An Innovative Coaching Project with Remarkable Success

Coaching 68 Chief Financial Officers from 40 Different Countries in Four Hours

An Innovative Coaching Project with Remarkable Success was exactly the kind of challenge we at Solutionsurfers Team love – especially when it has the potential to produce positive results.

When we received the invitation to facilitate this coaching marathon, our first instinct was to accept the challenge, but without setting our expectations too high. We assumed that a four-hour session with 68 chief financial officers and managers from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa – representing 40 different countries – could not possibly replace several individual coaching sessions.

We then realised that we had 68 coaches ready to work, even if they did not see themselves as coaches in the true sense of the word. Looking at the situation more closely, we decided to trust the participants in the process and began to feel comfortable setting high expectations for our session.

The Working Framework

This unusual opportunity to coach such a large team came from a Human Resources Director in Bucharest, who wanted to do something different for the company’s two-day annual meeting of national and international EMEA finance leaders from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Although they were part of the same organisation, the group members came from extremely diverse working environments and cultural backgrounds, differed in age, and had highly varied professional education and experience. They represented the company’s finance functions across countries including England, France, Finland, Russia, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa.

The objective of our coaching session focused on reviewing the company’s results, initiatives, budgets, and communication across the network.

The session also aimed to build on their existing intention to become influential business partners, with greater attention given to identifying comprehensive business solutions rather than financial solutions alone.

We were therefore invited to support this development by facilitating a coaching workshop for the finance management team during the first part of their annual meeting, with a focus on strengthening communication skills and increasing their ability to influence effectively.

We were selected to deliver this coaching workshop because of our extensive experience, our strong expertise in management consultancy, training, and individual and team coaching, as well as our practical, solution-focused way of working – the Solution Focus Coaching approach.

To prepare for this four-hour team coaching session, we held several meetings and discussions with the Human Resources Director in Romania and the London-based EMEA Finance Director. We developed the entire concept in advance, together with the presentation and working materials. We also decided to attend the group’s morning meeting so that we could gain a better sense of the participants and their working dynamics.

Our Coaching Approach

Our main aim in this team coaching project was to facilitate useful coaching conversations aligned with the agreed objective and to introduce a range of practical and effective micro-coaching tools for strengthening communication skills and increasing the participants’ ability to influence. As none of the participants were familiar with the concept of coaching, part of our role was also to offer coaching questions that would help them gain greater clarity, both individually and in relation to one another.

The objectives we considered for each participant included:

• Having the time and space to think and listen carefully;
• Finding the right questions to clarify present and future intentions and objectives;
• Deciding which situations they wanted to manage more effectively and what benefits truly effective management would bring;
• Becoming more aware of what was already working well and what could be improved;
• Developing greater confidence and discovering qualities and resources within themselves and within their team by sharing success stories;
• Deciding on and committing to small but confident steps in the desired direction.

The Structure of the Solution Focus Coaching Project

1. Setting the Framework and Building the Relationship

The coaching session began with a presentation by one of the representatives of the company that had engaged us. The presentation introduced the working theme and the objectives of the coaching workshop we had prepared in line with the agreed requirements.

This set the framework for the four-hour session. We knew that our coaching approach would be unfamiliar to most participants, so we explained the process and structure as clearly as possible. For us, it is always important to:

• Focus on what is working rather than on what is not working;
• Look for solutions rather than emphasising problems;
• Trust that participants already have the answers, even if they are not yet aware of them.

We therefore invited those present to experience the proposed exercises and then decide for themselves whether they had found them useful.

2. Building the Platform

Although the context for this meeting had been created by the Finance Director responsible for the programme, our role as coaches was to help ensure that every coaching conversation was successful and that each participant could decide for themselves what they would consider an excellent outcome.

To encourage communication between participants, we invited them to work in pairs and have the following conversation:

“Assuming that this coaching session proves highly useful for you, please tell me:

How will you know that these four hours have been time well spent?

How might others notice that the session has been useful to you?”

3. Micro-Tools

a. The Power of Positive Influence

In response to the company’s request, we introduced several new tools and different approaches that provided an overview of four distinct styles of positive influence. We illustrated these styles using examples drawn from the group’s interactions before our workshop.

Our aim was highly practical rather than theoretical: to create greater awareness of the possibilities already available within their working situations.

The Perfect Future

We knew that successful influence could look different from one person to another, so we invited participants to share their personal perspectives on the subject and to discuss what successful influence meant within their specific working contexts.

