Sarah is a Deputy Director in a high-profile public body. She enjoys her work and is recognised as an outstanding performer. She sought coaching to help her to decide whether to pursue promotion and whether that would be compatible for the time she needed for herself and her family. She was also experiencing significant stress and anxiety dealing with workload and stakeholder management.
We worked through a programme initially focused on Sarah’s values relating to work and to family life. This helped Sarah to identify and resolve conflicts in her values, and to make some choices to alleviate stress. We explored Sarah’s people-pleasing tendencies which empowered Sarah to set appropriate boundaries and ring-fence time for strategic thinking. We also discussed her tendency to diminish her own achievements and incorporated tactics to celebrate success and role model best leadership practices.
With these new strategies in place, Sarah successfully sought promotion to Director and is working a nine-day fortnight. She still has time for herself and her family which remains a priority, and feels that her leadership model is sustainable.
