Success Stories.

Outlined below are a handful of case studies based on real life clients.

The challenge.

A Senior Manager, destined for promotion wanted to change how his function was perceived, how it interacted with the rest of the business.  A strong personality, he wanted to learn different strategies for engaging with his stakeholders.  

The outcome.

The key to success was working out what this client stood for, what vision he wanted to set for his team and the critical role they played in the organisation. Much of this was a departure from what had gone before and required re-negotiation of some key relationships. With strong judgement and decision making skills, this client focused on deepening his listening capacity, and bringing more fun and humour online.   He learnt to soften (but not weaken) around what was important to him and in doing so, brought many more people along with him.  

The challenge.

Director in a large global American Business.
His remit was EMEA managing a significant operational team. Whilst his relationship with is direct line boss was good and healthy, some other relationships were prone to outbursts, frustration and annoyance.     He recognized the inappropriateness of this unproductive behavior and sought a coach.

The outcome.

He worked on recognising the triggers for his behaviour and how these were operating below his conscious awareness. With this insight he put in place new practices (breathing, centering, physical alignment as examples) and was better able to manage his emotional and physical responses. He also learnt to move away from his need for approval, to lean more fully into his achievements, capabilities and expertise. He became more resilient and was able to be softer and more understanding to his colleagues and team managers.

The challenge.

An experienced Director with a long pedigree in her business had been through multiple changes and re-structures. The constantly changing dynamic to her role and the fluid culture in the business meant that she regularly had to face ambiguity. Additionally,  some very big projects required her to make some significant requests for financial resources. This was a client who recognized that the new environment was beginning to affect her confidence and her sense of identity.

The outcome.

We worked on what she could control and manage, and what she couldn’t. We worked on core values that anchored her in times of adversity and turbulence and practiced remaining resilient in the face of ambiguity.   Being able to tap into what was really important helped her to hold her ground when making requests and declines.  She was more able to hold boundaries at appropriate times as well as be in choice about when it was appropriate to flex and wait for situations to more fully emerge.

The challenge.

A Senior Manger recently promoted, temporarily to cover his boss whilst on Maternity Leave was faced with managing a team of Managers who were in effect his peers.  Faced with the requirement to temporarily step up, to provide direction and leadership at the same time as being mindful of his colleagues and peers. Additionally there were lots of tense relationships with other functions of the business that he had to work with. These were difficult waters to navigate.

The outcome.

We focused on what he realistically could achieve during his tenure, how to engage each member of the team.  With more challenging relationships learnt how to make effective requests, how to set boundaries and how to hold to account.  One of the most significant pieces here was for him to learn how to really embody the requests he was making, paying attention to the mood from which he made the request.  He had to learn how to combine being firm and insistent with a willingness to be open and to listen. This is something that can only be achieved through aligning language, mood, emotion and physical presence.

The challenge.

A Senior Manager had the opportunity to take a higher profile in her existing role. This meant pulling out of the day to day detail, being willing to delegate and trust more, and to take on some bigger challenges with colleagues, peers, and seniors around her. She had to learn how to navigate different agendas and political (with a small p) contexts and to be develop her influencing and negotiation skills.

The outcome.

We worked through tactically how to delegate more, what a model of trust looked like, how to use it, how to become more effective at influencing, how to garner support when needed, how to manage expectations and difficult conversations. Fundamentally the client’s judgment was good but she needed to believe in it.   We found a way for her to develop the courage to move into a more central role. Much of this was achieved through understanding and debunking the stories around why xyz wasn’t possible, developing strategies for holding challenging individuals to account and learning to develop a more grounded presence from which a more confident and robust individual emerged.

“I have learned a huge amount and have a new self-awareness that I make better use of. I can recommend coaching sessions with Beverley as a wholly positive and enriching experience!”

Founder and Director, Not for Profit