George: Asking the Right Questions

Situation when he first approached O’Donnell Executive Strategies:

Age 45
BS Mechanical Engineering U MN, MBA UMN Carlson
Married, 4 kids under 12. Traveling 70%, which is not making the family happy.
20 years in engineering, product management, and channel development at F500 manufacturers. Presently GM.
$300K total compensation. He exceeds his goals every year. Is a high-potential executive. 7 promotions in 5 years. For all that, he is not 100% content.

Help him examine future paths at his present employer. GM of this big division or President of that smaller division? Which makes more sense for his long term goals?
At what price success? If he continues to travel 70% of the time he may be divorced. What will make him happy? Does he need to leave to get more life/work balance? Does he want to walk away from a Presidency right now or put up with the travel a bit longer?

Provided the sounding board to discuss the issues. Mostly kept asking questions, the right question at the right time, so he felt better with his own decision process and felt he had examined the issues from every possible angle. For high potentials like this gentleman, guidance to self-awareness is more sustainable than didactic direction.
We worked out together the wording he would use in subsequent interviews with his own management to discuss his options. Made him comfortable asking for a better work/life balance.

He grew his division by 20%
He traveled less, was named coach for a kid’s sport team, and took a 2-week vacation with the family, the first in 6 years.