The Situation
A rising leader – sharp, driven, and with seven+ years at the same organization – had built a reputation for getting things done. But the way she got things done had a cost. Early in her career, she’d developed a bullying style: results came fast, but relationships with peers were frayed and getting worse.
The stakes were rising, too. She was moving into a broader leadership role at a time of great stress in the organization and the industry. The organization needed to know: what kind of leader would she become once she had more authority and more people depending on her?
The Approach
The client brought in coaching to help her build the self-awareness and communication skills the role would demand – before the bullying pattern followed her into a bigger job.
A few things mattered to how the engagement was set up:
- The work started with a Hogan Suite assessment. Rather than jumping straight into coaching conversations, the engagement began by giving her (and her coach) an objective, data-backed picture of her personality, derailers, and values – a grounded starting point for naming the communication pattern without it feeling like a subjective judgment call.
- She chose her own coach. Rather than being assigned one, she had three “fit” conversations and picked the coach she connected with. Having that voice in the selection made the work land differently – it was something she opted into, not something done to her.
- Confidentiality was treated as non-negotiable. The organization had worked with consultants before who hadn’t held the line on confidentiality, and it had cost them trust. This time, the coaching relationship was protected – which mattered enormously given how much was changing around her.
The Results
The shift was significant, and it showed up in several places at once:
- Her relationship with the Chief Financial Officer became the most productive of any executive on the team – a notable turnaround given how strained that dynamic had been with others.
- Her communication style calmed. She’s still candid, still direct, but no longer a bully. The aggressive edge is muted, if not fully gone, and it’s now something she can control rather than something that controls her.
- Her team loves working with her. The group she inherited now experiences her as consultative and dynamic, not just effective.
- Her confidence grew – and so did her market value. With newfound self-assurance came a clearer sense of what she brings to the table. Other organizations have taken notice and started courting her, and she’s begun to recognize her own worth in a way she hadn’t before.
Why It Worked
This wasn’t a case of smoothing over a rough edge. It was a leader with real talent who needed the self-awareness to match her drive – and an environment (coach choice, confidentiality) that let her actually do that work honestly. The result is someone the organization very nearly lost the chance to develop, now positioned as one of its strongest leaders.
