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 your boss. Keith is a division president whom I coached many years ago.

Now he was calling me about Sandra, his new head of sales and marketing.

Working with her is a roller coaster, he said.

Some days she seems fine, then five minutes later she's pouting or

crying or angry. I really need her to level out and stop the drama. I laughed when I heard this

from Keith. When he and I had worked together, the goal for his

coaching had been to warm him up. His boss, the CEO, valued relationships highly, but Keith

had succeeded because of his intellectual horsepower, not his interpersonal skills.

During his coaching, Keith had made significant strides in the realm of relationships and feelings,

but that territory was never going to be completely

comfortable for him.

And now he had to manage Sandra, who, it seemed, lived in that world excessively.

How ironic! During my first session with Sandra, she went on at length about Keith.

He is the coldest fish I've ever worked for.

I know I'm expressive and passionate, that's why I'm good at what I do, but I swear.

The minute I get excited about something, he shuts down like there's some bad smell in the

room.

I think he wants us all running around like little robots.

I smiled to myself.

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