Alison found the core of her job to be fantastic.  She would have been very happy and fulfilled had this taken up most of her working time and energy.  However there were responsibilities that she had been given that were not part of what she considered to be the essence of her job.  These were a considerable drain on her.  Her team had also struggled to get recognition for the contribution it was making to programming.

She perceived her own character and capabilities as being too different to those who achieved senior management positions to allow her to develop professionally in the way she would like.  She also wanted to work fewer hours, and to get on top of her ever-growing workload.

We worked with Alison over a period of six months.  During this time she learnt how to manage herself and her team more effectively, focusing her efforts on the things she could actually do something about, rather than wasting energy on getting angry about decisions that were being made at senior management level.  She recognised that her long-term future was not with her current employer, and started the process of looking for a new job.

Once she’d accepted that her current position was for the short- and medium-term only, she relaxed into being an even better manager.  A measure of her success was how well her team functioned without her when Alison had to take two weeks off at very short notice to deal with a family crisis.

She is now enjoying her job, managing her team well and looking forward to the future. 

Case study: Alison Callaghan

Alison is an experienced manager in a large international NGO.  She came to us to help her find a stronger focus.

She came to us for coaching to help her to have a stronger focus and to explore whether she wanted to move up the management ladder.