At least once a week I have a coaching session that revolves around a difficult conversation. Most often, it's about a team member who isn’t measuring up. And all too often, I’m the one driving the conversation.
Founder: “Employee X still isn’t turning in their TPS reports. I don’t know what to do.”
Me: “Have you had a direct conversation with them?”
Founder: “Kind of? I let them know that the TPS reports were important.”
Me: “Have you had a DIRECT and FOCUSED conversation about it?”
Founder: <hangs head>
Aaaaaaand scene!
More often than not, the first thing I do is point them to David Mandell’s amazing post, Passive Aggressive CEOs Destroy Companies. We’ll discuss the specifics of each section and we might even role play out what that looks like. And sometimes, the founder might even pull the trigger and have that conversation. But just as often, the founder just can’t muster the courage to have the difficult conversation because that shit is uncomfortable.
Yesterday, I was chatting with Nymbl CEO Ed Likovich about a recent executive hire. He ran the candidate through the usual gauntlet and what came back was 1) he really liked her, 2) the team really liked her and 3) the team had a handful of meaningful concerns that gave them pause.
At this point, a founder might say to themselves, “to hell with it, I like her enough that I’m going to take the risk and damn the consequences.” Another founder might say, “crap, I really liked her for the role, but if my team has concerns, then I’ll keep looking.”
Ed took a third path.
Click the article to see what he did, how it worked out for him and why it will pay dividends in this relationship for years to come.
#coaching #hiring #radicalcandor