Leadership Apr 30, 2020
Podcast: You Can Lead through a Crisis. But Can You Coach through One?
On this episode of The Insightful Leader: three ways to help your employees arrive at their own answers to difficult questions.

As your employees navigate the COVID-19 crisis, they’re grappling with lots of complicated questions. “What’s my biggest priority right now?” “How can I do the right thing amid so much uncertainty?”
Learn more from Brenda Ellington-Booth in Kellogg Executive Education’s Energizing People for Performance program.
For a leader, it can be tempting to try and answer those questions for them. But an executive coach would recommend taking a different approach. “No one is going to grow and develop if you tell them what to do all the time,” says Brenda Ellington Booth, a clinical professor of leadership at Kellogg, and certified executive coach.
By coaching employees through their problems, you can not only glean new insights that make you a more effective manager—you’ll also maintain healthy relationships that can withstand any crisis. Ellington Booth offers three simple ways to incorporate coaching techniques into your next one-on-one.
Note: The Insightful Leader is produced for the ear, and not meant to be read as a transcript. We encourage you to listen to the audio version above. However, a transcript of this episode is available here.
-
How Much Do Boycotts Affect a Company’s Bottom Line?There’s often an opposing camp pushing for a “buycott” to support the company. New research shows which group has more sway.
-
5 Takeaways on the State of ESG InvestingESG investing is hot. But what does it actually deliver for society and for shareholders?
-
Could Bringing Your "Whole Self" to Work Curb Unethical Behavior?Organizations would be wise to help employees avoid compartmentalizing their personal and professional identities.
-
When Do Open Borders Make Economic Sense?A new study provides a window into the logic behind various immigration policies.
-
Which Form of Government Is Best?Democracies may not outlast dictatorships, but they adapt better.
-
How Has Marketing Changed over the Past Half-Century?Phil Kotler’s groundbreaking textbook came out 55 years ago. Sixteen editions later, he and coauthor Alexander Chernev discuss how big data, social media, and purpose-driven branding are moving the field forward.
-
What Happens to Worker Productivity after a Minimum Wage Increase?A pay raise boosts productivity for some—but the impact on the bottom line is more complicated.
-
Why Do Some People Succeed after Failing, While Others Continue to Flounder?A new study dispels some of the mystery behind success after failure.
-
3 Tips for Reinventing Your Career After a LayoffIt’s crucial to reassess what you want to be doing instead of jumping at the first opportunity.
-
What Went Wrong at AIG?Unpacking the insurance giant's collapse during the 2008 financial crisis.
-
Podcast: Does Your Life Reflect What You Value?On this episode of The Insightful Leader, a former CEO explains how to organize your life around what really matters—instead of trying to do it all.
-
Why Well-Meaning NGOs Sometimes Do More Harm than GoodStudies of aid groups in Ghana and Uganda show why it’s so important to coordinate with local governments and institutions.
-
Your Team Doesn’t Need You to Be the HeroToo many leaders instinctively try to fix a crisis themselves. A U.S. Army colonel explains how to curb this tendency in yourself and allow your teams to flourish.
-
Immigrants to the U.S. Create More Jobs than They TakeA new study finds that immigrants are far more likely to found companies—both large and small—than native-born Americans.
-
How Are Black–White Biracial People Perceived in Terms of Race?Understanding the answer—and why black and white Americans may percieve biracial people differently—is increasingly important in a multiracial society.
-
In a World of Widespread Video Sharing, What’s Real and What’s Not?A discussion with a video-authentication expert on what it takes to unearth “deepfakes.”