MARIA M.
Identity coaching | Executive coaching | Delegation | Perfectionism
“It made me feel more like the leader I want to become, and gave me tools instead of waiting for the answers to magically appear.”
Maria, Associate Trademark Attorney
Maria is an associate trademark attorney with a UK-based firm. She came into coaching with a specific ask:
- Hold up a mirror so that I can understand how I’m showing up personally and professionally
- Help me figure out the blind spots that are holding me back
All this with a clear view to move forward, remove roadblocks, fix what’s broken, get rid of weakness and, ultimately, progress in her career.
Before working together, Maria had assumed coaching was something reserved only for senior executives. She expected to find herself within a tight coaching container, with a performance-driven framework and a cookie-cutter approach; a rigid process delivered “the same to everyone”.
Instead, she found space, a path to more acceptance and leveraging strengths rather than trying to fix weaknesses all the time. All while working within a structured 3-month plan with clear objectives around values, leveraging strengths and defining a specialty that feels most aligned. Along the way we also hit on delegation, prioritising, letting go of perfectionism – some of the most common issues around high achieving professionals – and offered practical tools to overcome them.
As the work progressed, it became clear that this coaching arrived at a critical moment:
"
“This came at exactly the right point in my career. It felt like what I needed this year, at the point that I’m at.”
Maria, Associate Trademark Attorney
Strategy that fits your nervous system
At The Orange Notebook, we work with the belief that strategy needs to fit your nervous system. In practice, this means taking time to understand the individual before offering any tools, insights, or direction.
For Maria, this created a sense of safety and collaboration that allowed meaningful work to happen. And it did not end when the session ended:
“The feeling I left most sessions with was feeling supported, listened to, understood, and encouraged. And knowing that what we unpack didn’t just get left there, but was followed up later.”
The coaching combined:
- A clear developmental direction in the background
- Flexibility to focus on what was most relevant week to week
- Practical tools that translated insight into action
As Maria described it:
“We had general themes, but if something more pressing came up, we could follow that instead and that often brought the most value into my day-to-day work”
The results
Across 3 months, Maria’s results were both internal as well as visible at work.
📙 Confidence
Maria reported a clear increase in confidence, and said others around her noticed it too.
“It comes from better self-understanding, more self-compassion and greater trust in myself. I feel more like the professional and leader I want to become”
From our perspective, we saw the self-trust coming out stronger. She moved away from “there is something wrong to be fixed” and into “I have agency”. That translated into how she showed up with colleagues and managers.
📙 Understanding the root cause, not just the behaviour
A turning point for Maria came when she connected present-day triggers to older patterns and having the tools to emotionally regulate any reaction that would surface:
“Recognising those needs helped explain many patterns in my life. Now, when those reactions show up, I can identify them, calm myself, and stop treating everything as something that needs fixing”
She stopped trying to eliminate parts of herself. She began to understand them, and work with them.
“How to use maybe some of those things I’d see as weaknesses… and how I can actually use those to my benefit rather than just trying to get rid of everything”
📙 Clarity and practical action
As a high-performing individual, Maria did not want insight without follow-through. She wanted steps she could put to practice, so having very applicable tools in a way that would not overwhelm her was essential to our coaching.
“We identify the issue and work through practical actions I can implement. We’re not just talking, we actively address things”
This was particularly important as she had learnt of coaching settings where it all stayed surface-level. She wanted a different experience and that is why we focused on tools and bite-sized actions.
A small moment that captured the win
After one of our sessions, Maria delegated a piece of work she would usually keep. She felt the urge to take it back immediately.
Then she did not.
That was a massive win for us as a team coach + client! It reflected the shift in her identity and how she stepped out of the doer mode, even when it felt deeply uncomfortable.
This worked because our relationship was one of collaboration, not about just fixing what’s wrong. That’s why the work can look so different, but it is so strong in delivering results
"
“Holding up a mirror rather than telling people what’s wrong… it would look different for each person, but I trust your ability to meet people where they are and make it useful.”
Maria, Associate Trademark Attorney
