Caroline Webb is a leadership coach, economist, and author of How to Have a Good Day, which has been published in over sixty countries. She has been named one of the top 50 executive coaches in the world by Thinkers50 and is Senior Advisor on leadership to McKinsey & Company, where she was previously a Partner. She is the author of Leadership Intelligence: Science-Backed Strategies for Mastering 21 Everyday Management Challenges (Amazon, Bookshop)*.

Leaders are often called on to repair relationships for the benefit of everybody. When that relationship is a key stakeholder, it’s especially important to approach that process intentionally. In this conversation, Caroline and I detail the most important steps to help that repair go better.

• Many of us have power, even if it doesn’t feel like it. People with power find it hard to imagine others seeing things differently.
• Perspective-taking helps us open up the doors of possibility to collaborate better, even when our assumptions are wrong.
• A suspension bridge is a powerful analogy for a stakeholder relationship. Both sides must be strong and connected intentionally for the relationship to work.
• The first tower of the suspension bridge is the other party. What could be going on for them that would make their behavior make sense, without assuming bad intent?
• The second tower is you. Label what you’re feeling and get as specific as possible with your emotions.
• Strengthen the connection with cables through appreciation, involvement, and elevation.

To meet in the middle (the deck), these five steps will help in an interaction:

1. Intention: share your goal for the relationship.
2. Observation: describe what you factually observed without assumption of judgement.
3. Implication: explain why you care and what’s concerning you.
4. Invitation: ask their side of the story without making assumptions.
5. Collaboration: mutually problem-solve how to improve the situation.

• Leadership Intelligence: Science-Backed Strategies for Mastering 21 Everyday Management Challenges by Caroline Webb (Amazon, Bookshop)*

Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required).

• How to Involve Stakeholders in Decisions, with Eric Pliner (episode 586)
• The Way to Get Noticed by Key Stakeholders, with Daphne E. Jones (episode 614)
• How to Start Better With Peers, with Michael Bungay Stanier (episode 635)

Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. Go beyond the podcast to find the right ideas and apply them with confidence inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Robyn Davis has been advising exhibitors across industries and around the world on the strategies that work at trade shows since 2009. As an award-winning speaker, trainer, and consultant, Robyn is known for her fresh perspective and process-driven approach to exhibitor success. She is the author of Exhibit Smarter: A Step-by-Step Guide to Trade Show Success (Amazon, Bookshop)*.

Almost every professional has been to a trade show. A lot of us have represented our organizations at conferences and shows. And many leaders have trade shows somewhere in their portfolios. In this conversation, Robyn and I explore how to help your team engage the right people at these events to ensure the investment you’ve made is worth it.

• Prioritize strategic value over vanity metrics and activities. Tactics that get people into your booth aren’t necessarily the ones that line up with the needs of your organization.
• The decisions that organizations make about trade show activities are often heavily influenced by what’s been done in the past.

Use five steps to lead interactions inside your booth:

1. Welcome visitors with a targeted question that quickly identifies if a conversation is useful for both parties.
2. Create and use a qualification rubric for your team to quickly triage interactions.
3. Ensure smooth handoffs to the right party by making a personal introduction and relying on relevant details of whatever conversation has already taken place.
4. If the next step is an on-site meeting, make it concise (5-10 minutes) and follow up with a longer interaction later. If demoing a product or service, involve the visitor in the demonstration.
5. Close with a thank you, business card, brief review of the notes, next steps, and gracefully saying goodbye.

• Exhibit Smarter: A Step-by-Step Guide to Trade Show Success by Robyn Davis (Amazon, Bookshop)*

Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required).

• Serve Others Through Marketing, with Seth Godin (episode 381)
• The Reason People Make Buying Decisions, with Marcus Collins (episode 664)
• How High Performers Land New Business, with Matt Dixon (episode 736)

Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. Go beyond the podcast to find the right ideas and apply them with confidence inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Priya Parker is a facilitator, strategic advisor, bestselling author of The Art of Gathering, and executive producer and host of the New York Times podcast, Together Apart. Trained in the field of conflict resolution, she has spent 20 years guiding leaders and groups through complicated conversations about community, identity, and vision at moments of transition. She is the author of the new book, The Art of Fighting: The Transformative Power of Conflict (Amazon, Bookshop)*.

Often we assume that good leaders and good teams don’t fight. In this conversation, Priya tells us that, “Fighting is not the death of community. It is its lifeblood.” We explore how to turn conflict into progress.

