Case Histories

These case histories reflect actual experiences between Emily Barnes and a few of her clients. They are summarized below in order to give you some insight into the broad range of skills and tools Emily uses to help clients reach their goals.

Organization & Productivity

Working Smarter

Issue: A senior manager felt compelled to do something about his work style. While he had a great reputation for implementing innovative solutions to complex problems and was well-liked by his peers and subordinates, his department often operated in a crises mode because of his last-minute approach to getting work done. Staff members complained about bottlenecks due to his slow decision making, confusion caused by poor delegation, double-booked appointments, and an overall disorganized approach to managing his workload.

Solution: We focused on improving the senior manager’s work efficiency. The assessment interview revealed that the manager did not have a reliable process in place for answering the needs of his job function. After identifying the various demands of his job, we determined the desired behavior (goal) he wanted to achieve by the end of our contract. Next we agreed on the principles and habits he would need to practice in order to reach his goal. For the next few months we worked via in-person visits, phone calls, and emails to improve his performance as a leader and as a manager of information.

Results: The client made definitive improvements in the way he communicated with his staff, delegated responsibilities, managed his paperwork, and planned his work (he previously spent zero time on weekly planning).

Leadership Transition
Athlete to Executive
Technology Staffer to Manager 

Personal Performance
Technology Staffer to Manager 
Fine-tuning Business Etiquette

Organization & Productivity
Working Smarter

Career Transition
Working Creatively

Back to Top