“How much can I fix if my work environment does not change?” It is a question that makes me uncomfortable. Much of coaching involves understanding your own contribution to the situations you encounter at work. But what happens when you are willing to change and your environment does not support that?
Perhaps you are working on clearer communication while decisions above you are repeatedly reversed. You are learning to set boundaries while nobody sets priorities for an unmanageable workload. Or you are trying to take your place in the management team without clarity about what you can decide.
Then it matters to look closely. What can you do? What do you need from others? And what are you trying to resolve that is actually beyond your influence?
Examining your own contribution
When a situation keeps recurring, it is useful to look at what you do within it. Perhaps you wait for permission you do not need. Perhaps the way you speak up mainly generates resistance. Or you take over work before someone else has had a chance to do it.
Understanding this can give you room to act differently. You can have a conversation sooner, make an expectation explicit or stop reopening a decision that has already been made.
In systemic coaching, we examine how your actions relate to your role, other people’s expectations and the relationships within the organisation. This includes asking which problem your effort may be quietly compensating for.
Seeing your own contribution does not mean that you cause everything that happens. It helps clarify where you can make a change yourself.
Some changes require other people
Suppose you are responsible for a team, while your manager continues to assign work directly to its members. You are held accountable for results, but cannot manage priorities. You can learn to articulate that more clearly. A workable agreement also requires your manager to change their behaviour.
Or consider a management team that says collaboration matters, while each member is assessed only on the results of their own department. A personal intention to collaborate better does not remove that tension. The shared agreements and expectations need discussion too.
You can influence your work environment. You can challenge others and make proposals. You cannot supply their willingness to change. If a necessary decision is repeatedly postponed, that deserves attention as part of the situation itself.
Be specific about what you need
“The organisation needs to change” is a broad statement. What exactly needs to be different for you to do your work well? Which decision is missing? Who needs to make it? And what would you then see happening differently?
In the team leader example, you might ask for new assignments to come through you, so you can agree priorities with the team. Or you might clarify that someone else sets those priorities and establish what your responsibility then includes.
This creates a conversation about a specific working agreement. You make clear what you do and do not control. It also gives the other person an opportunity to respond clearly, including when they are unwilling to give you the authority you are asking for.
Look at what happens after the conversation
A good conversation can bring relief. Afterwards, you discover whether anything changes. Is the agreement honoured when things get busy? Does the decision stand when someone objects? Are you actually given the room you were promised?
Agree when you will return to it. Discuss a specific situation in which the new agreement was needed. This helps distinguish between a change that takes time and a promise that is repeated without affecting everyday practice.
Examine your own behaviour during that period too. Did you use the authority you had agreed? Did you keep consulting others about things you could decide yourself? Or did you start compensating again when it became uncomfortable?
Recognising what you cannot fix
For capable, committed people, it can be difficult to acknowledge that more effort may change little. You are used to getting a long way by thinking things through, persevering and adapting. It can easily feel as though you simply have not tried hard enough yet.
Yet there may be a limit to what is possible in this role or organisation. Perhaps you will not be given the authority you need. Perhaps the organisation values different things. Perhaps you can function well there, but only by consistently giving up something that matters deeply to you.
Looking at that honestly gives you a choice. You might decide to accept certain limitations, renegotiate your role or explore an environment that fits better. What is feasible also depends on your options and commitments. You do not have to leave immediately to take your situation seriously.
In leadership coaching, we can explore what your role requires and which conditions you need to fulfil it well. Sometimes the next step concerns your own actions. Sometimes it requires a shared decision. And sometimes it begins with acknowledging how things actually are.
What are you still trying to fix? And what becomes possible when you can see more clearly which part is yours and which part belongs to your environment?
