Executive Coaching Case Studies

The Case of the Uncoachable Client

Note: Tom Pierce’s executive coaching clients often request confidentiality. The details in these coaching case studies, while accurately reflecting past or current coaching situations, have been generalized from one or more incidents, and the names of the clients have been changed to assure anonymity.

What happens when an executive coach asks a client to take an assessment survey, and she answers the questions herself but, when the survey report is issued, she refuses to believe or act on the results?

Tom is certified to administer TalentSmart's respected Emotional Intelligence Appraisal™, to assess the results, and to coach clients how to enhance their EQ to improve workplace performance. While the scale for each score theoretically ranges from 0 to 100, most scores fall between 65 and 85.

In Tom Pierce’s workshops or Webinars about Emotional Intelligence (EQ), he often asks the learners to act as detectives. Their only clues are a “suspect’s” four scores that resulted from taking an emotional intelligence assessment measuring:

• Self-Awareness
• Self-Management
• Social Awareness
• Relationship Management

After revealing the four scores (but providing no other information), Tom asks the “detective agency” to describe the person.

During one recent workshop, Tom asked participants to think about the following EQ results scored by a past executive coaching client, who we’ll call Gloria. He asked the learners to answer this question:

“Why do you think Tom concluded that Gloria was “uncoachable?”

As you think about these scores, keep in mind that the median emotional intelligence score worldwide is 75:

• Self-Awareness 47
• Self-Management 62
• Social Awareness 53
• Relationship Management 48
• Overall Emotional Intelligence 55

Why do you think that Gloria is uncoachable?

Although the workshop participants came up with some insightful answers (example: “With such low self awareness, she probably wouldn’t even know she needed coaching.”), Tom admitted that he had asked them a trick question—there is no way to tell from the raw scores whether a person is coachable or uncoachable.

Emotional Intelligence scores are just a snapshot in time. Unlike your IQ, emotional intelligence can be improved by practicing the right behaviors.

Here are the reasons Tom decided that it would be best not to continue coaching this person:

Even though Gloria answered the survey questions herself, she refused to believe the results.Gloria protested that Tom had instructed her to think about work when she answered the questions, and that she was much different with people outside the office. Gloria insisted that, with all the other priorities in her life, she wouldn’t have time for coaching right now.

Generalizing from The Case of the Uncoachable Client, Tom developed his “screen test” for determining whether or not a prospective client is a good fit for his executive coaching:

To pass "Tom’s Test", the answer to each question must be “Yes”:

• Are you facing a career or workplace challenge that will require change?
• Do you recognize that challenge?
• Are you committed to work hard to change?
• Do you think that Executive Coaching can be an important part of the solution?
• Do you feel that Tom Pierce has the competence and the chemistry to be your coach?

Executive Coaching must be a two-way street. The coach and the client both need to commit to discovering new ways together to achieve new levels of workplace performance excellence.