Office Politics, Unpacked | with Kris Verlé

This episode is about managing teams across multiple locations and how to make your decisions stick with teams who may hardly ever see you in person.

Managing distributed teams means you have formal authority but often can't get a clear picture of what's happening on the ground. Almost everything you learn about a site comes from the person you put in charge of it, which makes your read on that team only as good as their judgement about what's worth passing on.

In this episode, I cover six things that help:

* How to set communication rules with each site manager
* How to build a second line of sight into each location without creating backchannels
* Why who you put in charge is your single biggest decision
* How your visits can undermine the manager you appointed
* How to pick the one or two things per site worth fighting over
* When to stop persuading and start instructing

Plus a closing thought on proximity bias, and why the people you see least are the ones missing out when it's time to get promoted.

You got promoted, and the people who were at the same level as you now report to you. The relationship you built with them will need to be reset, and how you handle that reset will determine whether your team ends up working with you or around you.

In this episode, I decided to take a slightly harder, more political look at managing former peers after an internal promotion. 

I talk about why being likeable won't be enough to earn their support. How the balance of power has shifted, and why people start managing what they let you see now that you control their pay and their career prospects. I also discuss how to work out what each person actually wants, using what you already know about them from years of sitting alongside them. 

Office Politics, Unpacked gives senior managers and directors honest guidance on the human side of leadership: influence, visibility, stakeholder dynamics, and the unwritten rules that decide who gets ahead.

Being called reliable, dependable, or a safe pair of hands sounds like a compliment. At senior level, it often isn't.

In this episode, executive coach Kris Verlé explains why the reliable label creates a self-imposed glass ceiling, why so many senior managers are making it worse without realising it, and what you need to start doing differently to change how you're seen.

It comes down to three things: visibility, conflict, and point of view. Each one is a gap in your record that decision-makers notice, even when they don't say so out loud.

If you're a senior manager who works hard, delivers consistently, and still feels overlooked, this episode is for you.

Office Politics, Unpacked covers the unwritten rules of organisational life that you won't find in a leadership manual. Hosted by Kris Verlé, executive coach and former political advisor and lobbyist.

You're delivering great work, your manager rates you, and yet somehow you're not the person getting invited to the conversations that matter. Or at least not as often as you'd expect at your level.

In this episode, I explore why individual contributions become structurally harder to see as you progress in the corporate hierarchy, and why the most capable senior managers are often the least visible to the people who determine what happens next in their careers.

Covered in this episode:

• Why letting your work speak for itself stops working at senior level
• The difference between a mentor and a sponsor, and why it matters
• Three practical tactics for building visibility without self-promotion
• How to develop a professional brand that travels beyond your job title
• What to do if you suspect your manager is the barrier

Hosted by Kris Verlé, executive coach and former political advisor.

Office Politics, Unpacked is the podcast for senior managers and directors who are ready to close the gap between the work they do and the recognition they get for it.

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Extended

Is your boss making your job harder than it needs to be? This episode covers the four most common difficult boss situations and what to actually do about them.
You'll learn how to handle:

02:01 - A boss who keeps changing their mind and moving the goalposts 
03:59 - A manager who doesn't communicate and leaves you in the dark
05:33 - A boss who won't back you up or fight for resources
07:36 - A reporting relationship where the chemistry is just off

For each scenario, you'll get the exact words to use, what success looks like, and how to know if it's fixable or time to plan your exit. 

No generic "communicate better" advice - just practical strategies that work.

Hosted by executive coach, Kris Verlé.

Imposter syndrome in meetings is usually a threat response rather than a reflection on your talents. 

In this short episode, I share a practical protocol you can use before, during, and after any high-stakes meeting so you stop going quiet, over-explaining, or replaying the whole thing for hours afterwards. 

You'll learn: 

• A 90-second prep, where you decide on your function, and at least one contribution
• What when you're in the meeting to label your thoughts and focus your attention outward again
• What to do after the meeting to make sense of what happened

This is a great episode for anyone who wants to show up with greater executive presence and authority in meetings. 

 If you ramble at work or talk yourself into a circle when you’re under pressure, this episode will help. 

You’ll learn why people stop listening when you overshare, how rambling quietly harms your professional reputation, and the simple tools that make you sound clearer, steadier, and more senior. 

If you want people to take you seriously and pay attention when you speak, start here. 

01:33 - Why we ramble

03:24 - How to tell you're rambling

04:54 - Why rambling is so bad for your career

07:03 - The antidote: good storytelling

11.41 - How to speak with real authority

 Hate small talk? You’re not alone. 

But when done right, it’s one of the quickest ways to build trust, warmth, and credibility at work. 

In this episode, I break down the psychology of small talk, what it really is, why it matters more than you think, and how to make it feel natural instead of forced. 

Learn how to steady your nerves, read the room, and connect with people in a way that feels confident, human, and real.  

00:00 – love it or hate it

01:26 –  What small talk really is

03:28 – How to ground yourself before engaging in small talk

05:05 – When small talk goes wrong

* Overthinking it 

* Not reading the room

* Going on for too long

* Trying to be too professional

 11:08  – The importance of courage

Hate networking? You’re not alone. 

In this episode of Altitude Shift, I break down why most professionals get networking wrong and how to reframe it into authentic relationship-building. 

You'll learn the five strategic principles to grow visibility and access, overcome the fear of rejection, and connect with senior leaders without feeling slimy or transactional.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:37 Psychological roadblocks
04:03 Five strategic principles
08:39 Visibility vs access
10:57 How to approach senior leaders
13:55 People smell intent

Most of us struggle with balance in tough conversations. Either we soften our words so much that the message becomes lost, or we come across as blunt and leave people feeling hurt. 

Radical Candour, a framework made famous by Kim Scott, offers a better path: being clear and direct while still showing you care. 

In this episode, I’ll unpack why straightforwardness is such a critical (and often ignored) leadership skill. I’ll look at the Radical Candour model, explore why most of us get stuck in “ruinous empathy,” and share practical ways to speak up with courage, self-control, and respect. 

If you want to give feedback without being mean, strengthen trust, and build the kind of authority people actually want to follow, this episode is for you.