The Boss Whispering Institute
Dedicated to research and training in the field of coaching abrasive leaders.
Boss Whispering® is a coaching method designed specifically for abrasive leaders, who are generally unaware of, or tend to minimize the impact of their behavior. The Boss Whispering® approach helps individuals quickly gain insight into the impact of their words and actions and develop non-destructive management strategies.
What defines an abrasive leader?
Abrasive leaders rub their co-workers the wrong way. Their words and actions create interpersonal friction that grates on subordinates, peers, and even superiors, eroding employee motivation and organizational productivity. Abrasive conduct can range on a continuum from mildly irritating to severely disruptive (otherwise known as workplace bullying).
What are the symptoms of abrasive leadership?
Symptoms of abrasive leadership may include, but are not limited to:
- Complaints regarding the individual’s interactions with coworkers
- Requests to transfer out of the leader’s department
- Attrition of valued employees
- Decreased morale and motivation
- Potential or actual harassment litigation
What are the advantages of Boss Whispering®?
Boss Whispering® is designed to be enlightening and profoundly rewarding for the abrasive leader. Coaching clients frequently express gratitude for their employer’s willingness to offer help through Boss Whispering®, rather than moving toward demotion or termination. Coworker distress ends, and employees regard the leader positively for changing, and the organization for intervening. Finally, employers retain the leader’s expertise while eliminating the risk of future attrition, litigation, or anti-organization sentiment related to abrasive leadership.
How does it work?
This highly confidential process involves an initial onsite assessment followed by regular in-person or ZOOM coaching sessions. Boss Whispering® usually lasts 8-10 sessions, and demonstrable results should be evident by the third coaching session.
On what is Boss Whispering® based?
Boss Whispering® is based on extensive research with over 400 abrasive executives, managers, supervisors and professionals (including medical, legal, and academic). Using this approach helps individuals quickly gain insight into the impact of their words and actions and develop non-destructive management strategies.
What is Courageous Conduct Intervention®?
It’s a foolproof 5-step method that shows employers how to intervene with abrasive leaders and motivate them to transform their dysfunctional management styles. Courageous Conduct Intervention® can also be applied to abrasive employees in non-leadership roles.
Nothing is more terrible than activity without insight. – Thomas Carlyle
Online Training: The Science & Practice of Coaching Abrasive Leaders
This intensive self-paced online course includes two individual consultations with Dr. Crawshaw and inclusion in our bimonthly forum discussions.
APPROVED FOR 24 ICF CCE’s
APPROVED FOR 34 BCC CE’s
APPROVED FOR 35 AC CPD’s
We often irritate others when we think we could not possibly do so. – La Rouchefoucauld
Find a Boss Whisperer
Boss Whisperers® have successfully coached leaders in over forty Fortune 500 companies throughout the world, having undergone intensive Institute training and supervision to achieve accreditation. Practitioners of the method provide services worldwide. To find a Boss Whisperer® to discuss your concerns and assist with the referral process.
“Never get angry, never make a threat. Reason with people.” – Don Corleone, The Godfather
Dr. Laura Crawshaw (aka “The Boss Whisperer®”)
Dr. Crawshaw is the world’s leading expert on coaching abrasive leaders and relieving the organizational disruption and workplace suffering they cause. With more than 35 years’ experience as a psychotherapist, corporate officer, executive coach, researcher and author, she founded The Boss Whispering Institute in 2008, which is dedicated to research and training in the field of coaching abrasive leaders.
Through her pioneering work, Dr. Crawshaw has dispelled the myth that leaders who engage in bullying behaviors are incapable of changing their management styles, bringing insight to these individuals and hope to their employers.