We designed the questions to leave enough space for each participant to define how they wanted to interact, what outcome they were aiming for, and the best possible future scenario they could imagine:

How will you know that you have done everything you could to influence others?

In which situations? With whom?

What difference will this make – for you, for the business, and for other people?

Discover What Others Have Done Before You and the Resources Available to You

“Discover what works and do more of it.”

Steve de Shazer, psychotherapist and co-founder of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), which forms the foundation of the Solution Focus Coaching approach.

One way to discover what works is to explore success stories and the power they hold. We therefore invited participants to work in small groups and share examples of times when they had successfully influenced someone, describing in detail how they had achieved it. By talking about their personal success stories, participants became more aware of the approaches that worked well for them and were also inspired by the success stories of their colleagues.

After discussing success with their colleagues, participants were invited to “gossip” positively about one another. As this was a completely unfamiliar technique for them, we first offered an example by speaking positively about the people who had engaged us for the project.

It is remarkable to see and hear how the atmosphere can shift in a positive direction within just a few minutes. We began to notice people relaxing, smiling, and becoming increasingly open. This exercise creates greater awareness of qualities, competencies, and abilities, strengthens self-confidence, and helps build a more open and trusting working environment, which provides the foundation for further communication among group members.

b. Listening

The quality of listening influences the quality of thinking. It represents 50% of a conversation. When my intention is to achieve good results through communication, the quality of listening is essential.

For this exercise, we used a simple and enjoyable method: Person A speaks for three minutes. For half of that time, Person B does not listen, while during the other half, they pay close attention to what Person A is saying. At the end, A and B explore the impact the exercise had on the speaker.

This exercise has a dual purpose: to demonstrate the importance of listening in communication, so that we can better understand what the other person is trying to convey, and to highlight listening as an essential coaching skill.

c. Asking Questions

During the workshop, participants had the opportunity to experience the structure of the Solution Focus approach, practise the dynamics of questions designed to access solutions, and observe how these questions support effective conversations and help identify the best solutions for the business.

4. Coaching in Pairs

Before beginning the final paired coaching exercise, we invited participants to ask questions and summarise the useful ideas they had discovered so far, as well as the important insights they had gained.

We also gave them the opportunity to work on specific situations they wanted to improve. In this way, we harnessed the power of 68 coaches present in the same room. Each participant received a set of Solution Focus coaching questions, which they used in individual coaching conversations on the topics they wanted to develop.

All participants left the workshop with a commitment to take action towards the results they wanted to achieve, as well as a promise to remind one another in the weeks ahead to honour the commitments they had made.

“It is a great gift for us, as participants in such a coaching workshop, to be given the time and space to think, contribute, and listen to one another, because this allows us to find useful answers to the challenges we face and to support one another in defining the steps needed to achieve our goals.”

Feedback from the Company’s Finance Representative in Finland

Our Experience and Insights

Based on our observations and our experience during those four hours, the workshop was a resounding success. We also received extremely positive feedback from the participants, together with invitations to repeat the workshop at the group’s meetings in Beijing for the Asia-Pacific region and in California for the Americas.

For us, the most important insights were:

The confidence and competence that enable us to do what we do are directly influenced by what matters to us and by the clarity we have regarding the coaching approach we offer – the Solution Focus approach – which may initially seem surprising to some of our clients in the business environment. The method works exceptionally well and feels like a breath of fresh air to more than 99% of those who are familiar with problem-focused approaches.

We are comfortable with not knowing. When working with such a large group, it is impossible to monitor and understand the content of every conversation taking place throughout the workshop. What matters to us is being able to see and hear that these conversations are useful to the participants. Our role is to tune in to what is visible in the level of engagement within the conversations, the openness to high-quality listening, and the participants’ capacity for reflection.

We always have sufficient resources to achieve our objectives when we trust the wisdom, abilities, and qualities of the people with whom we work. By stepping beyond our own comfort zone, we were able to see before us a room filled with effective and enthusiastic coaches – and the project became a resounding success.

This project demonstrated how Solution Focus Coaching can create meaningful progress even within a large, culturally diverse group and a limited timeframe. By trusting participants’ expertise, focusing on existing strengths, and creating space for high-quality listening and reflection, team coaching can support stronger communication, collaboration, and shared responsibility for results.

To explore these themes further, you may find the following resources useful:

• ICF Team Coaching Competencies – an overview of the knowledge, skills, and professional standards involved in effective team coaching.
• What Is Solution Focus? – an introduction to the Solution Focus approach and its applications in coaching, leadership, organisational development, and change.