The High-Potential Who's Burning Out
You are coaching 'Priya,' a talented senior analyst recently promoted to team lead of six people. Her manager nominated her for coaching because she's 'brilliant but the team is struggling.' In your first two sessions you learn: Priya does most of the complex work herself because 'it's faster,' two team members have complained they get no stretch assignments, her own hours have climbed to 60+/week, and she's visibly anxious about a major project due in six weeks. She wants coaching to 'get better at time management.' She's skeptical that coaching is useful and agreed only because her manager pushed it.
1. Priya has framed the problem as time management. How do you handle that framing as a coach?
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Her framing is a symptom, not the diagnosis-but I don't override it, I widen it with her.
- Start where she is. Time management is real (60+ hours is unsustainable), so acknowledge it. Dismissing her concern would confirm her skepticism.
- Surface the pattern with questions, not assertions. 'Walk me through the last task you kept instead of delegating-what made that the right call in the moment?' Let her see that 'it's faster' is a short-term trade that creates the 60-hour weeks and the team's stalled development. The goal is for her to name the connection.
- Reframe toward leadership capability. The real issue is the transition from individual contributor to lead: delegation, developing others, and letting go of being the best doer. Time management is downstream of that.
- Address her skepticism directly. Ask what would make coaching worth her time; tie the work to her stated goals (the project, her stress) rather than the manager's mandate. Coaching she didn't choose needs a personal payoff to engage her.
- Don't diagnose burnout clinically-if the anxiety and hours suggest a wellbeing risk, that's a flag to raise carefully, not to treat as a coaching problem alone.
2. What coaching approach and near-term goals would you set, given the six-week project deadline?
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Balance the urgent (project) with the developmental (leadership), and keep goals small enough to survive a crisis.
Approach: a structured, goal-focused coaching stance-collaborative, question-led, with clear accountability between sessions. Given her skepticism and time pressure, keep it practical and tied to immediate wins.
Near-term goals (6 weeks):
- One deliberate delegation per week of a task she'd normally keep, chosen to also give a specific team member a stretch opportunity. This addresses both her overload and the 'no stretch assignments' complaint at once.
- A delegation conversation script/practice so handing off isn't just dumping work-she needs to brief, set checkpoints, and resist taking it back.
- A boundary experiment: identify one recurring task or meeting she can drop or shorten, and observe what happens. Small, reversible, evidence-generating.
Longer-term: shift her identity from 'best doer' to 'multiplier,' measured by team capability and her sustainable hours, not just project delivery.
Guardrail: protect the project. Don't make the six weeks a leadership overhaul; make it a low-risk proving ground.
3. Two team members have complained. How does that shape your coaching, and what are the ethical boundaries?
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The complaints are data, and they change the stakes-but they also raise boundaries.
How it shapes coaching:
- Use the complaints as evidence in the coaching conversation (without naming or exposing the complainants): 'Your team has told your manager they're not getting growth opportunities-here's how that connects to the delegation work.' This makes the issue concrete rather than abstract.
- Widen the goal from Priya's wellbeing to team outcomes: delegation isn't just to save her hours, it's to develop her people. That aligns her goals with the organization's.
Ethical boundaries:
- Confidentiality: don't reveal who complained or quote them in a way that identifies them. Protect psychological safety of the team members.
- Scope: coaching addresses Priya's behavior and development; it is not a disciplinary process. If the performance issue is serious enough to require formal action, that's the manager's/HR's domain-coordinate, don't substitute coaching for it.
- Consent and transparency: be clear about what you'll share with her manager (generally themes and progress, not session content) and get agreement on that up front, especially since she didn't choose coaching.
- Wellbeing: if 60+ hour weeks and anxiety suggest a health risk, name it and point to appropriate resources rather than treating it purely as a performance issue.