Issues from past coaching clients
Providing
a sounding board.
An executive had no one he could
talk to without putting on his “everything’s
great” facade. We created
a safe place for him to talk
through his doubts, debrief mistakes,
and talk frankly without worrying
about the impression he made,
or the fiduciary implications
of expressing his uncertainties.
An
executive making her
dreams real.
A senior executive knew that
her job was no longer in line
with her personal life mission.
Together, we worked on identifying
her skills and values, and helped
her craft a plan for leaving
her company gracefully and with
integrity. Because of our work
together, she took the sabbatical
she had always dreamed of: she
climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, went
on horse safari in Botswana,
then returned to Botswana to
work on several writing projects.
Building
an organization.
A senior vice president in a
rapidly growing firm found her
department doubling in size in
under six months. The scope of
work she managed was growing
faster than she could manage.
We shifted the definition of
her job from “overseeing
the creation of the product” to “overseeing
the creation of an organization
which can deliver the product.” She
identified employees who could
be trained to take on parts of
her job, trained them, and delegated
the responsibilities which she
had outgrown.
Making
rapid decisions.
An executive was being considered
for the top spot at his company,
but knew that he made decisions
too slowly. Examining his use
of intuition vs. analysis showed
that he usually had the right
answer about 20% of the way into
a decision he just didn’t
trust himself. We worked on raising
his comfort level with intuitive
decision making, while monitoring
and tuning his intuition's
accuracy.
Managing
a board.
A CEO’s board member represented
a fund needing liquidity. To
create that liquidity, the board
member was mounting a campaign
to have the board sell the company.
We worked on a strategy for approaching
the disaffected board member
about the issue, while laying
communicating with the rest of
the board about the company’s
position and prospects, turning
the situation into a dialog,
rather than a battle.
Finding
life balance.
A young company just hitting
its stride began sapping the
founder's home life. He needed
to rebalance his life while keeping
his company on track. We examined
his work life and mapped out
a specific plan of skill development
(e.g. delegation and prioritizing
skills) which let him restructure
his support systems to get his
work done and let him have a
life.
Developing
executives.
A relatively young manager in
a rapidly growing company was
singled out as having executive
potential. We worked together
to identify gaps in his skills,
attitudes, and approach to his
team. Then, we put together a
program of books, experiences
and exercises to help him develop
the skills he would need to handle
rapid growth.
Simplifying
overwhelm.
A senior member of a management
team was so overwhelmed that
she could not sleep at night.
We created ways for her to mentally “table
an item” before sleep,
so she could reach closure until
the next morning. During the
day, we developed “to do” list
management to help her focus
on a single task at a time,rather
than face a daunting list of
hundreds of items.