Your Working Life

Sabina Nawaz episode:

The music used in this episode was Sweeping Broomstick by Jangwa from Free Music Archive (CC BY)

YOU’RE THE BOSS: Become the Manager You Want to Be (and Others Need)

Sabina Nawaz is an elite executive coach who advises C-level executives and teams at Fortune 500 corporations, government agencies, nonprofits, and academic institutions around the world. Sabina gives dozens of keynotes, seminars, and conferences each year and teaches faculty at Northeastern and Drexel Universities. During her fourteen-year tenure at Microsoft, she went from managing software development teams to leading the company’s executive development and succession planning efforts for over 11,000 managers and nearly a thousand executives, advising Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer directly. She has written for and been featured in Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, NBC, Nasdaq, and MarketWatch.

Millions of managers in today’s global economy—16 million in the U.S. alone—steer firms toward greatness or failure. Which way depends on the manager’s skill. Too often, bosses are turned loose without a roadmap, only to discover the traits that launched them to the top now block their success. At today’s breakneck business pace, there's no time for navel-gazing. So, how do you quickly become the manager who gets things done and people want to follow? How do you recognize what’s holding you back and affecting your relationship with your team?

Global C-suite coach Sabina Nawaz gives surprising answers and contrarian views in her new book YOU’RE THE BOSS: Becoming the Manager You Want to Be (and Others Need) (Simon & Schuster, March 4, 2025). According to Nawaz, it’s not power that corrupts—it’s pressure. As a manager’s role grows, so does the pressure to deliver. Power, on the other hand, blinds. As a boss climbs the ranks, they grow more distant from their teams, often missing important cues. Taken together, pressure and power are career-killing forces that can turn even a well-meaning manager into someone no one wants to work for.

Nawaz taps her lived experience as a Microsoft executive and backs it up with 12,000 pages of proprietary data drawn from thousands of 360° interviews. She distills insights from over 20 years of coaching CEOs and executives at organizations like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Motorola, Nordstrom, and the United Nations. Her myth-busting stories and data reveal the leadership secrets of highly successful managers that anyone at any level can use to succeed.

Topics Nawaz explores in YOU’RE THE BOSS include:

• What makes one manager a superstar and another crash and burn
• Why being promoted is the riskiest time in your career and how to make sure you thrive
• Why managing yourself first pays off better and faster
• Power Gaps and Pressure Pitfalls – how to spot and avoid them before they derail your relationships and career
• The power of Blank Space – how doing “nothing” can reset your mind and management skills while amping up your creativity
• Mapping communication fault lines to short-circuit conflict before it starts

• Why busyness is a choice—and a trap – and how to avoid picking it

• Why you need a Yes List– to build habits, recalibrate your thought process, and create sustained results
• Why self-care for managers isn’t a maybe, it’s a must–and crucial to your team’s success
• Why everyone needs a Time Portfolio–a simple, quick tool to manage your time to achieve your goals

• Rediscovering your “why” –to stop pressure from stealing your passion and purpose

Offering a fresh, evidence-based framework for managing pressure and power with grace and intelligence, YOU’RE THE BOSS provides proven strategies to become the boss you want to be—and others need—while experiencing less stress and greater impact. And that impact can go beyond the workplace. As Nawaz reminds us, “the more we upgrade our skill set at work, the more we feel enlightened and empowered outside the workday—and vice versa. We become better bosses, better spouses and partners, better parents, and better community citizens. Our experiences, both professional and personal, are made richer as we see ourselves and the path forward with clarity, inspire others, and make a potent difference in the world around us.”

Social media:

Website: https://sabinanawaz.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabinanawaz/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sabinacoaching/