Coaching Profile

Three separate examples of successful coaching assignments including the perceived issue, the coaching approach (philosophy, tools, techniques etc.) and the realised outcomes.

ASSIGNMENT ONE

Perceived Issue

The client was a commercial manager within a section of the Civil Service. The presenting issue was a desire to be retained at a promoted position following a mediocre performance at an assessment centre. The client was really the only serious contender in terms of the knowledge they would bring to the job.

Coaching Approach

We reviewed the assessment centre feedback in detail. Compared and contrasted that feedback with the client’s professional, personal history and how he came across during our sessions. In addition, a session was held with his director to add credence to the information he was to glean from the assessment centre.

We identified some issues of leadership impact as well as a perceived lack of quick decision making. We discussed and rehearsed ways of improving impact, which included, networking, identifying key stakeholders within the organisation, how to use different styles of impact for different situations and how set action plans together in order to make his team more effective. We identified a mentor figure who could act as a sounding board for tough decisions. High attention was paid to congruence, language and personal impact in differing situations.

Realised Outcomes

The client was successful in his probation period. He has been seen as performing above the required level by his line director after 5 months of coaching.

ASSIGNMENT TWO

Perceived Issue

As a senior member of an HR team, the client had undergone several organisational changes and was tired. (She also suffered from a physical condition that impacted on her reliability and had done for many years but was manageable) She was very people focused and tended to let deadlines slip. She felt goals were less important than people particularly as the goal posts kept changing. Her main goal for the coaching was to achieve a more balanced management style – achieving more tasks than she was currently able to.

Coaching Approach

We explored why she felt so tired and she realised she felt she could never succeed under her current director. She became aware that a lot of her unhappiness was linked to managing being a parent as well as a professional.

I coached her on how to plan her life, balancing child care and a professional career. During our work together she became pregnant. We addressed the work goals she had to achieve in the 6 months leading up to her maternity leave and how to leave her section in order before she left. We also discussed her return to work and what she wanted to achieve over the next 5 years.

Realised Outcomes

She began to realise that her current director was not the issue but her own inability to have previously known what she had wanted out of work. Her performance excelled expectation before she left to have her baby with the client achieving control and delivery in her assignments. She has recruited and trained her temporary post holder and had resolved conflict in her team before becoming a Mum once again. She left on a ‘high’ and was looking forward to returning to work after her break. Her team and director also shared her enthusiasm and vision for the future.

ASSIGNMENT THREE

Perceived Issue

The client was a senior stock broker who had been overwhelmed with work, bogged down in detail, and who had returned to work following a nervous breakdown. She was the only female in a large strong team and had felt she had lost credibility with her peers and clientele. Her employer was concerned that she was successful in her phased return to work and valued her highly having been very successful for many years in her post.

Coaching Approach

At the first session, I facilitated her to stand back, analyse, and understand what was happening, and challenged her to see how her thinking and behaviour was contributing to the situation. We also used some psychometrics to bring her a sense of self-awareness and to look closely at her personality traits and how they and the situation at work had contributed to her distress. She realised that her inability to say ‘no’ to covering for up to 2 team members during summer holidays as well as manage her own work load, together with a perfectionist drive, had lead to her break-down. I also helped her to realise that her very introspective personality was not suited to her current post which had changed emphasis over the last 2 years, having become client-focused. We worked on how she could deal with this and began to understand how her underlying beliefs and fears, particularly about having to be ’seen as acceptable’, were adding to the pressure. We used EMDR to clear some childhood trauma and realigned the core belief of ‘I’m not acceptable’. She learnt how to say ‘no’ to colleagues.

Realised Outcomes

She changed her way of working, achieving progress in relation to all of the above goals. This led to her becoming less stressed, and more able to share others work load during holiday periods. The team has now made its own rules about how many people should be off at any one time and my client is now making plans to visit clients in the States in a positive and confident state of mind. She has been back at work full-time for 4 months. She has also achieved all her targets, having just received a larger than expected bonus.

Areas of particular interest and significant coaching/experience:

Managing others, emotional intelligence
Performance development
Conflict resolution tutoring
Stress management

Details of specific experiences that directly contribute towards my capability as an executive coach.

I have worked with many nationalities both in the UK, Australia and in France and for many different working and business sectors. With 20 years of experience in human resources and business psychology before qualifying as a coach in 2002.(Although have been coaching for 15 years!) Still maintain several active business interests to ensure my coaching style remains practical and appropriate

Details of specific qualifications that directly contribute towards my capability as an executive coach.

My range of experience is very helpful in assessing and influencing impact as well as an ability to read people very quickly and accurately. Hence the use of techniques built up from both hemispheres is very useful. I have particularly built up a reputation for improving performance for valued employees and re-building ‘burnt-out’ executives.

I also have a private practice as a psychologist working with trauma, anxiety, stress and depression and am registered with the appropriate Boards of authority. This helps in the understanding of the underlying patterns of behaviour and habits that get in the way of people performing at their highest level as well as using some more unusual resource boosting techniques.

My personal learning style and MBTI profile:
Kolb Learning Style Preference: Reflector
MBTI Type: ENTP or INTP (No real difference)