Billions’ Wendy Rhoades shows the value of a good performance coach
My favorite fictional performance coach, Wendy Rhoades (or as some viewers spell it, Rhodes), was back at it on this week’s episode of Billions. I’ve written before about how accurate her portrayal of performance coaching is. Despite all of the drama in Billions’ fictionalized world of hedge funds and government prosecutors, the character of Wendy Rhoades, played by Maggie Siff, plays an integral role in keeping the hedge fund at the center of the story successful. Her situation — married to the U.S. attorney dedicated to taking her firm down — may be pure fiction, but the techniques she uses to correct and motivate the firm’s traders are rooted in the real world of executive development.
Her job this week was especially tough. Her boss, hedge fund guru Bobby Axelrod, played by Damian Lewis, made a terrible judgment call, which resulted in a huge financial loss for the firm. He reached out to Wendy to help him understand why he screwed up. What followed was an unusual and insightful all-night coaching session and a glimpse at the vulnerability that’s behind Axelrod’s tremendous ego.
The writers of Billions must have a good advisor, because Wendy’s performance coaching illustrated several important aspects of management psychology. She maintained a careful balance between accommodating her boss’s need to dominate and simultaneously setting clear professional boundaries. For example, when they sat down in her office, Bobby sat on a couch, which is not the seat where her clients sit. Wendy quietly sat in her coach’s seat and waited for him to move to the appropriate chair. She used her professional training to provide information and structure without resorting to jargon. She identified key themes and questions and gently but firmly kept insisting that Bobby deal with them. She helped him connect with both the intellectual and emotional aspects of his dilemma. And she stuck with him until he reached a resolution that helped him to step back into his role. Through it all, she quietly communicated her respect and caring for him.
Performance coaching is sometimes written off as touchy-feely pseudoscience. But Billions shows again and again that, in the right hands, management psychology is a set of proven techniques that can improve individual performance and dramatically shift a company’s bottom line.
It is so refreshing to see a character like Wendy Rhoades – smart, powerful, confident, and effective. I’m curious to see what she’ll do next.
