How Coaching Helped a Legacy Business

by Kelly Gangl

I am excited to share that recently I had the opportunity to write a chapter for a book called “Coaching Perspectives”. My chapter as well as several other talented coaches reveal the stories and perspectives learned through the experience of coaching. In my chapter, I share the insights gained from an eighteen-month contract working with a CEO and the leadership team of a small business.

This project came about while I was still in a graduate program for Organization Development at Bowling Green State University. Initially, my hope was that this would serve as a worthwhile school project; in reality this evolved into a major organization change initiative that had a powerful impact on the entire organization. Because this was my first external coaching contract, I learned many lessons throughout this journey and the insights are shared along with stories and reflections from both my own and the CEO’s perspective. This project was one of the most challenging yet exciting experiences of my professional career. It was thrilling to see the results of what is possible when employees are invited into participate in the planning of the company’s future.

I share the journey the entire company went on as we co-created a new direction. As reflected, there were many trials and tribulations including several of my own from the perspective of a first time external coach. The journey began with the uniting of the leadership team and progressed to the creation of a cross company employee team. All of these efforts contributed to the continuous improvement of the company’s operations. One of the key learnings of the leadership team was that the change starts with them.

Read more in the full chapter of Coaching Perspectives VI.