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 personal connections. Amete was uneasy. He'd read article after article saying that during the pandemic, managers

need to connect with their people now more than ever.

The articles were urging managers to ask about people's lives, show interest in them, not

just as workers, but as people to create personal connections.

Emet told me, for years I was told not to have personal conversations with my direct reports,

and I didn't.

Now suddenly I'm supposed to just flip and talk personally?

What's your concern? I asked. Well I just don't think I'm very good at

those sorts of personal conversations. Is that something we could talk

about in the coaching? Sure. I asked him, am I right you have two different concerns

about making connections? One is about crossing a line,

and the other is about your skill doing it.

Did I get it right?

Yeah, he said.

I said, do you have other concerns he considered then slowly said not yet so let's start

with crossing a line meet what line are you worried about crossing?

It's funny I don't know it's not like I read something specific somewhere

attended a training about something it's just this sense of danger, like there's this lawsuit lurking out

there if I start talking to my people about their personal lives.

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