The Corner Office Manuals
Practical, honest guides for aspiring, new & experienced leaders and managers — one focused topic per manual, built on real leadership experience rather than theory.
Written by Emily Ford, founder of The Corner Office and former Senior Manager at Google.
New guides added monthly.
What You'll Learn
Each manual gives you a clear framework, real examples drawn from actual leadership situations, and space to apply it to your own. No theory for theory's sake — just practical tools you can use the next time it matters. New manuals are added monthly, each tackling a different leadership challenge.
Every leader has an inner critic. This guide teaches you to work with yours, not against it.
Meet the NOISE framework — five steps to name it, question it, and act anyway.
Real examples. Common pitfalls. A guided reflection to make it yours.
Turn down the volume. Don't wait for it to go quiet.
Manual 01Say it Anyway
A practical guide to giving honest, effective feedback — without losing sleep, softening the message into meaninglessness, or damaging the relationship. Includes the CLEAR framework, real worked examples, and a self-coaching exercise to plan your next hard conversation.
How to Have the Conversations you have been Avoiding
Most managers know they're avoiding difficult conversations. Without trial and error, few know how to actually have those conversations well.
Say It Anyway is a practical guide for new & experienced managers and leaders who keep putting off the feedback conversation, the performance issue, or the boundary that needs setting. Written by Emily Ford — 26 years in B2B tech sales, the last four as a Senior Manager at Google, and now a qualified Co-Active Coach — this guide draws on real situations from her own career, including the ones she got wrong.
Inside, you'll find:
Why we avoid difficult conversations — and why the opposite problem (over-correcting, micromanaging, harshness) causes just as much damage
The CLEAR Framework — a five-step structure (Context, Label, Effect, Acknowledge, Reset) that replaces the outdated "feedback sandwich" with something more honest and more effective
Three worked examples taken from real management situations, showing CLEAR in action
Common pitfalls and how to handle them — what to do when someone goes silent, gets defensive, turns it back on you, or when your own organisation makes it harder than it should be
A self-coaching exercise to help you identify and plan the exact conversation you've been avoiding, with space to apply CLEAR to your own situation
This isn't a script to memorise. It's a framework you can hold in your head when things get uncomfortable — so you walk in prepared, say what needs to be said, and come out the other side with the relationship, and your integrity, intact.
Manual 02Turn Down the Volume
A practical guide teaching you how to work with your inner critic, not against it.
Meet the NOISE framework — five steps to name it, question it, and act anyway.
Real examples. Common pitfalls. A guided reflection to make it yours.
A Practical Guide to working with your Inner Critic - Not Against It
Every leader has an inner critic. This guide teaches you to work with yours, not against it.
Meet the NOISE framework — five steps to name it, question it, and act anyway.
Real examples. Common pitfalls. A guided reflection to make it yours.
Turn down the volume. Don't wait for it to go quiet.