This executive coaching case study details the journey and outcomes of a six-month engagement with an accomplished CEO of a medium sized organisation. All identifying information has been anonymised to maintain privacy and confidentiality, uphold ethical standards, and protect individuals and parties involved.
The client is referred to as “Sarah.”
Background
When I first met Sarah in February 2024, she was facing some challenges in balancing her work and personal life, often pushing herself to meet her own high standards. The demands of her role, combined with the complexities of managing her team, were beginning to take a toll, leading to periods of exhaustion.
Challenges
Sarah faced several key challenges:
Work-Life Balance: She was overworking, often extending her workday into evenings and weekends.
Boundary Setting: Sarah had difficulty setting boundaries, feeling the need to meet everyone's expectations, including her own high standards.
Leadership Accountability: Her management team faced challenges with accountability and responsibility, impacting performance and contributing to tension within the organisation.
Emotional Resilience: Sarah was grappling with her own emotional responses to stress and interactions with colleagues, particularly when dealing with challenging personalities.
Coaching Strategy
The coaching approach focused on several key areas:
Enhancing Clarity and Reflection
To help Sarah gain clarity, I employed deep probing questions and reflective silence, encouraging a thorough exploration of her thoughts and feelings.
I placed an emphasis on coaching as an ongoing and non-linear process that enabled Sarah to revisit and refine her goals as needed.
Work-Life Balance and Boundary Setting
I helped Sarah explore what it meant to be her "best-self" and how this showed up in multiple areas of her work and life. Sarah realised that she was not being her "best-self" if she was exhausted or washed out. This insight led to a significant shift in mindset and approach to her work.
Sarah began making small conscious decisions about her work hours, questioning the impact of whether tasks needed to be done immediately or could wait, leading to a reduction in stress and improved personal time. Sarah recognised the need to continually practice these new behaviours for them to embed.
By taking small, deliberate actions, Sarah started to feel less beholden to everyone, but more significantly, to herself. She started to regain control of her time, which was a liberating experience for her.
Leadership Accountability and Responsibility
I introduced Sarah to concepts that helped her understand the dynamics at play within her senior leadership team. She was able to identify when she and others were operating in unhelpful states.
Sarah recognised the role she played in holding herself in a positive helpful state and we explored ways she could do this to foster more constructive interactions.
Understanding self
I worked with Sarah to explore and question the assumptions she held about herself and others. By gaining a deeper understanding of her belief system, reflecting on her actions, and aligning her core values, she was able to de-bunk these assumptions and remove the blockers that had held her back.
Recognising the impact of her work on her well-being, Sarah committed to self-care practices to maintain her energy and effectiveness as a leader.
Results
The coaching interventions led to significant positive changes for Sarah.
Improved Work-Life Balance
Over the six months we worked together, Sarah successfully established boundaries around her work hours, which led to a more balanced life. She reported feeling refreshed and happier, positively impacting her productivity and leadership. Friends and family asked her where this new person had come from!
Enhanced Leadership
Sarah concentrated on modelling accountability and responsibility and saw the benefits propagate through her senior leadership team and beyond. She implemented strategies to foster trust and create clear expectations, incorporating many of the techniques and frameworks we had used in our coaching sessions to enhance team performance.
Emotional Growth
Sarah became more aware of her emotional triggers and learned techniques to manage stress more effectively. This improved her interactions with her team and overall well-being.
Sustainable Change
The changes Sarah implemented were not only impactful but also sustainable. She expressed surprise at how small, conscious decisions had significantly improved her life and work.
Conclusion
Sarah expressed gratitude for the space that executive coaching provided to reflect on her challenges. By focusing on boundary setting, accountability, and emotional resilience, she regained control, improved her well-being, and became a more effective leader.
Her journey highlights the power of coaching in fostering profound, sustainable change both personally and professionally.
If you are interested in how executive coaching can help you, please get in touch.