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Please describe what was going on in your work/life that made you come to me for help. How were you feeling? What were you doing? What did you want to have happen?
I was working remotely, in Belgium but for a mainly UK based team and had real difficulty in getting work done by others.
I was feeling isolated and frustrated in that people were simply not doing what I would ask them to do for me or at worst simply ignore my requests, despite repeatedly requesting their help and expressing the importance of the requests. In hindsight, looking back, I can see that I was relying on E-mail as my primary communication method.
Although technically speaking my business results were fine I had difficulty building trusting and productive relationships with people, engaging with and motivating people and build trust.
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What made you decide to work with me?
I knew you from previous training sessions. I also knew that you had direct experience and understanding of our company culture as well.
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Did you have any concerns about the process or the work we might do together?
Having these sessions is a matter of trust, both give and take and whilst it took a little while for this to build I had complete faith that the coaching would be of great benefit to me in the long run. I also had a concern that 6 sessions over a six month period would be insufficient, but this proved not to be the case.
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Which bits of the process did you find most useful, and why.
The discussions and work around interpreting my colour wheel profile were very helpful and gave me an insight that made much more sense than just reading it could. Having someone question you about where, when or how a behaviour would be demonstrated made me think. The ‘Johari’ window tool and questionnaire gave me a great insight into how I handled the relationships around me and made me realise that I was too reliant on email communication rather than building ‘real’ relationships with people – building Trust and Understanding with them. Also the tools and concepts described in the book “Everyone agrees with Tom” were most useful. Easy and practical to apply and get great results from.
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What do you think has had the biggest impact on how you think and behave?
The way I communicate with others now. Being much more willing to use the phone or face to face time when available to me and building two-way relationships with others. I have started to open up to them about myself and my interest and have received some great information back from others in the process- common ground or understanding if you like that we can use as the basis for building our on-going relationships. I get a much more positive response when I ask for help from people now, probably due to the fact that I’m now ‘talking to them’ rather than just communicating with them.
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What would you say to anyone else contemplating working with me?
Coaching is extremely useful and is really beneficial provided that you are really willing / wanting to make changes to the way that you work. For me, I wish I’d had this coaching years ago!