How Clients Graduate
A favorite coaching client “graduated” this month: she achieved the goals we set at the beginning of the coaching engagement. Her primary goal was to leave a job she hated. In a couple of weeks, she starts in a new role that she had said was “impossible” (and I quote) when we started five months […]
The Window
A favorite coaching client describes her job as a suckfest. “It’s not so bad,” she says in the same breath, “as long as I have two glasses of red wine every night.” Her job is isolating. Enervating. The place where ideas go to die. It’s killing her soul, she says with a laugh, as if […]
It’s Not About You
A favorite coaching client recently received a troubling performance review. He feels paranoid: his colleagues seem to be distancing themselves, as if they somehow know. He described a coworker who used to be friendly. Now she never stops to chat. “Does she know something I don’t?” he wondered. I challenged him to ask her. That […]
Being Zilly
We went camping and forgot the dog. We were 30 minutes on our way when I realized. “Any other children you’ve forgotten?” my partner asked as we turned around and drove back to the house. And there was Zilly curled up quietly in his crate. Zilly is a very polite, appreciative, quiet little dog. He’s […]
I Want That
I had lunch with a colleague recently. He asked me what kind of issues I’m working on with my coaching clients. I told him* about a favorite client who emails me at 5 a.m. every morning. This particular client’s life flows better if he gets up early, goes to the gym, and then heads to […]
Housework: Housewife :: Email: Middle Manager
Housework is my guilty secret. I find it deeply satisfying keeping my house in order. A clean house feels reassuring. But I’ve been thinking about the balance between keeping my house clean and getting anything else done. Housework is a lot like email was in my corporate jobs. Never ending. You could spend all your […]
Belly Rubs
I told a favorite coaching client to stop being such a fucking puppy dog. This guy is a rock star at work (he just received a performance review that many of us have spent years aspiring to), but he always feels on the verge of failure. He’s constantly seeking validation in a corporate culture that […]
Coaching Chicken Little
I have a new favorite client. And I made him cry. We were talking about a pattern in his professional life where he feels like Chicken Little: he sees a bad course of action underway, but his executive management doesn’t listen to him. He’s lived this pattern happen over and over. I said, “So let’s […]
Client as Athlete
A client (I’ll call her “Mary”) recently described to me how she isn’t as smart as her senior managers. My take on smartness is that there are many different ways to be smart and that it is a one-dimensional, bullshit descriptor. The super-smart VP dominating the room who has had three divorces is probably not […]