True Story: 1:1 Executive Coaching

The human resources department of a medium sized firm contacted Suzann Arseth to seek executive coaching for a seasoned field leader. A highly valued employee, the field leader had been in his current role for less than two years and for the first time was managing employees who were also managers. His supervisor was concerned with the dissatisfaction being expressed from his team and more specifically with concerns that he was over-managing.

The coaching process began with Suzann conducting interviews with the field leader, his boss, and direct reports to better understand what was happening and the specific behaviors that were contributing to the feedback regarding his over-management.

Discover Truth

Suzann helped the field leader identify that his management style was too prescriptive for employees at the manager level.

Although he was very directive in managing individual employees, decision-making was done by committee.

This required time spent on consensus-building, slowed down decision-making, and created frustration. This and a significant lack of trust among team members who didn’t understand the organizational vision and the priorities supporting it were contributing to the dissatisfaction in his organization.

Get Coached

With these insights in hand, the field leader created a plan to address the identified issues. Over the course of nine months, he met bi-weekly with Suzann for coaching and accountability for implementing his plan. This included learning situational leadership to address his tendency to over-manage. By discussing specific situations regularly with Suzann he was able to apply the concepts learned to individual employee situations.

Suzann also helped him leverage performance reviews and regular one-on-ones (1:1s) to set expectations and minimize the need to over-manage. He adopted a decision-making model endorsed by the company. Through his coaching sessions with Suzann, they regularly discussed when and how he was applying it.

To address the issues around trust, he developed a series of team sessions to build trust and clarify and communicate strategic priorities.

With both internal resources and Suzann’s help, he developed an approach and discussed outcomes and next steps during their regular coaching sessions.

Lead Powerfully

The field leader used his 1:1 meetings with employees to get specific feedback on the changes he was implementing. An employee survey conducted at the end of the coaching engagement identified improvement in the areas of his management style he was focused on, team development, decision-making, and empowerment. Senior management was also pleased with this key employee’s development and he has since been moved to another critical role in the company.

Ready to move to the next level?
Contact Suzann today for a complimentary consultation.