Coaching Case Study By Sudhir Dhar
(Executive Coach, INDIA)
My client, employed as dealer at stock broking company in Finical sector , was working about 48 hours a week, traveling two hours a day in trains , and doing an MBA in Finance as part-time course . During weekends, he had to be with family and same time cop up with his studies. He and his wife had a new baby girl. On Holiday, he loved to be part of local NGO work for street kids .The stress level he had to balance was too high. Seeing this routine his nearest and dearest us to advise him for identifying his need to learn how to create balance in his life, and to find a way to bring exercise, diet and nutrition into the equation—just thinking about it made him more stressed. He also needed to learn to let go of control. During the coaching we arrived structure and help and options he can work on.
Luckily he found a friend at work who was willing to drive him back and forth to work during the week. This freed up two hours a day when traveling that he could devote to study, sleep or emails.On the weekend he would run/play along with Street children been part of NGO. He and his wife also bought a treadmill for running, which everyone in the family began to use. They worked out an economic way to add fresh vegetables and fruit to their diet.
For the client, it was about learning how to “do the doing” better; at a deeper level becoming the more balanced person he wanted to be. This shifted the gears in the coaching relationship. It was a move from simply addressing the issue to addressing the person.
Few questions could be asked as:
- What is it that the client wants to do? What is their aim or purpose in working with you?
- What do they need to learn in order to make the change?
- What in their thinking, feeling and behaviour needs to change in order to do the doing better?
- How can they use their own experience to learn what is needed?
- How do, and how will, their thoughts, feelings and behaviour impact on how they “be who they are” and “who is it that they want to become”? In this way, we work at horizontal and vertical levels. At the end of the day, the client’s new attitudes, behaviors, motivations and assumptions beg into impact positively on their own performance and their relationships with others.
What was my experience during this coaching. Is it to shift any limiting sense of who they are so that they can interact and engage with the world in new ways? As the client begins to shift, it has an impact on others with whom they interact in the workplace. It also means addressing issues systemically, from a holistic perspective,whether it revolves around health, stress, anxiety, performance or relationships with others.
As a coaches is to widen the circle, enlarge the perspective of the client, and help them to learn from their own experience to reach their potential.