Product Therapy Coaching Up
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Sep 4, 2025 Lea Hickman, a partner at SVPG with a rich background coaching leaders at Adobe and IBM, joins to discuss the often-taboo topic of coaching up. She explains why giving feedback to your manager matters and shares tactics for approaching disengaged leaders. The conversation dives into using personal user manuals to understand management styles, navigating difficult workplace dynamics, and the importance of communication in fostering trust and collaboration. Lea also addresses ego and insecurity in leadership, stressing that shaping the manager-employee relationship is a shared responsibility.
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Leaders Don't Know Everything
- Leaders often lack full information and need their teams to surface context and clarity.
- Coaching up is essential because managers can't know everything and rely on others to inform decisions.
Ask For Coaching Directly
- If you're not getting coaching, ask for it directly and be explicit about what you want.
- Model coachability by proposing a feedback framework and invite your manager to use it.
New Leader Lacked Function Knowledge
- Lea describes a new leader who publicly spoke but lacked function knowledge and would need coaching from tenured staff.
- She questioned whether that leader would be open to coaching from direct reports.