Case study 2 – Executive Coaching provides focus for Senior Manager

Development requirement

  1. Managing Director has seen enormous potential in one of the senior managers
  2. To improve the manager's focus on the job and efficiency
  3. To look at the impact of the manager's home life and his work and address this
  4. To groom the individual for an even more senior leadership role over time.

"This has been really different. It has changed the way I think about relationships with other people. I have a much clearer idea of where I am going in both my career and personal life."

The reaction of the Senior Manager following the coaching.

The Background

Our client is a multi-national fruit importer with divisions throughout the world. James is a senior manager whose role is to manage the international sourcing of grapes from many overseas countries. Their main customers are UK supermarkets. James heads a team and reports to a director.

The company had some significant issues with an oversized overhead structure that was impacting on profitability and efficiency, resulting in some inefficiencies and lack of effectiveness. The development of key frontline personnel was also suffering as a result.

Unlimited Potential had been working with the General Manager for some years and he was having success in preparing for a restructure. The need to key middle management motivation was vital; for James in particular.

Intervention

We were called in to analyse James's goals and objectives, look at the barriers which were preventing him moving himself forward and those things that were distracting him from his main objectives – quality fruit at the right price into the supermarkets.

Early on in the process, James expressed the view that he really did not want to be where he is, a senior manager in a large organisation, but wanted to be a Managing Director of his own business; "I spend a lot of my spare time dreaming about this".

We spent some time working around this idea with a series of mining questions; what sort of business; how will you fund it; what impact will it have on the family etc. Towards the end of the second session, James sat back and said "I suppose that I have to decide whether I want to be a Managing Director or concentrate my efforts in driving my career forward here". This was his 'aha moment'.

Next session, he came right in and said "I have been thinking about this and spoken with my wife and decided that it is unrealistic to set up my own business now, I can get to that when the mortgage is paid and the family is grown up. Let's have a look at what we need to do here"

We then moved on to some very productive development. He was very aware that he tended to rush forward onto the next task without finishing the one in hand; he was aware that he had many jobs on the go at any one time; he was aware that he did not listen to others properly. He said "I was aware that I had these traits, but sitting with you has concentrated my mind on these"

He started recording his time, analysing how he was using it; he produced a personal and career action plan as a result. "I have become much more focused on where I am going; I have spoken to my Managing Director about it so we have a joint plan and I have become much more effective at my job". I now have an assured future here.

Results

James still comments on the impact the coaching had on his thinking even some two years later when we see him. Indeed the senior management still comment on his performance and how it has impacted on the efficiency of the company.

Our client was not looking for a financial calculation of Return On investment in this case. They measured the return in a more subjective way. How focused was James before and after the programme? The answer was considerably more.

Whilst James cannot claim achieving this single-handedly, our client carried out the restructure some three months after the programme had taken place and returned to profit for the first time for four years.

The company measured the Return on Investment in a subjective way. James is now a more focused, more effective individual and as a result is making a better contribution to company results.

Unlimited Potential takes the confidentiality of its clients very seriously, the names of the company, participant and indeed what they do has been removed to protect that confidence. All the case studies are real, with ongoing programmes.

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