The Facts: The divisional Vice-President of human resources for a $3.9 billion dollar organization engaged us to work a long-time manager of an accounting department to improve her professional presence and interpersonal skills. A senior executive received word that this person had damaged several key internal relationships. Since the manager had an impressive track record of 17 years with the company, the question became “How do we retain this valuable employee while preventing her from diminishing morale?”

The Work: An initial meeting was held between the manager in question, the human resource V.P. and the coach to state the concerns and agree on the solution. The manager agreed to embrace coaching and a tailored improvement plan was created.

The Result: The manager learned that managing tasks was her strength but managing people was a weakness. She requested a demotion in order to focus on what she did well. A valuable employee was retained and morale in the department improved. A new manager was hired and productivity increased.