shy during our coaching conversations to talk about his feelings about Peter,

his CEO.

They'd known each other for years as senior executives in the world of high tech, and had even served together

on a senior leadership team. When Peter became CEO at a global tech corporation, he called

Shankar and offered him a chief officer position. Normally Shankar would have jumped at the chance,

but in this case, he knew he'd be reporting to Peter.

He had seen Peter lead.

He experienced him as weak on strategy and dangerously overconfident about his decision-making.

After some debate, knowing full well he was signing on with a leader he didn't respect,

Shankar said yes.

Now, just over a year into the role,

Shanker and I talked often during our coaching conversations about managing himself around Peter.

We also often considered how he might orchestrate an exit from the company.

And then one day, Shanker poured out his anger. If any of us talked like that to one of our

direct reports, it would be totally unacceptable. But in front of senior staff to beat up on one of

my direct reports, I mean,

really? I am done with him. I tried to get him to stop, but he wouldn't. It was like he was

some Goliath or something. He was going to do whatever the hell he wanted to do, and whatever

...