Category Archive

A beloved coaching client didn’t get promoted. He missed it by one vote. Unfortunately, it was his skip’s (his “skip level” — his boss’s boss) vote. “How do your other clients manage upwards?” he asked me, describing a pattern of cool and unhelpful relationships with his executive management over the course of his career. So I told him about a client, a senior technical director at a large health care organization, who had asked me a similar question. Her direct …

My coaching clients sometimes want to talk about increasing their executive presence. “How do you walk down the sidewalk?” I ask. Executive presence is about confidence, influence and emotional control (all coachable, by the way). The Harvard Business Review defines it as “your ability to project mature self-confidence,” among other attributes. Forbes describes it as “the ability to project gravitas.” So back to the sidewalk. A couple years ago, I read about someone who refused to get out of the way when she was …

Who am I and how do I have the credibility to coach senior executives in industries I know nothing about? I put that question on a Powerpoint slide in front of a large group at Microsoft. I figured this question was on their minds. I like to get in front of difficult questions. In my coaching, I call them Dreadfuls – the dreadful questions you know they’re going to ask, and that you know you’re going to stumble over. Preparing …

“What’s the peppermint mocha?” I recently asked a beloved client. He was describing workplace conflict and hostility. He looked at me blankly. So I told him a story. “I was at my kid’s Frisbee game,” I explained. “It was cold. Raining. Early.” The coach came over and asked me how I feel about peppermint mochas. I told the coach I feel pretty good about coffee in general. The coach wandered back to the pre-game warm up. I bought the coach …

(The following is the script I prepared for an on-air interview on the KING5 New Day show. I guessed what questions the host would ask me (in bold) and wrote out — and memorized! — my answers.  Although I appear to be talking extemporaneously and confidently on the video, this script reads like a transcript.) Why is a handshake important? How can you put your best step forward with a handshake? Your handshake is important because it’s often part of the …

Sometimes my coaching clients tell me they need to improve their confidence. I tell them not to drop the baby on TV. My office phone rang recently and I found myself talking to a producer for the KING 5 New Day talk show. He invited me to come on the show as an expert for National Handshake Day. In two days. I thought to myself, “I don’t know anything about handshakes.” I thought to myself, “I’m not an in-front-of-the-camera person.” …

I often coach my clients around preparing for difficult or challenging questions — and was up at 6 a.m. this morning doing just that. I work with my clients on writing out the story they want to tell, then revising it until it is conversational and direct and focused. And then practicing it. I’ll often tell my clients, “Practice it on the tree outside your door, on the dog, on your friends, on your sweetie. Get to the point where …

(I met with Lance as part of a Seattle Times “Career Makeover” series and wrote the following summary of our conversation for the journalist writing the story.) I told Lance to go on a fishing trip. A successful composer, he’s ready to do something else after 15 years of writing music professionally. Something a little more family friendly. After all, he’d like to see his kids every once in a while. I’ve been living the dream,” he said about his …

I met with Mary as part of a Seattle Times “Career Makeover”  column and wrote the following summary of our conversation for the journalist writing the story. Mary wanted to talk about how to land a marketing job — but couldn’t stop talking about her work as a videographer. She’s a freelancer with clients ranging from a gaming company (“I’m a gamer, I’m passionate about gaming,” she says) to an animal rights nonprofit, to weddings and other celebrations. “But,” she …

What do you tell a job seeker doing everything right — and still not finding work? I met with Tricia as part of a Seattle Times Career Makeover project and wrote the following summary of our conversation for the journalist writing the story. Tricia and I met at a drafty coffee shop in Columbia City. She presents as a very well-put-together, accomplished marketing professional. Nothing about her indicates that she’s been out of work for two years. Except for her long, …