CASE STUDY - Canadian Gold Mine — From Hands-On to High-Level

Ralph Cochrane
1 day ago
1 min read

Worker in orange operates mining machinery in a mine. Text reads: "FROM DOING TO LEADING. Great leadership is mindset."

Focus: Role Awareness

Coaching Client: VP, Operations

The Situation

A newly appointed VP of Operations at a Canadian gold mine was struggling to find footing in their new role. Though technically excellent and deeply respected, early friction with the CEO surfaced after missed deadlines and operational slippage.

The issue wasn’t capability — it was calibration. The VP had been promoted for their operational mastery but found themselves pulled back into familiar territory: fixing, managing, and solving problems their directors should have owned.

The Challenge

Unconsciously, the VP was still leading like a director — leaning into comfort zones instead of stepping fully into strategic, enterprise-level leadership. The result was a bottlenecked workflow, an overextended VP, and stalled team growth.

The Nexus Coaching Approach

Working one-on-one with the VP, we:

Tracked daily focus areas to distinguish Director-level from VP-level work.
Identified patterns of over-involvement and clarified role expectations.
Explored the discomfort tied to “letting go” and fear of being “in over their head.”
Designed a plan to shift from advice-giving to coaching and accountability-setting.
Encouraged peer-level connection with other VPs to model strategic behaviors.

The Transformation

Over nine months, the VP fundamentally redefined their leadership. They built trust in their directors, focused on higher-level priorities, and began shaping the operational strategy rather than executing it. The CEO’s confidence was restored — and the VP was recognized as the leader their growing operation needed.