Examples

Here are some of examples of workplace coaching with Employee Liaison Service (ELS) practitioners.

Unsolicited advice

Sarah managed a mid-sized team. She began receiving unsolicited advice from a person working in the same office. This person tried to have input into Sarah’s team and their processes, despite working in a completely different area. The comments kept coming, and Sarah found out that her team members were also being emailed directly.

Sarah got in touch with Fair Way. She felt she was being undermined as a manager, and also that her team were not being respected or recognised for their capability. Sarah wasn’t sure how to approach the situation.

The ELS practitioner explored ways that Sarah could provide feedback, that would be appropriate. They discussed how it was not Sarah’s place to manage someone from another team. Sarah decided to approach the individual’s manager, provide the feedback and let them consider the best course of action. 

Clashing with a colleague

Rob was not getting along with his colleague Marie. Their personalities clashed and it seemed like any simple work discussion turned into a debate. Rob didn’t know what to do – he did not want to work with Marie anymore and started looking at other opportunities.

Rob phoned Fair Way and used the ELS workplace coaching session as a sounding board in the first instance. The practitioner discussed their communication pattern and identified how Rob and Marie kept getting caught in the same conflict circle.

The practitioner arranged a follow-up conflict coaching session the following week. Rob learned some new communication tools and they created a plan for Rob to meet with Marie and discuss their workplace issue.

Not feeling valued

Ava attended weekly meetings with senior leaders. Her manager asked her to leave parts of the meeting sometimes, and this frustrated her. Ava felt she was not being trusted or valued.

Ava contacted Fair Way. In her workplace coaching session, the ELS practitioner explored the issue with Ava. Ava recognised that she needed to have a conversation with her manager, but she found this challenging as she was afraid of confrontation.

A follow up coaching session was arranged where Ava made a plan for how she would raise the issue and voice her concerns to her manager.

Potential bullying

Jeff had been criticised by his manager. He felt he was being ‘managed out’ and described the manager’s style as ‘bully like’. Jeff didn’t know what to do as the issue involved a manager.

Fair Way’s ELS practitioner listened to Jeff. In their chat, Jeff was guided to think about how this was affecting him, his manager, his work and his team. They talked about the different perspectives. Jeff questioned if this was bullying, so the practitioner explored that with him.

After chatting through the issue and options, Jeff decided to talk to HR as he wanted formal action to happen.

Inappropriate comments

Maia liked her colleague, but he made inappropriate comments occasionally. When she called him out on it, he laughed it off. However, those comments stayed with Maia and made her uncomfortable.

Maia contacted Fair Way as she worried about how her colleagues would react if she took further action. During the coaching session, the ELS practitioner explored why Maia felt the comments were inappropriate.

After discussing some options, Maia decided that her colleague needed to understand where she was coming from. Fair Way’s ELS practitioner arranged to facilitate discussions for Maia and her colleague. Through those conversations, Maia explained why those comments weren’t a joke for her. Her colleague apologised. While he hadn’t meant to cause offense, he could now understand where Maia was coming from and why they were out of line.

The workplace coach also identified that Maia could benefit from counselling, so they put Maia in touch with organisation’s EAP provider.