Ep. 105 Michael Bungay Stanier on building the best possible relationship at work

Michael Bungay Stanier returns to Leadermorphosis, and this time we get right into the messy, human heart of work: our relationships. Michael is the author of the bestselling The Coaching Habit and, most recently, How to Work with (Almost) Anyone. He is on a mission to un-weird the soft stuff, to make better working relationships something we build on purpose rather than leave to chance.

We talk about why the quality of your working relationships is so crucial for happiness and success, and about what Michael calls the Best Possible Relationship: one that is safe, vital and repairable. We get into how to upgrade our relationships, including how to have healthy conflict, as well as misunderstandings of psychological safety.

Resources:

• Check out the 10th anniversary edition of Michael's book The Coaching Habit

• The Change Signal episode with Liane Davey about why we need more conflict, not less

• The Enemies Project YouTube channel we mentioned

• Related Leadermorphosis podcast episodes:

• Ep. 68 - my first conversation with Michael about being more coaching

• Ep. 45 with Prof. Amy Edmondson

• Ep. 100 with my colleagues from Tuff about pebbles conversations and some of our other practices