Executive coaching in a global manufacturing company

Leadership development

Supporting a senior manager to reconnect with her role and her authority in the midst of a personally challenging period of transition.

Situation

We were approached by a global manufacturing company to provide support for a senior manager, previously a strong performer, who had begun to be demotivated, argumentative and disengaged, seemingly in reaction to the departure of her Director.

Our approach

We provided one to one role consultation for the senior manager with two key aims in mind: helping her to re-engage with her work and manage the departure of her Director, and supporting her to take up a new leadership role.

We understood the situation to be not simply about her and set the expectation with her and the sponsor of the work that our engagement would keep in mind the wider organisation.

We worked one to one with the senior manager over a several sessions, thinking about her role and also exploring the company’s leadership culture and the structure of the HQ that she was part of to understand the impact that might be having on her and others. We also touched on how her previous experience of work was colouring her perception of the current situation.

Impact

• The client was able to acknowledge and work through the loss of her Director and the impact that it was having on her performance.
• She was also able to think about how she may have been expressing emotions not just for herself but on behalf of colleagues and to disentangle her and their responses to the situation.
• The client re-discovered her personal identity and authority as a leader.
• Performance improved, with her boss describing her as ‘a transformed person and manager’. Soon afterwards she was promoted to a more senior position.