William is a senior lawyer, probably the foremost authority in his field. His career had been founded on developing that specialist knowledge and expertise. He then finds himself in charge of a large part of the organisation, but never having had any management training.
The culture in his organisation – and for his generation - was not conducive to people at his level asking for advice and assistance.
To start with, the coaching covered handling practical situations such as people management and implementing change.
It was rewarding to hear relatively early in the relationship how he was applying the benefits from his coaching to new situations.
We worked sometimes on functional issues, including handling his relationship with a number of senior stakeholders.
Even such an expert as William can benefit from the objectivity and inquiry of a coach. Latterly we looked at his next career step – ironically being constrained by his being so specialist. We did not come to a final resolution, but William had an effective strategy.', 'William is a senior lawyer, probably the foremost authority in his field. His career had been founded on developing that specialist knowledge and expertise. He then finds himself in charge of a large part of the organisation, but never having had any management training.
"It's never too late to be what you might have been"