“I can SO see how it must feel and look from their point of view”, she said (she is the new Nordic Area Head of Finance): “Now, we come from Corporate HQ, and we challenge everything they do, how they do it, and we ask them to put the business of the region above their own national agenda. Why should they do it?”. (I love how she creatively steps into their shoes to gain new information to the planning).

Being clear on your own vision and intentions as well as how you create and head a real and aligned leadership team (taking care of the resistance to the change), were part of our conversation.

This is what we talked about.

Since her childhood my client has been ashamed whenever her parents told her she was ‘oh so sensitive and touchy’. The inner state of shame and guilt of being too something, they couldn’t deal with, has never left her. Today, as an adult and mature executive, it still freezes her. On the outside, she says the right things to people when they accuse her or someone else on her team of being touchy, but on the inside, she still feels those old and well-known emotions of shame and anger. “Why do I even have to deal with this?!”, she asks me and wrenches her face in irritation.

This is what we did together.