Gib decides to hire an executive coach. He had read a bit about this coaching process and had listened to an executive coach speak at a luncheon meeting of his local business group. Gib gave her a call. Cynthia received his call and indicated that she would be pleased to set up a coaching engagement with Gib. Cynthia felt that she could be particularly helpful because she tends to specialize in small businesses and in helping businesses (and their leaders) become more “agile.” Once he met with Cynthia, Gib tended to agree that she could be just what he needed. They set an agenda for her work with Gib.
Gib and Cynthia focused on three initiatives. First, Cynthia was going to conduct interviews with virtually all of Gib’s employees to gain a clear sense of their concerns and feedback that they would like to give Gib about his recent decisions. In other words, Cynthia was gathering information for Gib’s second quad. The second initiative focused on Gib’s third quad. Cynthia was to conduct probing conversations with Gib himself, regarding where he was in his own life and what was really behind Gib’s decision to move toward a new product line. Gib agreed that he needed a “clear mind and heart” if he was to navigate his “ship” into “storming seas.” Cynthia and Gib actually decided to do their work while walking through a forest located near Gib’s plant. They even stopped during each session by a stream where Gib (and later Cynthia) skipped stones while talking about Gib’s inner life (and movement of material from quad four into quad three).
The third initiative involved planning a two day retreat that Gib would lead. Running a small business, Gib could actually request that all of his employees attend this retreat. Cynthia came—not as someone who facilitated the retreat (this was Gib’s job) but as someone who could periodically make some observations and confer with Gib. She was the “coach” and not the quarterback. In preparation for the retreat, Cynthia provided Gib with the results of the interviews she conducted with his employees and prepared a summary set of findings that she wrote on flipchart pages (Gib hates power point).
Based on his reflections with Cynthia, Gib came to the realization that he can no longer be a “one-man band” when it came to designing the new product. He needed the expertise to be found among his current employees as well as expertise and fresh perspectives to be offered by several new employees that would be carefully selected. Gib realized that there was both good news and bad news here. On the one hand, he was turning to existing employees for their assistance (thereby hopefully reducing some of their resistance while also accessing their expertise). On the other hand, he was also looking outside his existing workforce—suggesting that currently existing expertise is not sufficient.
