The Scream (detail), Edvard Munch, 1893.

A CEO tells her coach: at the top, loneliness is like living in a vacuum…

一位CEO告诉她的教练：顶层的孤独，就像是生活在真空中一样…

Strongly wanting to lead the organisation to success, Penelope, a CEO of 5 years standing, says she feels the responsibilities of her role have changed her. Now she is surrounded by protocols and timetables, and gate-keepers who keep people out. The air has de-oxygenated the further she has moved from the ground. She feels people prefer her to keep away for fear that her changes will affect their work and maybe even their jobs. Penelope says she notices how people avoid her and tell her things they think she wants to hear, and how relationships with colleagues have changed from collegial to hierarchical. ‘Authority’ changes in everything, she says, and she is acutely aware how anti-developmental all this is. She worries about this. The emotional pressures to know the answers to problems, and solver of none, make her feel very alone. She recognises she is at the epicentre of multiple and competing stakeholders – shareholders, the board, directors, managers, workers, suppliers, customers/users, communities, society and the environment.

5年来担任首席执行官的Penelope强烈地希望领导自己的组织走向成功，她说，她觉得她的责任已经改变了她。现在，她的时间都在处理协议草案和日程表，一般人很难见到她。她离开的地方，空气不再凝固。他觉得人们更喜欢她离开，因为担心她的变化会影响他们的工作，甚至影响到他们的职位。Penelope说，她注意到人们是如何避开她的，又是如何和她讲述他们认为她喜欢听的事的，她也注意到了同事之间的关系是如何从同僚到不同级别之间发生改变的。她说，“权威”改变了一切，而且她敏锐的意识到所有的这些都是反发展的。他为此而担忧。为了知道问题答案，又没有解决方案的情绪压力，让她感到非常的孤独。她认识到，她正处于多个相互竞争的利益相关者的中心——股东、董事会、董事、经理、工人、供应商、客户/用户、社区、社会和环境。

In one session, Penelope says she worries about the subtle changes in her judgment of her direct reports – from an initial high level of trust to a gradual loss of confidence and an increasing sense of disappointment. “Is it my style of leadership? The role? Is it their behaviour and attitude? Or is it ‘the system’? she asks. Whatever the answer, she feels troubled, she cannot get comfortable; she feels more isolated and lonely. A lot of the time she feels she is floating in space with only the barest connection with the organisation.

在一次会议上，Penelope说，她担心她直接报告评判中的微妙变化——从最初的高度信任到逐渐丧失信心和越来越失望的感觉。她问自己，“这是我的领导风格吗？”这个角色的？是他们的行为和态度吗？或者是“组织系统的？”不管答案如何，她感到很烦恼，她无法获得舒适感；她愈发感到孤立和孤独。很多时候她觉得她正漂浮在一个仅仅和组织机构有着基本链接的空间。

Penelope’s coach listens and prods gently with questions, interpretations and summations and other helpful lines of inquiry, empathically commenting on Penelope’s feelings, even asking after her dreams. Conversations are sometimes focused; sometimes they follow unintended avenues, shedding light, opening challenges and inviting new perspectives.The conversations are geared to developing new thinking, not necessarily searching for solutions. They sometimes focus on organisational problems and theory, on interpersonal relations, role relationships and personal idiosyncrasies; at other times they focus on Penelope’s mood, why some behaviours get repeated, seemingly unconsciously, and others are avoided; feelings and emotions are discussed, helping to distinguish those that stem from the role and those that stem from her as a person. Frustration and anger are two emotions that interfere with achieving a clear head, common sense and maintaining her humanity and her values. At the end of each session, Penelope usually feels a sense of relief and clarity of thinking about the issues and the feelings they generate. The coach has no axe to grind; he is on Penelope’s side, working in her interest, allowing her to discover different leadership capabilities within herself and strengthening her sense of self by helping her to investigate unexpected sources of her feelings that perhaps had lain dormant for years.

Penelope的教练倾听她，并以问题轻轻地刺探她，解释、总结并探究其他有用的线索，共情地评论Penelope的感情，甚至询问她的梦想。谈话有时是聚焦的；有时他们会追随意想不到的途径，散发光芒，打开挑战，并引入新的观点。这些对话旨在发展新的思维，而不是寻找解决方案。他们有时会关注于组织的问题和理论、人际关系、角色关系和个人特质；有时他们关注佩内洛普的心情，为什么会重复一些看似无意的行为，以及他人无意的回避；教练讨论了Penelope情绪和感受，以帮助她区分来自角色的情绪情感以及来自于她个人的情绪情感。挫折和愤怒是干扰获得清醒的头脑、共同的感受以及维护她的人性与价值观的两种情绪。在每次会议结束时，Penelope通常会对这些问题和他们产生的感受感到宽慰和清晰。教练没有私心，他站在佩内洛普一边，与她的兴趣工作，通过帮助她调查她可能多年潜伏的感情的意外来源，让她发现自己不同的领导能力并增强她的自我意识。

Between coaching sessions Penelope tests her new discoveries and monitors responses and reactions to them. She discusses the changes with her coach and they move on to deeper layers of understanding and to ever-widening circles of dialogue and insight. Penelope discusses her frustration with the coaching itself – the slow pace, a new idea that she is not ready to assimilate; the unexpected memories evoked, the constant trial and error and the emphasis on self-discovery. The coaching encourages meta-thinking associated with the complexities of Penelope’s position and the intricate web of relationships of her roles inside and outside the organization.

在训练课之间，Penelope测试她的新发现并监控他们的反应和反应。她和教练讨论了这些变化，他们深入到更深层次的理解并不断地扩大对话和领悟的范围。Penelope和她的教练讨论了她的挫折本身——缓慢的步伐，一个她还没有准备好吸收的新想法；令人意想不到的回忆，不断的尝试和错误，以及对自我发现的强调。教练鼓励与Penelope职位复杂性，以及她在组织内外角色的错综复杂的关系网相关联的元思考。

The Executive Coaching set-up at the Tavistock Institute is meant as a support – it is constructive for Penelope as a person; coaching is good for clarifying roles; for improving performance of the system and the organisation and it is a space where the ‘scream’ of the CEO is heard. 

在塔维斯托克研究所设立的执行教练意味着一个支持——这对Penelope来说，是一个建设性的行为；教练有助于澄清角色；以提高系统和组织，以及CEO听到的“尖叫”空间的绩效。

Dr Mannie Sher, PhD

Director, Group Relations Programme and

Principal Researcher & Consultant

For a no-obligation conversation with one of our Coaches about your requirements, please contact Rachel Kelly, Professional Development Coordinator.

The title of this article “In space, no one can hear you scream” references the film Alien (1979) 异形. 

Mannie Sher医生，博士

团体关系计划董事以及首席研究和咨询顾问

和我们的教练谈论你的要求，请联系Rachel Kelly，职业发展协调员

本文的标题转引自电影《异形》（1979）