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 sounding executive.

Bruce, the local head of IT for a worldwide organization was giving me feedback about

two managers he wanted to groom for promotion. Here's what he said about the first

manager. She's great with her group and she's a

creative thinker, but when she reports to me she goes on forever and piles on

all this irrelevant information. Sometimes I get really impatient listening to her.

Here's what he said about the other manager. He's one of the strongest technical experts

we have, but here again again I want the big picture of his projects,

but what I get is a blow by blow description of every test his group runs.

I find myself wanting to turn some key that'll get him going at my speed.

Talking at a higher level is difficult for almost everyone, even executives.

Why? Because we all know so much about what we do every day, and

we think those details are what makes our jobs valuable and important. On some level, that's true.

The details do make our jobs valuable and important.

To us, but not to our bosses.

One of the most frequent complaints I hear from senior people is that the

information they get isn't presented to them at a senior level. They're always having

to reinterpret and reassess what they hear and they don't like doing it.

Here's how you can sound more executive.

Imagine you're coming to my house for the first time. I'm giving you directions. I tell you that at the first

...