Is it me with this problem? Or is it them? How often have you asked yourself this? Are you baffled by other people's surprising, sometimes useless, difficult, conflicting, apathetic, or even toxic behaviour? We've all had to work with (and for) shirkers, underperformers, over-bearing people, timewasters, managers who can't manage, lazy people and others who seem at cross purposes with the rest of the team. It's hard to understand people who think and behave differently from us, perhaps with conflicting values. Especially if they won't listen to you.

And what about us? Maybe we are the problem. The more we know, the less confident we become. If we can't control our negative thinking, our deep-rooted fear of not fitting in can turn into reality. What are your blind spots?

There's a wide gulf between the connected culture that organisations aspire to and what happens in real life. Real life is exactly what international leadership and executive coach Zena Everett describes in this book. Each chapter is a true story of broken connection from her coaching practice. Her tools will help you to find common ground constructively so that you can repair dysfunction and tension in your own work relationships and foster a sense of belonging instead.

This book dissects the complexity of your people problems in a highly engaging and empowering way. We all need to understand each other better. And if you ever wondered what exactly an executive coach does, Zena reveals the dark arts of her booming but largely unregulated profession.