What We Did
After a stellar sales and marketing career with the company and a role as MD of their UK division, this leader was appointed to her first regional CEO role. Within several months of taking up the new position, the leader’s performance had visibly declined for no obvious reason. Colleagues noticed how cautious she had become in making decisions; so much so that several business opportunities were missed. She also seemed to be spending a disproportionate amount of time on relatively minor issues, compared to the strategic challenges that the business was facing.
The leader worked with a Deep C executive coach for nine sessions over a seven-month period, to try and remedy the issue. Central to their work was a realisation that the executive increasingly felt ‘caught in the spotlight’ and fearful that the higher she climbed, the less worthy she was of her position (and the harder she would fall if it all went wrong). Her coach helped her recognise and surface these fears about visibility, success and vulnerability and to understand the source of the unconscious feelings of guilt that she harboured relating to her career success. She became more aware as to how these unconscious drivers were holding her back and resulting in self-destructive behaviours.
Through the coaching process, she was able to correct her self-image as someone who was unworthy of success and to generate an alternative, healthier narrative about herself. The positive impact began to be noticed in the business when the leader started acting purposefully in accordance with her new, more helpful beliefs and self-image.
The Leadership Advantage
- The executive’s decline in performance was reversed as she engaged more confidently with the strategic aspects of her role
- The region once again began to flourish under her leadership, and she catalysed an increase in gender diversity at senior level
- She expressed a newfound ‘hunger’ for her work, which she claimed had been lacking upon her appointment
- She became a strong advocate of executive coaching for members of her leadership team.