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 Short sounds confident. Kevin was proud of having been an engineer. Now that he was a corporate vice president, he saw

his technical background as one of his major assets.

His colleagues disagreed.

Shut him up was the bluntest comment in the feedback report I'd created for him, but it was not unusual. People desperately

wanted Kevin to talk shorter. But if I don't give him all the information, Kevin said as we discussed his feedback, I feel like I'm not doing my job or they can't do theirs.

You're helping, I offered.

Absolutely.

What if I know something and don't tell him,

then they do something they shouldn't,

or they don't do something they should?

I'd be responsible.

That it'd be negligent.

He was genuinely concerned. I asked, is that what the feedback is

telling you, Kevin? He froze as he ran that question through his mental computer.

No, you're right.

They're saying they don't like my engineer speak,

where every detail has to get explained.

I remained silent. He gave a wistful little laugh saying,

it's like someone took away my decoder ring. I'd have thought decoder rings were

...