Alexander Orlandis

A Message From Our Founder

It’s Wednesday 10 May 2000, and I’m sitting in the London office of the prestigious law firm that I have been working for, for over two years now. I recently returned from an exciting year in the Frankfurt office where I worked closely with the partner in charge to launch IPOs on the trending Neuer Markt segment of the Frankfurt stock exchange. Back in the London office, the fast pace I was used to had slowed to a crawl. I found myself looking for the next challenge that would put me on track for partnership. I jumped on any project that would mean taking on more responsibility. That’s how I landed on a project that would change my career path forever.

A foreign bank was closing its London office and transferring all its liabilities to a sister entity. My job was to draft the hundred or so documents that would allow all the liabilities to flow smoothly from one entity to another. Each transaction had some quirk or other that caught my attention… except for one. This was a plain and simple transaction. I drafted the relevant documents in minutes and set them aside whilst I focused on the more tricky details of the others. A few month’s later, I am in a prestigious conference room with my partner in charge. Hundreds of bound documents lie neatly piled along the long, polished wooden table. The senior partner makes polite conversation with the bank’s executives and then signals me to begin the signing ceremony. I guide each person across the mass of documents, indicating the places each one must sign. All is going well, when disaster strikes… I am missing a signatory! 

I step outside to make a frantic phone call, hoping desperately that I can get the relevant officer to turn up. No one can come. The signing ceremony ends and I am missing one crucial signature. Shakily, I pull myself together and confess this error to the partner in charge. 

For the next few hours, the world around me explodes. Over 100 million Euros are suddenly in default. The bank calls, looking for blood. The partners pull out their insurance policy to see if it will cover the damages. Lawyers far above my pay-grade argue back and forth about healing the breach. No legal solution presents itself. With every moment that passes my heart sinks further. I don’t think things can get any worse. Then they do.

I get the call from John, the partner in charge. I am to come to his office immediately. This can only mean one thing: I am about to get fired.

I walk into John’s office. He asks me to close the door. He never closes his door. I try to control my breathing as I wait for the hammer to fall. It never does. After a long silence, John starts talking. He reminds me why I am working there. He reminds me of all the candidates I competed against to get one of the coveted slots in my intake. Despite all that has happened, he still seems to believe in me. Stranger still, he is looking at me with a gentle expression. He reminds me of my grandfather when he says: “You made a stupid mistake, but that does not mean you’re stupid. Every problem has a solution. This one is no exception. I need you to stay calm. I need you to focus. I need you to find a legal way to fix this thing. Put everything else on hold. Imagine this is your intake interview and you’ve been presented with this problem. Impress me! I know you can do it.” With that, I get dismissed.

Something in me changed during that conversation. The fear and shame were still there, but muted and in the background. Instead I felt a burning desire to live up to John’s expectation. I wrack my mind for hours, looking at the problem from every angle. Anytime I am tempted to give up, I hear John’s voice saying “Every problem has a solution… Impress me!” Then I fall asleep. 

The next morning I wake up and take stock. I lie in bed and imagine being at my interview all over again. John is there. He calmly lays out the facts of a case study. This is just another test, a normal part of the interview process. He looks at me and says… “What would you do?” To my amazement, the answer comes. I know how to fix this!

I rush into the office with a smile. I walk straight into John’s office and tell him what I found. John smiles and calls the client. They are still enraged. Somehow they agree to meet. John is calm and composed all the way to the bank. He brings no notes, no documents, no precedents. He walks into the room calmly and lets them attack. Then John starts to speak … and magic happens. Within minutes, the client is calm. He paints them a picture of the future, the breach now healed. Their attention is rapt. He offers a light-hearted joke… and, as everyone laughs, the tension dissolves from the room. Before we leave, the client actually thanks John for getting them out of this mess. 

I am stunned!

On our cab ride home, John intently grills me with questions about the last 24 hours. I don’t know how he does it, but by the time we arrive at our offices, I know things that I could never have learned from a book:

• Relationships matter. A lot. Probably more than you think.
• Crafting relationships, growing emotional intelligence and nurturing trusts can be taught, learned and excelled in regardless of your starting point or ease with it. You don’t have to be a “natural people person” – everyone can learn to access their own wellspring of charisma. 
• Change is always possible, and it can be an absolutely delightful experience rather than a painful journey.
• Some mistakes can be as overwhelming as the ever-increasing pace of change in the world. Humans weren’t made for this sort of thing! And yet, with the right kind of leadership, we can to learn how to thrive even in volatile environments like these.
• Every problem has a solution. The tougher the problem, the more unexpected the solution will be.
• The right question, asked at the right time, can perform miracles.

These lessons have always stayed with me. They eventually drove me to explore a new path as an Executive Coach. I have been working as an executive coach for over 20 years now. I have faithfully passed on John’s lessons as I have helped leaders develop powerful leadership skills, grow their emotional intelligence and innovate in their field. 

My practice has allowed me to assist senior executives to better navigate the complex corporate seas with confidence and clarity of purpose.

I saw those leaders develop a decisiveness that comes from a special kind of insight into their marketplace.

It is a point of personal pride that, in all this time, I have worked by referral only.

Coaching is a very personal business that requires mutual trust and a ROI that justifies the investment. Nothing is more personal than a recommendation  from someone you trust.

I strive to live up to and exceed the expectations created by such recommendations with each client I take on.

After celebrating my 20-year anniversary in the coaching field, I realized that it was time to pass on what I had learned.

I co-founded the Coach School to teach my unique coaching style to a new generation of coaches in the hope that this unique way of generating insights that John gave me might stay with the world long time after I’m gone.

To your success,

Alexander Orlandis