Coaching: Developing confidence and managing stress

The Organisation

The organisation works with difficult-to-engage young people to give them the motivation, self-confidence and skills they need to change their lives.

The Need

After winning a significant amount of government funding to expand its regional teams, the organisation recruited a project manager to ensure the expansion objectives were met and to ensure that the growth was sustainable post-funding.

What We Did

The management body for the government fund engaged Jacqueline to transfer her project and people management skills and experience by way of a mentoring relationship for the project manager. After initial sessions that focused on skills in chairing meetings and working with others, it became clear that whilst the project manager was a resourceful, competent individual, she was being held back by a lack of self confidence. Jacqueline suggested that a deeper, more self-exploratory coaching approach would have greater impact in helping the project manager reach her goals. Over the following year, Jacqueline and the project manager met for 2 hours, once every 4-6 weeks, each time establishing objectives for the sessions, linking those to the overall goals, and agreeing how Jacqueline could best help the project manager in achieving the session objectives.

Benefits

In the final evaluation of the coaching sessions the project manager reported progress on all of the goals she had set for herself, with particularly significant progress in being able to constructively take on board and use feedback from others. The increase in self confidence enabled the project manager to take a step up in her career.

In rating her coaching experience as ‘exceeding expectations’, the project manager commented “I think that had I not had her (Jacqueline’s) coaching I would not have had the confidence to take on this new role and effectively manage the stresses that any new role places on an individual. I think the most important tools she has given me is my new ability to take criticism constructively and have faith in my abilities, whatever role it is that I am taking on.”

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