Optimize Your Strengths. Brook James

he looks out of the glass partitioning between his suite and the open plan office. Thinking about his leadership team, he counts all the ways in which their performance and behaviour fail to meet his expectations.

      “Relationships between individuals are poor; there's a growing mistrust and some pretty unhealthy politicking taking place out there; Robert's resignation hasn't helped either,” he assesses, clinically.

      Robert, Tiger's former Finance Director, was Joe's top performer. He had applied for Joe's job. He didn't get it. He had moved to the position as CEO for Tiger's major competitor and Joe's former employer, Dragon Recruitment.

      Spinning his chair towards the window, Joe stares out at the scorched landscape, wondering where to start. Suddenly he remembers meeting a guy on his return flight from Seattle two weeks ago. He was a “strengths coach”. Joe had heard of business coaches, he'd even read a few books on business coaching; never though, had he heard of a strengths coach. Being curious by nature, Joe had spent some time getting to know this person, Richard, who had given him a business card when they parted at Heathrow. Joe recalls their conversation about the “deficit-based” belief system most people inherit from their childhood. Richard had explained that his job was to help leaders become more effective through focusing on strengths to achieve breakthrough thinking and to overcome challenges. At the time, Joe had been too embarrassed to admit that he was caught in the type of destructive habits Richard had described as typical of such a limiting belief system. Thinking about it now, he knew he'd had enough. He was tired of feeling trapped. It was time to find a way out and Richard's route had sounded kind of appealing.

      Mulling over what Richard had shared with him on the plane, Joe gazes into the distance. Richard had been Chief Operating Officer for one of the UK's largest advertising firms before burnout forced him to take time out. An ambitious man, Richard had struggled to come to terms with his sudden and unexpected fall from the corporate ladder. Following six months away from work and a great deal of soul searching, Richard decided to become an executive coach. Sharing his learning, experiences and interpersonal strengths with others and helping them to succeed was the best choice he could take to move forward, he had said.

      “I may end up burning out if I'm not careful. I think I'll call him,” thinks Joe, as he reaches for his wallet to find Richard's business card.

      A few seconds later, he has it. Picking up the phone, he makes the call…

*

      The day before his meeting with Richard, Joe chairs his regular team meeting with Tiger's European Regional Executive Team (TERET). The team comprises five members: Sally, the Sales and Marketing Director; Mark, the Operations Director; Raj, the Technical Director; Gwen, the Human Resources Director; and Phil, the new Finance Director (who is fast becoming Joe's right-hand man).

      The meeting starts well, but within half an hour the usual petty in-house conflict kicks off. Mark and Raj had never seen eye-to-eye and this time their argument about a planned rebrand of the website is getting very personal.

      “If you and your team can't get the site rebranded by January, we should go outside to a third party web design agency; at least they won't take holidays all the time, like you guys do!” Mark protests.

      “Besides, rebranding our website should be a marketing project, not a technical project,” adds Mark, looking hopefully at Sally, expecting her support.

      “I'm getting frustrated with your constant criticism Mark,” retorts Raj, irritably.

      “You have no knowledge of web design, yet you are always criticizing what we're doing. We know what we are doing and want to do a proper job, not a half-baked one. That's why we're taking our time.”

      Exhausted, Joe ends the meeting, feeling utterly dejected. Yet again, his thoughts turn to his wife, Lynette. Lynette had recently left him. She had filed for divorce, citing his long work hours as one of the reasons. Joe had known that the relationship was becoming increasingly strained by his ambition and excessive working hours, but had never ever imagined that Lynette would leave, taking their two young children, Harry and Amelia, with her.