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Page last updated: 01st February 2008

Alexander Executive Coaching - Case Study

Client: FTSE 100 Property Company
Coachee: Chief Executive of subsidiary Operating Company

Situation: A newly appointed CEO (from within), who was following a highly charismatic CEO who had started the company and then sold into the parent company. A very short hand-over period. One of two candidates for the role with a mix of views as to who should have got the job. A poor working relationship between the parent company and the subsidiary. Two very different businesses and cultures poorly understood from both sides. An ‘old style’ CEO of the parent company unable to give support, feedback and coaching. First experience of coaching.

What Graham did well

“You helped me clarify my concerns and issues through a very engaging but probing style. I always felt extremely comfortable in our meetings and felt that you teased out critical points which otherwise I would have missed or not fully articulated.”

What were the results

  1. “You helped me to more clearly articulate the key things that I needed to do to succeed.”
  2. “You enabled me to better understand how others, particularly in the parent company, might see our business and how I was leading it. You particularly helped me to understand that I had to make it very clear to colleagues why I was managing things in a certain way and to more clearly express to them what I was doing, rather that assuming that they would know how much was going on behind the scenes. This led to them having much more confidence in me and our management team as a whole.”
  3. “What you also achieved on a personal level was encouraging me to set myself manageable goals each time and to frequently re-visit progress against those objectives. Generally this lead to successful conclusions. In the case of the gym you helped me eventually understand that there is no point constantly setting that as an objective when I have no enthusiasm to achieve it. As discussed this made me feel much better when I took away that automatic failure!”
  4. “The most tangible results of your support were appointment to the Board, a focused strategy for our business and an improved relationship with the parent company CEO.”

Overall conclusion

“As I mentioned to you I found our time together very valuable as the CEO role can be fairly isolated and my direct line manager is not into enlightened management dialogues. You therefore helped me enormously in getting this into perspective, and in more recent months helped me to understand that I had achieved a lot. I have been so impressed in fact I am suggesting that my HR director might like to now undertake a similar process.”