The Executive Coaching Journey – where do you want to go?

EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATION COACHING -SCENARIO 1

Derek’s latest promotion was a step up to the top. After working as a Product Specialist and then   Sales Manager, he was ready to take on a top management role with regional responsibility.

Six months into his new role, Derek had learned a lot, especially about the strategic aspect of business and how to respond to external developments. 

But there was one thing that Derek didn’t feel entirely sure about. His peers at Director level seemed to have expectations of him which were more about what he thought  than what he did. They expected him to share his opinions and ideas. There was pressure on him to be social and participate in gatherings where he had to express his views.

Derek usually approached a new challenge by first getting to understand the mechanics of it and after that, figure out how to manage them. Expressing opinions and sharing ideas didn’t fit into Derek’s scheme so he was struggling.

He tried hard to get his mind around the problem but it was difficult to analyse and didn’t respond to  logic.

Eventually, Derek decided to get some input from an outside source and see if that would yield any insights. He called me and we arranged to meet.

At our first meeting, Derek reviewed the journey which had brought him to this point in his career…his achievements, skills and abilities. We discussed which of his attributes were still valuable in his new role, which of them could be adapted to his new role and which of them had served their purpose. Next, we discussed Derek’s new job description which, when analysed in detail, seemed to give him a free hand to continue to apply what he’d already been doing but now he was to cover the entire company. Gradually, Derek began to see his value beyond his existing perspective. He started exchange ideas with new contacts in other fields and began telling his fellow directors about a future for the company built on external collaboration. Derek found his role. 

EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATION COACHING – SCENARIO 2

Kim opened our first Coaching session with a story she had been told by her father about how his father (Kim’s grandfather) had told him never to expect anything from life because to be successful it was necessary to create your own opportunities.

Sticking to this principle, Kim’s father became the successful owner of a shoe factory in Kwai Chung.

Now, at 38 and successfully pursuing a career as a designer at a  European sportswear company, Kim found herself faced with the choice of accepting a transfer to head office and greater responsibilities or staying in Hong Kong and ‘creating her own opportunities.’

Which way should she go…the tried and true (but uncertain) way of her father and grandfather before her or the apparently secure corporate way?

Coaching provided Kim with the opportunity to step back and get a perspective on the choices before her and then reach a balanced decision.

She began by taking stock of the emotional ties she had to her family…pride, loyalty, love. Then we moved on to look at her own achievements and acknowledge these in her own right. Having taken stock of her ‘values’ as well as her ‘value’ we moved on to look into the future and consider her options. Which option would she take…the familiar or the new? Where were the risks, the fulfilment? Kim achieved a level of clarity which led to the right choice for her.