If We Wanted to Be Happy, We Wouldn’t Be at Work

One Participant Said, “If We Wanted to Be Happy, We Wouldn’t Be at Work.” He’s Not Wrong. Here’s Why.

Last month, The Amplified Life Company launched our Creating a Coaching Culture Masterclass with one of our credit union clients. The program is led by our Director of Coaching, Candis Williams, an executive coach with over a decade of experience working at the intersection of personal development, conscious leadership, and meaningful impact.

(Side note: We love working with credit unions. At the foundation of the credit union movement is the mission of people helping people. Our work fits right in.)

Over eight weeks in the masterclass, leaders engage in real, hands-on practice, no passive learning, no sitting back and absorbing slides.  Just the hard, honest work of becoming better leaders.

What It’s Actually Like in the Room

One of the things I love most about the way Candis facilitates is that she creates a room where people feel free. Free to share, free to think, free to express, and free to push back.

That last one matters because real learning doesn’t happen in a room full of nodding heads.

In our very first session, when we introduced the idea of increasing happiness at work, one participant said:

“If we wanted to be happy, we wouldn’t be at work. We’d be at home.”

That’s not resistance. That’s honesty. 

And honestly? He’s not wrong, not entirely. That belief sits inside a lot of leaders. It’s just usually unspoken.  The freedom to share this belief and have dialogue around it is the power of being in this room.

After participants practiced their first peer coaching sessions, another voice came up:

“It felt a little cold to me just asking questions.”

That’s the exact tension coaching creates at first. Most leaders are trained to be managers.  Managers with answers, not questions. Sitting in the question feels uncomfortable, until it doesn’t. Until you watch someone arrive at their own breakthrough because you got out of the way.

These aren’t problems. They’re the work. And Candis welcomes each of them.

The Problem Is Real

But why coaching?  Before we can talk about solutions, we must name what’s broken.

Gallup’s research tells us that only 31% of U.S. employees are engaged at work, 60% are emotionally detached, and 94% would stay longer at a company that invested in their development. That’s not a small problem. That’s a crisis, and it’s sitting inside many organizations right now.

Coaching solves organizational problems like:

• High turnover and low retention

• A culture of disengagement hiding behind everything being “fine”

• Managerial hierarchies that kill initiative and slow everything down

• Leaders who are stuck in a controlling way of managing, leading to burnout

Coaching solves leadership problems like:

• The pressure on leaders to fix, advise, and have all the answers

• Leaders who listen to respond instead of listening to understand

• Managers who are technically excellent and interpersonally costly

• Leaders’ inability to develop the next generation of leaders

Coaching solves team problems like:

• Lack of psychological safety

• People who don’t speak up until they’re walking out the door

• Teams that execute in “business as usual” mode but don’t innovate

• Collaboration that looks good on paper but falls apart under pressure

Why Leaders Need Coaching Skills

Here’s what most leadership development gets wrong: it focuses on what leaders do instead of who they are.

Coaching is different. It’s not a technique. It’s a way of being and relating. When leaders learn to coach, they stop trying to be the smartest person in the room and start being the most useful one. They ask better questions, create space for people to think, and stop solving problems that aren’t theirs to solve.

The result is that people feel seen, trusted, and capable, and people who feel that way perform at the highest levels.

What ROI Looks Like After This Program

Participants leave this masterclass with more than new skills. They leave with a genuine shift in identity, moving from “the fixer” to the coach.

Across the team, that shift produces outcomes organizations can actually feel:

• Leaders who communicate with clarity and conviction, even under pressure

• Stronger trust across teams, built through better listening and less controlling

• Elevated executive presence, because coaching requires you to show up differently

• Improved alignment and accountability, when people feel ownership, they perform

• Healthier, higher-performing cultures where results are sustainable and leadership is human

And yes, happier teams. That’s not soft. That’s strategy.

How Do You Know If Your Team Is Ready?

If your team is functioning, they’re ready. You don’t have to be broken to benefit from this.

Organizations often come to us in two moments: when something is needed, and when something is changing.

They come to us with a need when:

• Growth is stretching leadership capacity beyond what current skills can hold

• Communication is breaking down across teams, and no one quite knows why

• Leaders are doing too much and trusting too little

• Your people aren’t speaking up and engaging the way you know they can

• Culture feels inconsistent or unclear from one department to the next

• They want their leadership to finally match the caliber of their vision

They come to us in the middle of change when they are:

• Scaling or restructuring

• Experiencing culture strain

• Preparing for a retreat, offsite, or conference

• Rolling out a new vision or strategic plan

• Working to retain top talent

• Committed to building stronger leaders from within

What both moments have in common is this: a leader who is ready to show up differently.

The credit union leaders in our first cohort of 2026 had that. And that alone told us everything. When leaders are willing to examine how they show up, everything becomes possible. 

If any of that sounds like where you are right now, let’s talk.

Tell us about your team HERE to start the conversation.

Carmen Ohling is the CEO and Founder of The Amplified Life Company. 

ALC partners with CEOs and leadership teams of growth-minded organizations, like credit unions and professional services firms, to build coaching-driven cultures where people perform at high levels, stay, and thrive personally and professionally.

 Learn more at amplifiedlifecompany.com.