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 managing beyond bad behavior. Managing Ted was a nightmare for Brian.

Every day seemed to bring another complaint about Ted's inappropriate behavior.

Even people two and three levels above Brian were complaining.

His inability to rein Ted in was making Brian look ineffectual as a leader.

The problem was that Ted was exceptionally gifted and everyone knew it.

Brian led a team of 26 artists at a consumer products company.

The team's ability to create stunning designs was crucial to the company's success,

and none of the other artists could turn out designs like Ted.

So when he behaved badly, which was a great deal of the time,

no one wanted to challenge him too harshly. There was always the fear that Ted might make good

on his constant threat to quit this crap factory.

Brian, himself an accomplished artist, had become a vice president by being super agreeable.

Now this friendly conflict-averse guy had to contend with Ted. Whenever Brian tried to give him

feedback, Ted quickly sabotaged the conversation with any number of tactics. I wanted Brian to have a tool that would stand up in the face of

whatever Ted would throw at him, so I taught him a technique I call repeated

headlines. You can use this technique in any situation when the following two factors are present.

Number one, the situation is hard to measure, meaning it's not something easily quantifiable

like missing deadlines or sarcastic emails. And number two, the situation is ongoing.

When I say repeated headlines can be used in any situation that has those two factors, I mean

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