Coach Me! Your Personal Board of Directors

34 Leading Teams through Crisis

Karen Yanqun WU

Karen is the founder and CEO of Co-wisdom Coaching (based in China), PCC from ICF, and co-founder of ICF Beijing Chapter. Karen has been named among the “Top 50 World Leaders in Coaching” by Thinkers50. She is the faculty of Global Team Coaching Institute and also a member of Marshall Goldsmith 100.

In 2020, the Chinese people had a special Spring Festival. Coronavirus swept across China, not only endangering people’s lives but also stopping all economic activities. In February, CEO Bruce called me and shared his depression. Bruce runs a business on marketing consultant services producing marketing videos and distributing various media for SME customers. Because of COVID, most of the clients paused their normal operations and Bruce’s business was impacted heavily.

When the HR Head reported to Bruce the employee compensation plan, he was triggered. The company was in a very difficult time with no income, but the HR Head only focused on this administrative work – and the compensation plan caused even higher costs.

Bruce shouted at the lady, “You are not deserving to be in this executive position.” The HR Head cried and told him that she was too tired and wanted to resign on the next day. In addition, Bruce also shared with me that his relationship with his other team members became tense under this big pressure. It was agreed to have a group coaching with his leadership team.

I developed the following 6C model, which provided a structure ...