Case Study #2: Self Awareness Pays Off

The Problem:  “Len”, a designer/inventor, came to me for coaching because he wanted to understand why he was so frequently at odds with the bosses and supervisors he worked with, so much so that he felt singled out. His work situation had become extremely stressful.

Len had an unusual work history. He was hired by companies for specific projects, and usually let go after their completion.  He seldom made it as a permanent employee.  The longest job he’d held lasted for three years. 

Despite his excellent training, creativity and intelligence, Len was unable to hold most jobs for longer than a half year or so, and he was used to going through periodic anxiety-ridden job searches because of his rocky work history.  He had a group of staffing firms he used over and over for that purpose. During our coaching, which lasted for more than two years, on and off, Len was let go twice from his jobs. 

As I got to know Len, I discovered that he had extremely poor people skills.  He bluntly spoke his mind at meetings to point out mistakes made by his supervisor, other colleagues and even clients.  This behavior was constantly getting him into hot water, yet he didn’t understand why, because as he saw it, he was telling the truth.

Because of his poor relations with supervisors, Len had developed a series of defensive, self-sabotaging measures as a means of coping with the stress he was under. He was frequently late for work and meetings; his performance was painfully slow, and often mistake-ridden.
Len was a nervous wreck. Every time his supervisor approached him, he anticipated he’d be berated or fired. After coaching for a while, he let me know he’d been self-medicating with alcohol for years in order to cope with the anxiety he was constantly experiencing.

The process: During our discussions, it became clear that Len had zero insight on how his speaking out about mistakes, his defensive behavior and his drinking were sabotaging the clarity of his thought, his personal effectiveness and his professional standing at work. My coaching sessions with Len centered on increasing his understanding of person-to-person interactions, as well as increasing his level of awareness overall.

We discussed when and how it would be appropriate to point out others’ mistakes, and what different, more diplomatic strategies he might use to constructively speak out about problems with his supervisor and co-workers.

As Len slowly gained insight into his behavior, he implemented some of the new strategies. To his surprise, he found that higher-ups in his organization appreciated the constructive solutions he proposed, and he was cited favorably by the company president for his innovative idea for a work standard the company was developing. 

After months of discussions raising his awareness, Len realized that his drinking—for as long as he chose to maintain it—was doing major damage to his thinking, his emotions and his health, to his entire career and personal life. Without any prompting, he decided to stop drinking completely, a major triumph for him.

The result: After stopping his drinking,  Len was finally mentally free to stop kidding himself about the obstacles he’d been placing in his own way, and he admitted that some of the mistakes he’d made at work were actually intentional—done a means of defying his supervisors. His new clarity of mind made it possible for him to see that his juvenile reaction was out of place and that it only served to damage his professional reputation.

Len was let go from the company when his project was completed. We stopped our coaching at that point, and Len let me know that he had embarked on his new job search with less anxiety and a far greater degree of confidence than he’d ever experienced before.  About a month later, Len phoned me with the happy news that he’d found a new job at a higher salary than he had been paid in the past.