Sarah, a senior HR executive for Australasia in the energy industry was feeling an internal crisis. She had rapidly risen through the ranks of human resources to be the trusted confidante of the CEO. She was well regarded by her colleagues and was recognised internationally several times for her contributions to the global HR community.
As a consequence of global restructures and outsourcing of roles to regional hubs she felt much of her autonomy and opportunity for innovative thinking had diminished. The reality was it had. She was left feeling bored, no longer felt inspired and motivated in her work. Sarah was ready to leave the company and had started actively looking for another role.
With Sarah being considered top talent, Pamela Frost was invited to work with her over a six-month period to explore and mitigate a retention risk.
The process they worked through involved initially completing some diagnosis and analysis of capability, strengths, motivations, engagement and values. It was revealed that whilst she was a significant performer in her role she was both disengaged with the company direction and misaligned in terms of both values and motivations in her current role. Sarah had lost a sense of purpose, challenge and meaning in her work.
To stay would require an overhaul of her current role and deeper soul searching to drawn upon her energy reserves that once were in abundant supply. It would also require reframing expectations of the executive on her future and future contributions.
Through the executive coaching process Sharon realised that creating a legacy and building a foundation for a more sustainable future provided purpose for her. She was able to influence the CEO to establish a function within the organisation addressing Corporate Social Responsibility and to promote greater appreciation of the impact of decisions on the environment at all levels of management.
Sarah stayed working with the organisation for another two years before moving on to start a completely different venture in her life and pursue self-employment.
The name of this person has been changed to protect her privacy.
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