Case Studies
A collection of client stories
Over the course of her coaching career, Debbie has encountered many different individuals facing different leadership and development challenges. However, there are often recurrent themes that she addresses with her clients.
To help you identify if coaching is right for you, here are a selection of representative coaching stories.
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To preserve client and co-worker confidentiality and anonymity, names and certain details have been changed.
Ravi
Coaching with a successful seasoned professional to fine tune leadership, and address an underlying need to please others that was now threatening to undermine personal career success.
A few years ago, I coached an extremely successful executive, let’s call him Ravi, who was leading a global team of specialists. Ravi had led his team to consistently meet and surpass their targets and been promoted in recognition. He and his team worked long hours coordinating work from multiple departments and countries and represented their organization at national levels.
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So, what’s the catch? Although Ravi was extremely personable and well liked, his ability to see all sides of every situation, and a tendency to avoid conflict, built his reputation for agreeing with the perspective of the last person he had spoken to. Ravi also had a very laid-back style, trusting in his team members to work under their own initiative. His lack of decisiveness, direction and assertiveness was frustrating his team and undermining their respect for his specialist knowledge and leadership.
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We started the coaching assignment gathering data in the form of an MBTI and a 360 feedback exercise. Over a six-month period of working together, Ravi was able to review feedback from his team and peers and recognized the problems that his easy-going style was causing for his team and key colleagues. He worked hard to be comfortable giving his managers stronger direction and stating his own views, perspectives and decisions more readily and clearly. His sincere efforts at dealing with conflicts more proactively and productively were rewarded! Ravi was able to retain key members of his team who had explored alternative career paths. He also improved his working relationships with key business partners, enhancing his own reputation and increasing the effectiveness of his department.
Leah
Coaching with an emerging professional to help build their self-confidence and assertiveness.
When I first met Leah, she was full of anger and frustration, and was very reluctant to invest in herself. As a woman in her late twenties, she felt stuck in a dissatisfying career, while her contemporaries were charging ahead in theirs.
Over the course of our bi-monthly conversations, Leah shared that she had not actually spoken to her boss for over 6 months following a misunderstanding and altercation. Leah started to engage and reflect on her own responsibilities for her situation and where she might go next.
Once Leah had taken responsibility for her own career, there was no stopping her! She rebuilt the relationship with her boss; initiated two impactful work projects; and started looking at the graduate qualifications that might take her into the next step of a career she was interested in.
When I last caught up with Leah she was far too busy enjoying networking and project responsibilities to be enviously brooding on the success of her peers.