• Even experts who handle group conflict often find it challenging, fearful, and unsettling.
• Becoming a durable, sustainable group does not happen without a fight.
• One of the biggest myths that hold leaders back is that “good” people and “good” groups don’t fight.
• There’s a seniority caveat to conflict. Leaders often confuse what needs to be felt with what needs to be said.
• It’s a lie to believe that “if only” one thing hadn’t happened that conflict would not have occurred. If it wasn’t that, it would have been something else.
• Milestones, transitions, schedule changes, and celebrations are often triggering events for conflict. Instead of thinking, “This is the worst timing,” expect conflict at these times.

• The Art of Fighting: The Transformative Power of Conflict by Priya Parker (Amazon, Bookshop)*

Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required).

• How to Create Meaningful Gatherings, with Priya Parker (episode 395)
• The Way Out of Major Conflict, with Amanda Ripley (episode 529)
• How to Help Difficult Conversations Go Better, with Sheila Heen (episode 655)

Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. Go beyond the podcast to find the right ideas and apply them with confidence inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

For over 20 years, Sebastian Wernicke has guided organizations around the world to harness the power of data and AI to achieve breakthrough transformation. His three acclaimed TED Talks have reached over 5 million viewers. He is the author of Data Inspired: Building an Organizational Culture of Inquiry for Lasting Transformation (Amazon, Bookshop)*.

We all have more access to data than ever. That means we should be making better decisions than we ever have before, yes? If only it were that simple. In this conversation, Sebastian and I explore who you can actually use all that data to make better decisions.

• Data initiatives don’t necessarily fail, but often do something worse: make your organization stay the same.
• Better data does not automatically result in better decisions. An organization also needs the cultural maturity to be swayed by the data.
• Nobody makes decisions that look like the logical decision-making processes we see in books. In addition, the emotions we put into decisions are actually critically helpful.
• During uncertainty, more data tends to make us more uncertain. Once we’ve decided something, we tend to discount contrary data.
• Decisions are rarely made entirely by one person and heavily influenced by the team or organization’s culture.
• Leaders can help integrate helpful data by saying things like, “I’m looking for data to tell me where I am wrong.”
• Bringing in structure such as written notes or memos before or at the start of meetings can help data be considered before we discount it.

• Data Inspired: Building an Organizational Culture of Inquiry for Lasting Transformation (Amazon, Bookshop)*

Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required).

• How to Involve Stakeholders in Decisions, with Eric Pliner (episode 586)
• How to Change People’s Minds, with Michael McQueen (episode 676) – contradictory data not swaying people
• How to Lead Engaging Meetings, with Jess Britt (episode 721)

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Stephanie Evergreen is a data visualization and design expert. She has trained future data nerds worldwide through keynotes and workshops, for Fortune 500 clients like MasterCard and Facebook and mission-aligned clients like the United Nations, the Boys and Girls Club, AARP, and The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. She has three books and a popular blog on data visualization.

Data: we’ve all got tons of access to it these days. But perhaps almost too much – how do we actually make sense of it and then communicate clearly with it? In this conversation, Stephanie and I explore how a leader can best use data to make their message land.

• Many of us are overwhelmed by access to data, but lots of leaders find that much of the data isn’t actionable for increasing performance.
• Because dashboards attempt to answer many questions, they often result in doing a poor job of highlighting a key message or insight.
• Instead of showing every data point you’ve ever collected, use smart formatting to highlight the single thing your team needs to know.
• Decide in advance what the key message of a slide, chart, or presentation should be. Then, design for that clear message.
• Answer the burning question that your audience is likely asking.
• Leaders set the tone for transparency with data that isn’t good news. Encourage and reward hearing the honest story to establish a culture where truth is shared and addressed.

• Build a Data Culture by Stephanie Evergreen
• Why Data-Packed Meetings Miss the Mark (And What to Do About It) by Stephanie Evergreen

• Performance Measurement That Gets Results, with Stacey Barr (episode 419)
• The Way to Influence Executives, with Nancy Duarte (episode 450)
• How to Respond When You Don’t Have Resources, with Laura West (episode 699)

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Today is the FINAL day to apply for the Coaching for Leaders Academy.

Are you at an inflection point? Apply to the Academy by the of the day today, Friday, September 11th.

Dave shares four words that detail what’s different about leaders who consistently get better – and even THRIVE – and those who don’t.

Are you at an inflection point? Apply to the Coaching for Leaders Academy by Friday, September 11th.

Academy alum Jen Quammen joins Dave to share how she prioritized showing up at her best when taking on a major leadership role.

Are you at an inflection point? Apply to the Coaching for Leaders Academy by Friday, September 11th.