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 Henshel, your executive coach, and today we're talking about unlocking executive

presence through emotional intelligence.

Connie was in her second year at a global hardware company as chief product officer.

She had been a product leader at a hardware behemoth until this smaller giant wooed her

away.

Now she was in the sea suite with global reach.

Her entry into the company had been an explosion.

From the outset, she had told people change was urgent.

She'd complained that current standards wouldn't get them where they needed to go.

She was not shy with her opinion that her peers were the wrong people in the wrong roles.

In the interest of excellence, Connie burned a lot of bridges.

In response, the company let her know they did not like the way they were being treated.

Connie was offered coaching and she accepted gratefully.

She interviewed three coaches, she selected me.

One of the first things she and I did together was to get on a Zoom call with her boss Nino.

The purpose of the call was to align the three of us on the goals for Connie's coaching.

Nino came to the conversation well prepared.

He only had two items on his list.

First, he wanted Connie to know how much he supported what she was trying to accomplish.

He conceded there were a lot of obstacles between her and success, which led to his first

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