Success stories: a manager who was interested in his own and his team’s performance

L is the manager of a consulting team, and she wanted coaching in order to be a competitive coach and have a matching team. The goals of the coaching programme were the following:

- To become competitive as a manager in: reaching financial targets, manging the team in order to reach targets both in terms of quantity and quality;

- To build a happier personal life that would support the managing career;

- To build a meaningful relationship with her hierarchical superior.

When L came to coaching, she had been a manager for a few months and things were not evolving the way she had been expecting. The relationship with her team was not efficient, as they disliked her as a leader, so that her goals as a manager could not be achieved, while her personal life had been left aside and this generated frustration. The coaching contract was signed for a period of 6 months, having in view the above mentioned goals. We had weekly sessions, each of them focused on a concrete goal. After a few sessions, we had an individual diagnosis, which helped L understand that she needed to develop her contracting and delegating skills, as well as to boost her self esteem and trust in people.

Another aspect of her behaviour that L discovered during our coaching sessions was the way she used self- criticism, as well as criticism on other people. This was a type of behaviour that hindered her from achieving goals and from putting her trust in people. This was one of the most important achievements related to progress and becoming competitive. From that moment on, we focused on delegating and contracting skills with L, with the team and with other people, rejecting the critical atitude and using acceptance strategies. It was a time when L took small but steady steps; there was an increase on the quantity side of her goals, as well as in target achievement. They started to communicate better inside the team and the relationship with her superior and team was clarified.

After 6 months the contract was completed and we met a few times more. Some months ago she called to tell me that she was happy and pregnant.

‘Working with Rodica was and continues to be pleasant and efficient for me. The goals I set in the beginning, both for my personal and my professional life have been met in due time, and in a nice and relaxed setting.

Professionally, Rodica helped me to understand and fit a new role- that of a manager.

Personally, she helped me clarify and solve many aspects of my life, which gave me the possibility to improve my behaviour.

Thus, I have decided to continue this coaching relationship, in order to achieve an even higher level of personal and professional development, setting new goals for myself.’ L, Consulting Team Manager