CLIENT: Director at Fortune 500 Biotech Company
THE NEED:
The client was an experienced leader who was looking to gain promotion at a time when the corporate culture was rapidly shifting under a new CEO. While their work history and skills were exemplary, there was a lack of transparency from management to help the client see a path to promotion. The client was frustrated and almost ready to leave the organization after years of service.
RESULT:
John and the client agreed to first work on building resilience that would give them some ‘breathing room” from which to create an action-oriented strategy. As the client found their ability to let things go that they had no control over, they were then able to focus on taking full responsibility for the things they could change that would position them well for promotion. They identified and joined special projects which gave them visibility within their national and global teams. Their ability to use their increased resilience in their public speaking with senior leadership impressed a number of decision-makers, which resulted in several offers for positions the client had not known existed. As a result, they found a new role within the organization that was a perfect fit for who they now were, that also allowed for learning and growth going forward.
CLIENT: Director in a Fortune 500 Advertising Company
THE NEED:
The client had recently taken on greater leadership responsibility and yet was unclear about their purpose or career vision, and was also struggling with stress and exhaustion. Recent large shifts in leadership direction brought greater complexity and confusion regarding where the culture at the organization was headed and what opportunities would be present. Challenges included a soft skills gap in a complex corporate environment.
RESULT:
The client successfully transitioned into their new responsibility and is now recognized internally as well as with partners, as a respected leader. The client developed greater clarity around their values, including how those inform their decision-making and also help create a strong career vision. As a result, they became more decisive, improved their time-management, and communicated a clear strategic vision to their team and peers. They also increased their level of candor with direct reports and with senior leadership members. They voiced concerns about conflict that was affecting team performance and partner relationships, and offered suggestions for improvement which were successfully implemented.
CLIENT: Director in a Technology Startup
THE NEED:
The client had identified that while their overall performance was exceeding all performance expectations, they lacked purpose and vision and considered leaving their company. In addition, they were frustrated by what they saw as a lack of work-ethic and honesty among some of their employees, and they wondered what they could do as a leader about this pattern. The client sought coaching support to better understand what was happening and how they could move forward with greater clarity and purpose.
RESULT:
Through focused coaching work, the client gained clarity and understanding of their own values, their vision, and how conflict emerged between two key values in their decision making. They also discovered how their communication style was at odds with their stated desire to help their staff learn and develop within the organization. With this new clarity, the client was determined to take action and create a development path from gained awareness to ensure a more successful outcome in his current role. The client is now thriving as a well-respected leader and has greatly increased the success and satisfaction of his team.
CLIENT: CEO at a Nonprofit Organization
THE NEED:
The client was an experienced leader, but new to the role of nonprofit CEO. They were struggling with work/life balance issues, challenged by seemingly endless decision-making and with shifting the culture of the organization from more status-quo to a focus on results.
RESULT:
In the initial work with the client, John helped them gain clarity and prioritize their focus around decision-making and communication. The client discovered how they were taking on too much of the decision-making, and thereby removing opportunities for real learning and growth from the senior leadership team. Together with John they created a new structure that focused on outcomes at all levels of the organization that shifted the culture and energized the staff and board. In their focus on communication, John and the client explored “radical candor” and how the client had been holding back from sharing honest and much-needed feedback with his senior leadership team. The CEO saw how their communication was limiting team performance and made a huge shift in their communication style over several months, rolling the same communication model out successfully to their senior leadership team to great effect.
CLIENT: Executive Director of Creative Strategy in a University
THE NEED:
The client was feeling burnt-out after massive organizational change and a promotion to a new role left them feeling as if they were “fighting fires every waking moment”. They were not sensing support from their supervisor, and their team was shell-shocked from the chaos from their predecessor. They were clear that they needed help re-balancing their work life with their personal life, as well as building resilience, gaining clarity around their values and vision, increasing their confidence in high-stakes communications, and building trust within and around their team.
RESULT:
The first step was for the client to prioritize what result would bring the greatest relief to them in the shortest amount of time. Working together with the client, John helped them find clarity on their values and vision, and begin to prioritize their decision-making from this clarity. As the client began to find greater success and satisfaction, John and the client identified multiple specific action plans and development paths to keep the positive momentum. Many months later with further shifts in the leadership structure, the client was promoted and is now leading a highly motivated and successful team. She’s also been commended as a greatly transformed leader by senior leadership.
CLIENT: Internal Coach in Fortune 500 Technology Company
THE NEED:
The client was promoted to the path to become an internal coach, and was just starting training to move into this role. A great opportunity and one she was anxious about as she had no prior formal coaching experience and had not experienced a coaching relationship for herself. Despite being recognized as top talent, the client wasn’t feeling super confident in her abilities to succeed in this new role.
RESULT:
Working closely with the client, John identified keys to success for the client in her new role within the company context. John combined that insight with what he learned about the client, helping her declare her existing strengths and skills, identified a few areas to develop and expand and how to put all this into action on the job. The client has now successfully transitioned to their new role with great satisfaction of what she’s been able to accomplish, and how she is empowering others to achieve greater impact and satisfaction in their work.
CLIENT: Regional Director of a Fortune 500 Hospitality Company
THE NEED:
The client wanted to increase their overall influence with their communications both internally with their supervisor, team and peers, as well as with external partners. They saw other leaders who “lit up the room” with their communication skills, and recognized that they were not doing this. They understood that the gap they perceived was holding back the learning and growth of their team, as well as external business opportunities.
RESULT:
With coaching, the client was able to leverage his strengths, and develop what had previously been blind spots that were limiting his communication effectiveness. With practice, he created greater trust and influence with his supervisor which helped them work much more collaboratively than they previously had. With his team he more actively and openly welcomed and delivered timely, helpful feedback that increased the learning and growth of his direct reports. And with his external partners he found his ability to use both humor and succinctness as powerful tools to “light up the room” when needed.
CLIENT: Operations Director of an International Construction Company
THE NEED:
The company sought a coaching partner for the Director chosen in a succession plan for a VP role with some development work suggested before promotion. Additionally, the company saw their previous coaching partners as ineffective with regards to their last round of succession planning which now created some skepticism that coaching could make a difference. The client was seen as a highly effective long-term leader yet they had specific behaviors that the company hoped a coach could help develop as they moved towards promotion. The client recognized that his long-term supervisor (role to which he would move into) and he had patterns of communication and action that were exhausting, showed divisiveness to the rest of the organization, and ultimately were failing to help develop leaders under their supervision.
RESULT:
Working in partnership with the participant and HR leadership to gather initial perspective and promotion expectations was critical to then be able to work in confidence with the participant to help them effectively navigate the process, culture and context. John and the client worked together to create a unique strategy and plan to achieve their goals. After the first few sessions the client reported an early “miracle” in the communication and collaboration between he and his supervisor with challenges that had been happening “for years”. The client has commented on their ability to find greater resilience when needed to deal with adversity and focus on the results that matter.