Dealing with a high workload
Professional roles can be very, very busy. And then it’s easy to lose sight of what’s important, to suffer the wrong emotions and experience confusion. Mick Mckeever, a Head of HR, made the most of his 5 coaching sessions to gain focus, confidence and new ways to solve problems and deal with a high workload – and now he’s much happier!
Before the coaching started there was turmoil. I have an extremely high workload. It was difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff. Everything was a high priority. There were questions over which direction we should be going in. Things were tending to get emotional rather than work based, and that was spilling over into other parts of my life. There was confusion.
I’ve always recognised coaching as important but not always understood what it was. I didn’t know what someone doing your job did but I was really open to giving it a try. I was not sure what would happen – sometimes these things sound a bit mystical. I was hesitant about opening up – I was feeling a bit embattled after the period I’d just been through and knew that I was facing a number of key challenges.
Now I feel totally different. The emotional stuff has far less effect on me. I’m very much more focussed on what I’m doing. I’m more confident and more willing to say when things look like they may fail and get help earlier. For example the Directors have now recruited an assistant to help me.
I’m now turning out more work, and more creative ideas. I’m following things through to the end. I’m much better at finishing and not putting things to one side. Because of the personal assistant, I can leave the process to them, the everyday processing of new recruits, and have started to improve the process and plan new initiatives,
I believe the better focus I now have will be sustainable. As will my certainty in achieving my outcomes – knowing how to get there and do it. I can verbalise things a lot more in ways that help me sort issues and solve problems. I do that all the time now. Being happier will stay with me. I know exactly where I’m going now and what I’m doing. I’m dealing with higher levels of work and not letting them impinge on each other – I can sustain several activities at the same time. Because of this I’m more effective in doing the job. It’s also improved relationships at work – in sustainable and on-going ways. I’m involved in planning new products, recruitment and training initiatives.
I would recommend this to anyone who works at a strategic level. The work we’ve done around strategy has been very important. And it is good for anyone training for an operational role, and anyone looking to improve the quality of their work, going through important work changes, relationships and work/life balance. Also people who wish to shed old behaviours and put in place new and more appropriate ones.
I’ve really enjoyed the experience and having the opportunity to go through this. The whole opportunity was extremely enlightening. I have to thank my Directors for having the vision to pay for me to take this program and for you coaching me. Even after 3 – 4 months I can still remember so much of the work we did. And I am still refining what I learnt. It goes on and lives with you, and I go on learning new things every day.
Mick McKeever - Head of HR - Clarendon Home Care - Home care services
If you would like to know more about what you can do with executive, business and life coaching, please call Neil on 01737 243589.