1. John, Senior Leader, Team Merger with efficiencies required
John was an incredibly busy leader, known to get results. That’s why when two key Business divisions merged, one of which he already led, he was asked to take ownership for the full area …. oh, and to identify and implement significant efficiencies in the next 3 months! No easy task!
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During one-to-one coaching, we identified, the priority - finding time. I challenged John to consider as he got to know his new team, where could he save time now, really challenging his diary, delegating, reducing frequency of some interactions, simply removing others past their sell-by.
Secondly, we focussed on how he should invest his time, prioritising and creating an action and outcome focussed plan for the next three months – this helped John to retain focus on what was important during a very demanding period. Thirdly, to identify efficiencies, we involved those closest to the work – e.g., listening sessions, show and tells.
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Through Team Effectiveness, a compelling vision was created, supported by shared ownership for critical team goals with clear metrics for success – visibly tracked to retain focus. MBTI workshops helped the new leadership team get to know each other, create psychological safety, and bond them during challenging weeks.
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Delighted to say that the business area achieved savings in excess off £1m in the first 6 months, Staff Engagement increased during the change period, and customers are now getting a more streamlined service – evidenced via an improved NPS and faster growing lending book.
2. Carol, newly appointed Senior Leader in underperforming Team
Carol is an absolute people person, invests a lot of her time in upskilling her team, is very accessible to the wider business area and highly regarded. She was the natural choice when her organisation was looking for someone to take on a challenged business area with some of the lowest people engagement scores in the division.
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Carol set the tone at her first leadership meeting, setting an inspiring team vision, involving the team to set clear goals and agree clear actions to really get beneath and address the engagement issues. However, it became clear that nothing seemed to be changing.
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I helped Carol dive deeper to understand why. It became clear there was a lack of follow up and no visible results tracking –no one was really taking ownership for driving the agreed goals forward – and there was no consequence. Through coaching, we explored the deeper reasons Carol was not following up or holding people to account – time pressure was part, but also fear of being unpopular by “micro-managing”, fear of what she may uncover and the action she would need to take when she did follow up – all relatable! She considered how she could retain her style whilst setting clearer expectations and following up.
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Carol wanted to personally provide coaching support to team members, but time was not permitting. The headspace of her coaching session gave her a very simple, but effective, lightbulb moment – to buddy the team up to support each other in their individual team cascades (which weren’t happening at the frequency and consistency needed), providing peer feedback and coaching to each other. She would then host a team review to see if value was gained – i.e., follow up.
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The results were far better than anticipated – the important cascade sessions happened (there would have been an awkward consequence of having nothing to talk about if they hadn’t!) – team members learned best practices, identified blind spots for each other, copied more effective communication styles – and wanted to repeat the exercise the following month! Trust and collaboration improved and made it easy to implement further team effectiveness work.
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Pleased to say, Carol’s business area Engagement scores were the most improved of her peers by year end, the team is collaborating more effectively in all areas, leading to efficiencies being identified. However, the important point to this story is that the solution to the problem was always inside Carol – it just took one-to-one coaching to give her the headspace to unlock it.
3. Robert, a Leader looking for his next Promotion
Robert first approached me for one-to-one coaching after receiving some challenging feedback – his line manager told him he was regarded by the divisional leadership team as challenging, due to his abrupt manner and defensiveness. Quite a shock and not great news as Robert was hoping for promotion in the next 12 months!
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Through coaching, we explored why others had that perception, and what impact Robert wanted to make. Robert brought examples of interactions where conflict had been involved and we reflected on the words used and actions taken. It was clear that Robert was very passionate about doing a good job, which could lead to him not showing empathy for others. In the coaching environment Robert was able to regularly put himself in the shoes of the other party and hear his words – having lightbulb moments when he saw how his response could have been interpreted. We worked together on styles and techniques that Robert could employ in the moment to ensure he was communicating as intended.
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We then used the coaching environment to dig deeper into Robert’s inner motivations as he considered his next career move – what got him out of bed in the morning, what did a good day look like –what roles would fulfil that? Robert was able to identify business areas that excited him and build a network he could use to help him identify career opportunities. We practiced interview techniques when opportunities materialised.
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At the half year mark, Robert was delighted to receive positive feedback from his line manager on the change in him. And the end of the year, I’m delighted to say Robert had successfully landed a new role - a completely different role to the one he may have initially planned, but one that is truly engaging him - and he is thriving!
