Coaching Case Study: Re-balancing Priorities

Coaching Case Study By Jo-An Goh
(Career Coach, SINGAPORE)

(1) Background on Client

Carolyn has  been a researcher in her current company for 15 years and is passionate about environmental issues. She is involved in three other activities outside her professional job. These activities are: (a) neighborhood gardening group (b)  food issues interest group (c) youth climate action group.

(2) Issues Faced

Carolyn is actively involved in the above three external activities outside of her professional work. Her coaching goal is to re-balance her priorities on what she should focus on, in order not to overload herself.

(3) Coaching Techniques and Approaches

Checking Perceptions

I started the coaching session by asking about her profession, interests and passions, coaching needs and 3 phrases to describe herself. From descriptions given about herself and the way she shared about her interests, instead of assuming that she was a passionate person, I checked my perception with her and she agreed that she was.

Being Focused on Coaching Goal

After asking each question, I allowed Carolyn to speak freely with minimal interruptions. At times where she was drifting away from her coaching goal, I brought her back to her coaching goal and asked her how her action would impact her coaching goal.

Ranking of Priorities

To assess her priorities, I asked Carolyn if she would like to continue with all activities or are there any activities that she would like to scale down or drop. I’ve also asked her to rank her intended involvement in her external activities. She came to the realisation that due to her passion, she would like to continue to be involved in these external activities and shared that perhaps she might want a change of job instead, as the work environment under the current management is getting less conducive.

Support Team

Carolyn also shared that the reason she felt overwhelmed in her outside activities was because she was also taking on the tasks of others when they failed to fulfill their responsibilities. I asked her how she would overcome this problem and she shared that she would take more steps to find out their commitment level of potential volunteers before assigning a task to them or taking on more projects.

Gratitude

In wrapping up the session, I shared with Carolyn that she is blessed that her boss has approved of a 4-day work week arrangement for the remaining part of the year, as not many people are privileged to have supportive employers and colleagues. She will be using her off days to reflect about her priorities and goals and to think ahead for the future about her career.

(4) Moving Ahead

At the end of the coaching session, Carolyn felt that she had greater clarity of her priorities. At the next Coaching session, she would like to talk more about thinking and planning ahead for the future.