Marie had been working as an IT specialist for ten years.  She had made many career moves during this period and whilst she had managed financial resources and procurement processes, these roles did not require her to manage people.

When Marie signed up for Executive Coaching, she had  been promoted to a Project Manager role the previous year and was experiencing some challenges with the people aspect of her role.  She had experienced a number of interpersonal challenges with one member of the project team and had been struggling to manage  underperformance of two other team members.  As a result the project was behind schedule and she worried that the business would not provide continued project funding if the timeline had to be extended.

The Coaching sessions with Marie focused on:

Developing self-awareness

Through this aspect of coaching Marie gained insight into her current style of communication and developed her understanding of how she presented  herself to others and managed herself during difficult conversations. With this awareness we were able to identify and action ways Marie could improve her communication style to present a better executive presence.

Developing her team leadership skills

One of Maries team members had also applied for the Project Manager role and this staff member regularly challenged Marie’s decisions and approach.  Marie felt  out of her depth in managing these challenges and undermined by the behaviour particularly in team meetings.  Through our coaching sessions Marie explored her approach to managing conflict and explored how she would develop a more effective approach to decision making, leadership capability, giving and receiving feedback and managing performance.

Finding balance between work and home life

Marie had been finding it difficult to switch off and regularly took work home with her, often putting in 15 hour days.  This was causing difficulties in her home life and she found it hard to make time for to switch off or engage in previously held hobbies.

We looked at boundaries and roles as part of coaching  and found that as Marie had been a team member and peer to her current team, she had a tendency to hold onto some of the tasks she had been engaged in before becoming the manager which should now sit with team members.  Some of the assessments she took as part of coaching helped her to identify her dominant working styles that were contributing to these challenges.  With this awareness Marie was able to identify ways to draw on her other strengths which provided her with the tools to manage her boundaries and find the ideal balance for her in both work and life.

Through the awareness and actions Marie identified through our coaching sessions she :

• Developed her leadership ability and stepped up to manage the interpersonal and underperformance issues on the team
• Learned how to become more comfortable with setting boundaries and delegating more effectively
• With the performance issues addressed, Marie got the project back on track and meet all project timelines
• As a result of the above actions Marie was able to maintain more manageable work hours and found time to re-engage with her hobbies.

Marie has had her contract extended as a project manager and has been recently chosen to project manage a multi-million euro budget.