Although highly rated for his expertise, the client would react to situations rather than shape them proactively, and resorted to meticulous planning to cover all eventualities. This was stressful for him and unproductive for the company.
In the coaching, it emerged that the client had changed schools as a teenager. Previously top of a small class, he faced more competition in his new school and had to work much harder just to keep up. Feelings of inadequacy and fear (of being found out) were imprinted in a new way of coping. These limiting beliefs were later automatically transferred to the workplace.
Coaching enabled the client to reconnect with his strengths and self-worth in the present time, giving him confidence to develop a more spontaneous and assertive style of communicating. Consequently, he gained stature as a senior manager and felt more personal satisfaction from his work.