Case Study - Cultural Coaching
The behavioural shift resulted in an expanded social network...
he became the person who removed obstacles to help his staff to succeed. 
Context
Whitesell & Company was the designated coach for executives in a Canadian bank with branches in the United States and the Caribbean. We were considered the “one-off” coaching firm. That is, we were the consultants who worked with executives who were considered by HR to be highly talented but problematic because of some key deficiencies such as ineffective leadership skills or their inability to contribute to the senior leadership team due to interpersonal conflicts. We were the last stop before HR would negotiate the executive’s departure from the company.
When Arjun was asked to work with us, he had no illusions about the implications. He knew that to refuse this “opportunity” after attending several leadership programs and following several discussions with his boss and HR, he would be shown the door. Complaints from his staff continued to pour in and his latest 360° review was the lowest of all his peers.
Arjun was desperate to find a way to succeed. He had left his executive role in a large bank in Mubai to pursue his career with a relatively smaller, Canadian bank but at a higher level. He was successful at first so he and his wife, Saanvi, decided to sponsor her mother to move to Canada so that she could take care of Arjun and Saanvi’s two pre-school children. The problems started when Arjun was promoted from being an independent contributor and expert in debt capital markets to be the manager of a large, international team.
The first meeting with the Whitesell & Company consultant did not go well. Arjun was nervous, and he lost confidence in the consultant when she used the term “East Indian” to describe her experience with other executives who she had coached from Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Arjun corrected her defensively and explained that “South Asian” was a better term when talking about the region. For example, Vancouver — where the consultant had worked before — does not have a large “East Indian” population, but a large “South Asian” population.
Our consultant was concerned that she was not able to connect quickly with Arjun as she had with so many other clients. She knew that she would need his trust to continue. So, she decided to bypass the usual battery of psychological assessments and analysis of Arjun’s job performance as the starting point and, instead, invited Arjun and his wife to lunch to discuss their family’s goals for the future. The lunch ended with a vote of confidence from both Arjun and Saanvi. The tension was reduced to the point where the real work of coaching and change could happen.
Outcome
Arjun was an excellent student. He had misinterpreted many of the cultural nuances that newcomers encounter when first coming to Canada. Arjun also had to address the cultural differences in the banks. Just as our consultant had met Arjun where he was at, Arjun started to approach his employees and team members with a level of sincerity and he stated his need to learn. That behaviour shift resulted in an expanded social network and much better feedback on his next 360° assessment. Instead of using the leadership skills that he had acquired in his courses as blunt instruments to maintain power, he became the person who removed obstacles to help his staff to succeed. Supporting others was one his natural strengths that had been muted by Arjun’s reaction to the new culture. His recovery as a leader was fast and complete. Arjun was promoted to be the CEO of one of the bank’s regional offices in British Columbia.