Case Study covering 12 months of leadership coaching
as part of my annual pro bono work for The Coach Initiative

First time Leader appointed as
Far East Country Director of International Not for Profit

Setting the scene:

On behalf of The Coach Initiative, we would like to thank you once again for the time you have donated to us and Search for Common Ground. Below is feedback I received from Scott. He has given permission to share his feedback with you. As you can see, he is “forever grateful” for the coaching that you provided him. We are extremely grateful to you also.

Overview:

Thanks to the Coach Initiative and Halina who has been of great assistance to me in 3 fundamental ways:

1. She improved my awareness of the art and science of leadership. This is something that had not been provided by my employee and as a young, first time Director I really appreciated this schooling.
2. She coached me to recognize the skills that I already possessed to become a leader
3. She coached me to put these skills into practice; to monitor and update my leadership progress

For this I will be forever grateful. I will be making 2 recommendations to my employer:
1. The Coach Initiative to continue assisting Country Directors including myself
2. Search for Common Ground to provide coaching to all staff

Scott reflects on what happened:
I feel that I have gained an awful lot from the coaching sessions with Halina who has been very effective in bringing out the best in me.

Here are some of the ways that I have gained:

Transformation / life change:

The coaching has enabled me to step back, really look at my working and private life and then re-shape both in a very focused manner. I firmly decided to make a go of this job and change my lifestyle accordingly.

The process helped me to be more serious about things; to respect people more both in and out of the office. It has been an holistic change. The process has also helped me become more settled with who I am and my goals. It’s to do with how to treat others; the only way to get results both at work and in social life.

Due to this change I feel a lot more confident / organised and at ease with who I am and my own goals. Previously I separated my private and work life; now I don’t try to differentiate; sharing more with staff now about me and my life. This has helped me to build stronger bonds with my team, listen to them more constructively about work and life.

In turn I now feel more part of a team and more confident to lead the team.

Organisation and Planning:

Another success is that Halina has helped me to become more organized and better planned to deal with my day-to-day tasks and long-term planning. Getting more organised in a practical organisational sense is a major achievement for me. It allows me to create more time for myself, for my staff, for my working partners and senior colleagues.

I now have a more realistic weekly plan and am about to make a 5-year plan for where I want me and my team to be.

Leadership:

Halina has also helped me to focus on what it takes to be a successful leader and tune in to my own leadership style. I now have a whole set of tools and role models to aspire to. We also focused on leadership values and vision which was a big help. I still have more work to do on this fortunately, Halina has given me a great framework to use.

Feedback:

A hidden benefit of the coaching is that it has enabled me to open up and share. Peviously managing had become a lonely experience. Having someone there to listen to me every week has put me in the mood to share with others and get feedback.

I am sure you will agree that this is an excellent set of changes which will truly benefit me and my organisation in the future.

There is still some work to do though. I’m glad to hear there’s a possibility of extra sessions. I would be very happy to add more sessions if such a possibility arises. Please inform if and when these sessions can start.

In the meantime I’d like to take this opportunity to thank both The Coach Initiative and Halina for the great service that I have had so far.