David Boulos Executive Coach

Sometimes the most important conversation has nothing to do with work.

Early in one engagement, a client came back after our first session and told me directly: they didn’t want to be coached, didn’t care about the goals we had set, and hadn’t chosen this process themselves.

I gave them two options. I could inform the organisation and we stop. Or we could simply keep meeting and talk about whatever they wanted, with no agenda at all.

They chose the second option.

A few sessions later, a conversation about their parents surfaced unexpectedly. The client became emotional, which surprised and embarrassed them deeply, especially in front of someone they barely knew. What emerged was something that had nothing to do with performance: their parents lived far away, and that unresolved distance had quietly been clouding their confidence, their decisions, and their sense of direction at work.

For the first time in their career, they took a sabbatical to spend time with their family.

When they returned, they shared that it had given them more clarity than anything else they had tried. They realised they did care deeply about their career. The problem was never the work. It was the one thing they had been avoiding.

Coaching surprised them not by pushing goals. But by creating space for what actually needed attention.

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David Boulos Executive Coach

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