Case Study: Tell Me More!

A year ago, David was hired as a senior manager with years of management experience.

His performance has been solid, and he’s built good relationships with his team and peers. But he lacks nuanced and sophisticated communication skills (including active listening and diplomacy) and needs to sharpen his performance feedback and coaching skills to activate his team.

From the start, David has been vocal about his career goals. He seeks to be a senior director, then assistant vice president (AVP) within three to five years. This is an aggressive career path, and you don’t believe he can accomplish it within that timeframe.

During his last coaching session, David talked about his road to AVP. You revealed that you nominated him for the upcoming Navigator Program, believing the program and its strategies would help him to sharpen and develop the skills necessary to meet his career goals. To your surprise, David pushed back.

He says he’s feeling stuck and is not moving at the pace he should. He’s attended a myriad of management and leadership programs at previous companies, and he just doesn’t see the value in attending another one. He believes his experience is sufficient. You disagree and proposed coaching on the topic. He said “Sure!”

Case Study Worksheet:

    1. GOAL: What open-ended questions would help both parties establish a common goal for the coaching session?
    1. REALITY: What open-ended questions would reveal how David views his current reality (interpretation of what is happening)?
    1. OPPORTUNITIES/OBSTACLES: What open-ended questions might uncover opportunities (or obstacles) to meeting his career aspiration of becoming AVP?
    1. WAY FORWARD: What open-ended questions would you ask to encourage immediate action and follow-through to help meet his goals?

 

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