Specific examples of coaching
“We all are able to change and grow! We just have to figure out where to start.” (Blaine Lee)
Here are some brief descriptions of actual coaching cases, to give an idea of the potential benefits, if you do not have any experience or you simply cannot do without an example… :-).
Case I.
The client is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of a financial company. He is very intelligent, well educated and capable, with an amazing general overview – he can address all work related issues better than any of his subordinates. He chose coaching with the aim to make his subordinates competent in their line of work, to improve his relationship with them and to mould them into a team.
One of his most important realizations during coaching was that his own “supercompetence” was actually preventing the other team members from using and enforcing their own strengths and abilities. He thought that his exceptional performances would be viewed by his colleagues as an example they would want to follow; whereas it actually discouraged them.
Our coaching has resulted in the following success story:
- The client has become much more aware of his need to be valued and recognized (and tries to achieve this, although not at the expense of his own staff).
- The client values the efforts of his subordinates much more (and observes that they are more honest towards him, smile more often and have become more relaxed in his company).
- The client keeps his solutions to himself and applies them only when required and when they cannot be left to his subordinates.
- The client now focuses more on relations with the heads of affiliated companies and the representatives of the owner in order to effectively influence the broader context of his position.
- The client’s relationship with his children has also improved; now they treat him more as a friend than a dreaded authority figure.
- The client is able to better monitor task performance and provide balanced feedback.
- The client can place greater demands on his subordinates, which has recently led to an unexpected increase in staff performance and activities.
Case II.
The Division Director of a development company approached us with the problem that his team was rapidly expanding and he felt the need to have a better management system. The majority of the team consisted of experienced and reliable managers, although each did it “their way”, and therefore the synergy effects were not put to use, thereby making it difficult to incorporate new employees. During coaching, we identified two main reasons for this: The client is a spontaneous type who does not favour rules or order so subconsciously resisted them. He also lacked the practical know-how to manage the company.
The results of the coaching are as follows:
- The client set himself gradual goals for introducing the minimum basic necessary systemic measures (unification of documents and general accessibility; adaptation plan for new employees; regular coordination meetings; delegating work that he should not be doing; introducing career plans; promoting systemic measures for other parts of the company).
- The client realized the need for management standardization knowledge and began to actively seek it.
- His staff stopped disturbing each other whenever they wanted and began to schedule appointments; this also led to his colleagues beginning to deal with many issues by themselves.
- The client improved his own work organization, so now works more efficiently (due to more rigorous planning and preparation).
- The client realized the need for strategic thinking, which is not about immediate results, but about preventing and creating conditions for future success.
- The client managed to find time in his “busy” schedule for “meetings with himself” and now dedicates this time to strategic issues.
Case III.
The owner of a manufacturing and trading company wanted a break from executive management and to reduce his role in the decision making in regard to investments and other strategic issues. This is a fairly common issue, i.e. the company owner also participates in the company management. After many years of hard work, successful entrepreneurs often want to withdraw from operational management, but at the same time, want to ensure the future prosperity of their company. Coaching helped to solve the following issues:
- The owner was able to withdraw from the recently established division co-management, allowing him to focus on strengthening the management team that consists of three members (he holds regular meetings with them, leads brainstorming sessions regarding strategies and satisfies his own need to know what is happening in the company).
- The client does not attend any operative meetings, only supervises work with people as he considers this crucial to the company’s success.
- The client realized that if he wanted to change the system (for example, for people to take more responsibility and acquire more pro-customer thinking), he needed to incorporate system tools (e.g. coaching or change of processes).
- In terms of his own thinking and work, he accepted two new principles: He must move from analyzing what happened to influencing what will happen; he does not enforce things that “do not work” and instead follows what already works (e.g. he can abandon less successful projects much sooner and devote more energy to the successful projects instead).