Leadership and Alignment - Case Study

Coaching a Leader toward Enhanced Success and Fulfillment

 

Challenge and Opportunity:

As an external executive coach, Kristin was hired by a Vice-President of a Fortune 50, global company. This individual had never had experience with an external coach; however, he knew he ‘needed help’ in determining his next steps. He wanted to move forward, yet was not sure in ‘what direction’, inside or outside the company. He lacked objectivity and the current climate at work was detrimental to him in many ways. This individual had a proven track record in Corporate America built over 25 years. He had a wealth of experience, strong skill sets, and yet, was not finding fulfillment or challenge in the current role. Furthermore, his lackadaisical attitude was starting show up in his performance and in his professional relationships. This person stated he associated his identity with his corporate experience and respective titles/roles within the organization. He was afraid to leave – and lose this identity. He also was afraid of losing the ongoing pay check, benefit program, and overall security blanket of his corporate role. He was at a loss of what to do – and just knew ‘he was not happy anymore.’

Approach:

As a coach, Kristin realizes that all successful change (individually or collectively) begins with an individual's choice; and gaining clarity on what the person needs and wants (short and long term). Coupled with this, is the need to understand the current client environment and how her client fits within this organization. Though the process and approach differs with each client, the steps Kristin used with this particular client included:

• Interviewing the client, as well as several members of her client’s team –his manager, his peers and his team members. Kristin paid close attention to the values pervasive in the culture, the overall goals and objectives of the organization and her client’s team .She observed how/if they were aligned to one another, the challenges and obstacles facing the overall organization and her client’s team, and finally understanding the real and perceived strengths of the company and her client’s team.
• These interviews were complimented by several assessments to further gain insight, and share enlightenment with her client relative to her client’s individual strengths and preferences. For this particular client, the Strengths finder process was used, as was the MTBI, Meyers Brigg Type Indicator.
• Then, over the course of the next 6-7 months, Kristin and her client met four times a month focusing on ‘what the client ultimately wanted’, what ‘success’ looked like to her client, what the client loved to do, and what his desired outcome would be. These conversations were integrated into a SMART (specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-based) plan for their coaching relationship.
• In addition to these conversations, which enlightened her client to what he ‘truly wanted’, they developed activities which continued to move her client forward to that desired outcome…including having her client write his ‘desired state’ one year from now for crystal clear visualization.

Results:

At the end of the first eight months, the individual was given a choice to move up into a higher level leadership role within the company. Ironically, due to the work of this coaching engagement, the individual realized that this was not how he defined success any longer. Though this was a wonderful affirmation of the work he had done with his coach, he realized his values and overall desired outcomes no longer aligned with the standard corporate direction. The individual left the company to launch his own company fulfilling a lifelong dream of creating his own brand, and method of unique contribution to the market.