As I was finishing a chapter on executive leadership and peak performance for my new book with Stephen Covey and Brian Tracy, I was asked to give a few examples of my clients’ success stories.

The more I got into developing the list, the more I had to work at condensing their stories because we’re all unique and it’s the behind-the-scenes details that are so fascinating.

Sure, I can rattle off a list of clients and describe their before-and-after situations, but that’s not the story that needs to be told. It misses the critical issues and full richness of the experiences these wonderful people faced during significant periods of their lives.

That’s why I’m so lucky, so privileged, to be able to do what I do. I can’t tell you how much enjoyment I get out of triggering the memories of my feelings and experiences working with these people; the word “clients” somehow just doesn’t sound appropriate.

So what do people need as they face significant challenges or critical periods of growth in their lives? Well, I don’t think you can effectively separate personal and professional issues; as a professional coach, I look at how the person functions as a whole. In that light, I’ll share with you a brief sampling of my clients’ stories, along with a few insights. I must say, this has been one of the most requested features of all my columns.

Bob H., a new CEO of a technology company, came to the Executive Roundtable to share in our best-practices module. He was in an impossible situation with an international board of directors made up of high-profile wealthy venture capitalists. There was a noticeable leadership vacuum in the company, major decisions and key hires needed to be made to put the company into the black, but Bob was being micromanaged by his own board and was intimidated by their wealth and status.

He needed to make some critical decisions based on his professional knowledge and ability, but he also had a family to feed. Within a year he implemented a strategy reformatting the board and getting its support, made those key hires and critical decisions, and had the company in the black six months later. Sounds simple, but it wasn’t.

First, Bob had to change his mind-set. He needed to fully understand the situation. He really only had two choices: Make the tough decision to grow the company and risk getting fired, or start looking elsewhere to develop his career. That’s not easy for someone to accept. You may know it, and they may know it, but that doesn’t mean they can hear it.

If he accepted the status quo, the outcome was certain and unacceptable, a slow corporate death. Other options had been explored and failed, so in coaching Bob, it boiled down to understanding a major, bottom-line ground truth about leadership:

A leader must have the vision and courage to make the best decision.

Of course, as his coach, I believed Bob had the professional ability to make it happen. I get my clients ready to play the game, but they have to play the game — it’s their life.

In Bob’s case, he needed clarity in a complex situation. I knew he couldn’t take the needed steps until he changed his mind-set and fully understood his situation. Bob had to be ready to exercise his vision and make the tough decisions, dealing with the consequences. Once he did, he got it done.

My job was to support Bob during this process by hearing what’s not said and seeing what’s not visible.