Client Stories
Tanya - The go-it-alone highflyer
Tanya held a high-level position in her organisation. She got there by virtue of hard graft. She was technically highly competent and managed large projects for her company, sometimes several at once. She was a self-confessed ‘workaholic’.
The issues
In charge of a team of eight, she was a micro-manager and found it hard to delegate. She felt her team were sometimes incapable of delivering, so she took on too much of the work herself.
She had an abrasive manner, which along with not empowering her direct reports gave rise to increasing tensions and lack of motivation in her team.
Her poor time management skills often led to late delivery and increasing frustrations within her team.
Although she had a brusque management style, Jayne was not assertive nor was she clear about the tasks in hand.
The outcome
When Tanya first came for coaching, she thought she just needed to prioritise work better, but after a few sessions, she came to realise that there was much more to it than that.
We set about uncovering what lay behind her behaviour and little by little it became clear she wasn’t listening to her colleagues and they could sense that they weren’t being heard. She wasn’t asking them the right questions or even any questions at all.
They no longer felt it worthwhile to say anything as as she kept shutting them down.
She genuinely didn’t realise that she was short with people but saw being “business-like” as a practical way of bringing things to a close before they “went off at a tangent”.
Tanya came to realise that perhaps she could moderate her behaviour rather than expect eight other people to fit in with her autocratic way of working.
As Tanya became more self-aware, she was filled with regret at the way she had been behaving. It was her coping mechanism and not done out of spite or lack of thought.
She was a hard-pressed senior executive trying to do too much on her own and not making full use of her colleagues’ ability to help.
Our work together over time has enabled her to become aware of these scenarios and to manage her team more effectively.*
Kevin - The maverick
Kevin was a divisional director of a global manufacturing company. He was responsible for a team of 150 people and sales of £750m. He had been with the company for ten years and in that time the market had grown considerably. Kevin had had a relatively easy ride.
The issues
When recession hit, the company had to restructure, effectively downsizing overnight. Kevin’s easy going and counter-cultural management style had been tolerated by the senior management team because he got results.
However, looking to the future, he could see his team would have to shrink, cut costs and stop some product lines. These were tough decisions for someone who had a relaxed attitude to his work and who had previously given the heavy lifting to his direct reports.
As his main strength was his relationships with clients, he was of significant value to the business. However, he looked with some trepidation at these unwelcome decisions he knew he had to make. He felt he was not up to the job and would soon be found out.
His solution was to go on a couple of training courses and talk to some colleagues at the European head office. He felt if he could gain some knowledge this way, it would be enough to put his restructure plans into practice.
This process failed. The reason it failed was because although Kevin could see on paper what needed to be done, carrying it out and shifting his management methods was beyond him.
The outcome
Kevin’s initial view of coaching was suspicious. He felt it would show him up to be weak.
When our coaching started it became clear that Kevin’s job was the central point of his life. He had gone through a particularly difficult time in his personal life. His maverick side had become the sole part of his identity.
Being able to make sense of these dynamics was a big step forward. As we worked through these complex issues it became clear that Kevin possessed the necessary skills to implement the changes his company wanted.*
Guillaume - The reluctant salesman
Guillaume was a marketing director with a global manufacturing company. 90% of their revenue came from the UK and Europe with the remaining 10% from the Far East. Twenty years ago, they had developed a niche product, but now, with increased competition and the maturing of markets throughout Western Europe, the company were finding their profits flatlining and in some countries showing negative growth.
The UK board had put a pay freeze on all employees until the company could show a rise in profits. In Europe this was likely to mean cost cutting and greater attention being placed on the Far Eastern markets.
The issues
These developments posed several issues for Guillaume. Firstly, he had been promised a promotion at his appraisal six months ago which his boss had told him recently was now on hold. Secondly, although he knew the business inside out, he was now responsible for a growth strategy, something he had never had to do before. So he felt under immense pressure.
Guillaume’s strength’s lay in planning, setting market share objectives and working alongside the sales team to implement them. As not much had needed to change in the process over the years, this was pretty straightforward work. He decided he could model new objectives, carry out the necessary analysis and write the business plan based on the existing markets. As the board trusted him, persuading them that his whole approach made sense, wasn’t difficult either.
But with these new challenges Guillaume felt ill-equipped to carry out what was needed. What was causing him considerable anxiety was his ability to sell his ideas to new distributors.
This lack of confidence led him to adopt a range of conflicting behaviours. Sometimes he would try to control meetings and speak over people. At other times he switched off and stopped listening. He often didn’t follow the thread of what was being said.
The outcome
Guillaume welcomed the coaching as he did not understand why his behaviour had changed so quickly. However, a number of factors soon began to emerge:
He was used to being in control and lacked the skills to bring new people with him and “hold the room”
He thought that by interrupting a conversation, and forcing his point of view, he would get people to buy into it his ideas
He lacked the ability to lead in situations that were new to him
Essentially, he felt he was going to be starved of airtime and lacked the assertiveness to be seen as competent. The coaching process allowed him to organise his thoughts and emotions better so he could become aware of the impact he was having on others.
He also learned that it was okay not to be perfect and that a change in circumstances needed a change in approach.
Having accepted the way forward would be different, he could see he had some of the competencies already, he now needed to build on them.*
*These case studies are based on actual people but their identities and some of the circumstances may have been changed to protect their anonymity.