World of IT is fascinating. Ability to contribute to change in the world by automation is unparalleled by anything else in the history.
Many of us working at the forefront of this change face opportunities and challenges in equal proportions. Work-life balance, delivery pressure, constant and omnipresent and yet still surprising dynamic changes can be overwhelming at times. At the same time all of those present rich opportunities for those, who are able to capture them. Who do you need to become to amplify your contribution by exploiting those opportunities? What talents and strengths can you leverage? What needs to be acquired and developed? Who can help you and how? Or is it even the right thing for you anyway?
Engineers, team leaders, agile crowd, software architects, engineering and product managers, C-level executives – independent of the role one fulfills, explicit work on unfolding and capturing full potential is one of, if not the best investment possible. Engaging in coaching is an act of radical contribution. Flourishing person, connected with one’s purpose and values, influences collaborators and environment with positivity, respect, focus and high standards or other personal strengths. This is how true, organic leaders emerge. It’s hard work, it rarely happens by itself and it pays off big time. It can only be done by an individual, and yet it can be animated and accelerated by help of a coach.
What do my clients get from coaching?
Short note about myself
Since a very early age I was fascinated with computers. I’ve written my first computer program in the Basic programming language on Atari 65xe. As a teenager I was growing together with the popularity of the Internet, which was a source of constant learning and opportunities. In early adulthood, as the technical aspects of software development became 2nd nature to me, I found myself increasingly interested in the role of human factors in sociotechnical systems.
My interest in coaching and the offer on this page is a somewhat more developed and experienced version of this fascination. I know from experience that having skillful help in mastering difficult situations or when working towards goals that require a bit of stretching is a blessing and increases chances of success. It definitely helped me to grow a lot. Observing this incredible dynamic from the recipient side makes me want to pay it forward for a common benefit.
State of high performance is attainable by most, but attained by few. Many of us attain it sometimes, but wish for more. For it to occur more and more often, most of us need to address the number of factors that can be roughly classified in 4 categories below.
Areas of coaching work
The more of those above you have figured out for your current life situation, the better your subjective well being and performance is going to be.
Sometimes we’re aware of what we need to work on and towards, and sometimes it’s just a sense of possibility of something being different… better… sometimes hard to put in words… – it’s all part of the process and is welcomed in a coaching setting. Whatever comes up we don’t dismiss it, minimize it, judge it or chase it away. Instead we include it in our work to get to the best next step for you.
How does the coaching actually looks like?
Firstly we meet for a short chat to discuss more precisely what do you want to work on. This meeting serves us both as a chemistry check. I will answer questions you may have about coaching and the particular methods I use, and anything else you’d like to know to feel comfortable. If we’re both convinced that the basis for good cooperation is there, we start a formal engagement. We set the duration and formalize goals, and agree on the target cadence of the meetings. That’s the frame.
During the engagement we’re partnering-up to serve you and your goals. This partnership is not symmetrical. You and your goals are in focus and you’re always in the driver seat, I am there to help you. Each individual session has its own subject that you are preparing. We talk about what you want to talk about, we go as deep as is comfortable for you at the moment. I’ll be mostly asking questions and sometimes with your permission I will share my observations or invite you to an exercise, if I’ll have a reason to believe it could be helpful to you.
It all starts now
Entry point for coaching conversation is always the current situation and desired future change or improvement. Both can be internal or external, personal or organizational. If one of those points is not known well enough, we devote effort to nail it down as precisely as required. This is how we keep ourselves strictly engaged with reality at hand. We do not reminisce or spend time in the “what should be” world. We always work in the presence in service of your goals.
Just to make it a bit more concrete for you, here is the non-exhaustive list of common coaching subjects:
- Leadership presence and confidence
- Strategic thinking
- Career transition
- Leading and coaching your team
- High impact conversations
- Deeper relationships
- Leading change
- Motivating and managing teams and individuals
- Work-life integration
- Giving and responding to 360-feedback
- Building and replacing habits
- Building productivity/performance systems
- Biological and emotional aspects of performance
- Recognizing own and others strengths and values
Images on this page:
- Photo by Product School on Unsplash,
- Photo by Mateus Campos Felipe on Unsplash,
- Photo by Austin Chan on Unsplash
- Photo by ThisisEngineering RAEng on Unsplash,
- Photo by Cytonn Photography on Unsplash
- Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash,
- Photo by krakenimages on Unsplash,
- Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash
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- Photo by Stephanie Liverani on Unsplash
- Photo by Vicky Hladynets on Unsplash