Our Story

One day, Phil LeNir telephoned his stepfather, Henry Mintzberg. "I have a problem," he said. "My engineers have become managers. We outsourced their work to Eastern Europe, and now they have to manage the programmers from a distance. They are struggling. What should I do? And, by the way, I have no budget!"

Henry had just completed his book Managers not MBAs, describing the novel management development programs he had been working on with colleagues over the last ten years. He suggested that Phil get his managers together periodically, in a casual setting, to share their concerns and reflect on experiences.

Phil took this up with a vengeance! He organized a manager’s lunch meeting for an hour and a quarter each. Meanwhile, he scoured all the documents and background materials for the programs Henry had been developing with his colleagues (see www.impm.org, www.alp-impm.com, also www.imhl.ca), to find themes suitable for each session.

The activity spread. Soon, Phil created a second group of peer managers at his office and a third, virtual group, at other sites that met by telephone. Sasha, Phil’s mother and Henry’s wife, also experienced success setting up a group at a telecommunications company in Prague, where she worked as an HR director.

It proved so natural that Phil, Henry, and Sasha decided to make this program available to managers in companies around the world. They also invited Jonathan Gosling, who had worked with Henry on various programs, to join this initiative. CoachingOurselves.com was born by the beginning of 2007.

CoachingOurselves draws heavily on the innovations of the International Masters Program in Practicing Management and the Managerial Mindsets, developed by Henry, Jonathan, and their colleagues from Canada, England, France, India, and Japan. In the IMPM, managers learn by sharing their own managerial experiences with like-minded colleagues from around the world.