Case Study

Every client we work with is unique. But it’s not unusual for individuals to struggle with similar career issues and share certain personality traits. This example illustrates Diamond Insight’s approach to addressing common career challenges we see in our work.

Margie: The Overwhelmed High-Performer
Margie was your classic high performer—Type A, a perfectionist, incredibly dedicated to her work. Everyone recognized her expertise; she was the ‘go-to’ person for the most complex, intractable challenges. Yet, she was struggling.

Margie was so well known as a problem solver that she was constantly being asked to put out fires, making her unable to get her ‘regular’ work done. She couldn’t delegate to more junior team members because she didn’t want to dump problems on to her team. And forget about work/life balance—she couldn’t make doctor’s appointments, drank too much caffeine and couldn’t turn her mind off to get to sleep. She was starting to snap at her peers in meetings, frustrated that they couldn’t get things done the way she could. In turn, her peers were getting annoyed and rated her poorly in a 360º performance evaluation.

Frankly, Margie was starting to wonder if she was better off looking for another job. Of course, things were the same at her last job; leaving didn’t seem to solve the problem. She knew she was part of the problem, but she didn’t know what she was doing or how she could change it.

Margie’s boss recommended she contact Diamond Insight because he was concerned about burn out and sensed that Margie’s inability to share the load was starting to affect team morale and productivity. Margie began meeting with Virginia Diamond every other week. Through their conversations, Virginia guided Margie to understand why she struggled to say “no,” why she took on all the responsibility for her team’s success, and how it denied her team members the opportunity to grow. She learned how her work/life imbalance actually undermined her effectiveness—that she is more successful at work when she takes care of herself. And she discovered that she had many unstated expectations for her peers and direct reports, setting them up to fail.

Together, Virginia and Margie developed a plan to strengthen Margie’s leadership approach. They:

Developed realistic strategies for prioritizing Margie’s workload, identifying the pieces that other team members could support, articulating her needs and expectations to them, and how she would check in to support them so they could be successful
Focused her career goals based on what work was most fulfilling to her and what was not, so she was more motivated and able to make her best contribution
Helped Margie understand the effect of the adrenaline rush on her body; how saying yes to everything became addictive, and how she could learn to take a step back to consider a request, not just jump in
Strengthened her ability to speak her mind with greater authority and insight, and listen to opposing views and questions so that her peers were receptive to what she had to say
Made self-care part of her routine, so she had the capacity to handle the workload.

A year later, Margie’s work relationships were healthier, and she was better able to delegate and have difficult conversations to resolve issues. Her next 360º evaluation showed how much things had improved. Margie still worked hard, but gained more traction with less stress. Her leadership couldn’t have been more pleased. She was even considering going for that next promotion—something she couldn’t imagine a year ago.

Note: To protect client confidentiality, case studies are simplified snapshots, used for example only, to illustrate common client situations and solutions. We are happy to provide references upon request, with client permission.

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