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Transforming personal performance
The following are some examples of very different people in very different
circumstances. The names have been changes, but the sets of circumstances
are genuine.
Howard
Howard was an Assistant Financial Director in a Local Authority, using a
programme of one-to-one coaching from The Human Dimension to enhance his
current performance and future career prospects. He was extremely
competent technically, but lacked effective people management skills. He
undervalued himself, and had a strong belief that he was inherently unable
to deal with people, preferring to stick to his spreadsheets and
forecasts.
As a result of six coaching sessions, focusing on developing his
psychological fitness, he felt able to tackle a seemingly impossible
challenge, to reduce Council Tax debt by £10 million in four years. His
innovative approach and his newfound ability to drive through and manage
his ideas to a successful conclusion resulted in him being promoted to
Finance Director.
Dean
Dean was a participant on an extended ten-day programme aimed at helping
recently promoted shop-floor operatives to become effective team leaders.
He was severely dyslexic, and had been ridiculed and punished by his
parents for his difficulties. He was ignored by many of his workmates,
almost certainly because he presented as a classic, helpless victim.
However, he was discounting many of his strengths, including quite
outstanding athletic ability and a high level of spatial awareness. He
also had a natural ability to work with computers, although he was by no
means a typical computer geek.
By the end of the programme, using his new psychological fitness to help
conquer his shyness, he turned out to be a very successful and popular
member of the supervisory team. He also became very creative in finding
workplace solutions – or perhaps in communicating his ideas to others. The
combination of his new social skills, natural abilities and improved
self-confidence enabled him to take on a key role, liaising with the
Production Director, advising him about work-place issues and acting as a
very important conduit for ideas and directives from the boardroom to the
shop floor,
Gwen
Gwen was an overstretched and underperforming manager in a Local
Authority. She was at the point of considering a radical career change,
but agreed to a programme of one-to-one coaching, focusing on helping her
to develop greater psychological fitness. After some six sessions, she
presented as a very different person, with a very different approach to
the work which had previously caused her such stress and anxiety.
She had focused on the key elements of her performance at work, and had
developed tools to facilitate a process of continuous improvement. As a
result of this, and improved levels of self-confidence which enabled her
to say ‘No’, she was able to reduce the volume of her work by 40%. With
greater psychological fitness, she was also able to deal better with
conflict situations, and stopped being a perfectionist when there was no
need. In addition, she felt able to manage meetings more professionally
with quite challenging people. She did leave her job – but to a more
senior position in another Authority.
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