The Client: Paul, a Senior Engineer in a large civic engineering organization

The Circumstances: Paul had worked in the same organization for 26 years and had only 4 years until retirement.  He held a strategic role that involved creating synergies and alignment between organizations working on large complex politically-charged civic projects.

He was starting to shift his focus from the “successful career” to an abstract vision of a post-retirement lifestyle, but was uncertain what that might be.  What unfolded in his coaching work, was a surprise even to him!

The First Coaching Meeting: In the first coaching meeting, Paul shared, “I’ve loved what my career has brought me, but I’m ready to retire and am looking forward to moving into the next phase of my career – whatever that might be.”

So, together with his Syzygy coach, Kami Guildner, he began to explore the stories in his career where he’d been most successful.  Paul talked of big projects where he brought new collaboration, and stronger connections between some of the complex entities with which he worked.

Over the course of weeks that followed, he told stories of teams that he’d worked on and all that they had accomplished.  He heard stories from his fellow team members where they had seen him at his best, and how he’d made an impact.  Most importantly, he reconnected to why he made a difference on those projects – with his own personal strengths and gifts.

New Discoveries: In recalling these stories, Paul recollected, “Those projects changed the shape of an entire region.  They impacted the lives of many.  And I had an important role in making it happen.  This was something that I had forgotten.  Reconnecting back to the impact that I’d made, suddenly ignited a renewed fire for the work that I do.”

Bringing Paul Back Full Circle: But it wasn’t until Paul started to evaluate what was most important in life, that his path became clear.  “The values work that I did in my coaching program is what brought real clarity to me.”

“For the past few years, I had perceived the tumultuous environment in which I worked as frustrating and tiring.  What I realized when I examined my values, was that an environment of change and variety was important to me – I would be bored in a very calm and uncomplicated environment.  I was good at solving the big problems – and I was good at the art of persuasion and building strong teams.”

With a renewed sense of commitment, Paul determined that retirement was not on his 4-year horizon.  Instead, he had bigger plans to continue to make a difference with his gifts in the organization in which he already worked.  He is now leading tremendous large-scale civic projects – impacting the lives of millions – with a sense of passion and purpose that had gotten lost in the shuffle of life.  And his organization benefits from his gifts every day.

NOTE:  Names in this Case Study have been changed to maintain confidentiality of the Syzygy client.