Last year, our coaching team started a book-club with a goal of reading 3 books a year that would be relevant to our clients. This winter, our choice was Failure to Communicate by Holly Weeks who teaches, publishes and consults on communication issues. She is an Adjust Lecturer in Management Leadership and Decision Sciences at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and Visiting Pro-Seminar Lecturer in Communication and Vision Speech at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
What caught our attention was her focus on the “prickly” conversations and how to approach them when emotions are high. This surely is a leadership challenge for every single person we coach, and also for us as coaches since we often need to provide tough feedback when something is potentially in a client’s blind spot.