Sometimes all it takes is one shift.
One skill. One mindset. One person deciding:
“I’m not doing it this way anymore.”
A client once pulled me aside after a session.
“There’s a guy on my team - bright, hardworking, technically brilliant... but no one wants to work with him.”
He was always the smartest in the room.
But also the sharpest.
Every conversation felt like a competition.
Every meeting? A test.
The result? High performance, low trust.
And he knew it.
In our first 1:1, I didn’t give him feedback.
I gave him a question:
“What would change if you started listening to understand not to win?”
That one idea hit home.
Over the next few months, he worked on just one thing:
👉 Empathetic listening.
He stopped interrupting.
Started asking follow-ups.
Let silence do its job.
People noticed.
Cross-functional teams started pulling him in.
Conflict dropped.
And two quarters later, he wasn’t just respected - he was leading culture initiatives.
The breakthrough wasn’t technical.
It was emotional intelligence.
And it changed everything.
Ever worked with someone who turned things around like this? What did they shift?
P.S. We coach mid-career leaders to lead with clarity, EQ, and confidence especially in high-stakes, technical environments.
One skill. One mindset. One person deciding:
“I’m not doing it this way anymore.”
A client once pulled me aside after a session.
“There’s a guy on my team - bright, hardworking, technically brilliant... but no one wants to work with him.”
He was always the smartest in the room.
But also the sharpest.
Every conversation felt like a competition.
Every meeting? A test.
The result? High performance, low trust.
And he knew it.
In our first 1:1, I didn’t give him feedback.
I gave him a question:
“What would change if you started listening to understand not to win?”
That one idea hit home.
Over the next few months, he worked on just one thing:
👉 Empathetic listening.
He stopped interrupting.
Started asking follow-ups.
Let silence do its job.
People noticed.
Cross-functional teams started pulling him in.
Conflict dropped.
And two quarters later, he wasn’t just respected - he was leading culture initiatives.
The breakthrough wasn’t technical.
It was emotional intelligence.
And it changed everything.
Ever worked with someone who turned things around like this? What did they shift?
P.S. We coach mid-career leaders to lead with clarity, EQ, and confidence especially in high-stakes, technical environments.
