How I came to coaching
My work has been particularly rewarding when it has been with marginalised people. I use my lived experience of being an immigrant and a refugee and other aspects of who I am, to inform my work.
I overcame a major debilitating low point over 20 years ago and have gone from strength to strength through heightened self-awareness, confidence and resilience. I received cognitive behavioural therapy and coaching during this self-rebuilding and difficult period. I was inspired by how useful both of these experiences had been.
In 2009, I completed diplomas in Personal Development and Executive coaching from the Coaching Academy, accredited by the International Coaching Federation. To now have the opportunity to create the space for people to examine their own personal challenges via the coaching and training we provide is the best possible reward.
The feedback from people we have worked with time and again confirms the impact that these interactions can have on their lives. Training in groups allows for the introduction of new ideas and thinking followed by sharing of experiences between the participants. Our longer programmes then have a coaching element which consolidate personal approaches for individuals.
In their simplest form, coaching sessions are one to one conversations. However, quite a lot can transpire over these conversations. Some people approach them thinking that they will get advice from an ‘expert’, not realising that they themselves are the experts in their own lives.
My approach to coaching
Coaching is certainly a two way relationship and because it’s truly ‘person centred’ I have been delighted to watch people get to ‘light bulb’ moments or realise that they have so much more going for them than they ever thought. Over the years I have also been surprised by the amount I have learnt from my coachees.
This, together with what several have reported as a major shift of thought and behaviour after a relatively short time, has made it the most rewarding of any job that I have ever had.
Coaching allows people to consider the following:
- Examining self-awareness and mindset
- Recognising their strengths, resilience and confidence
- Realising what their limiting self-beliefs are, where these come from and what it means to start shedding these received beliefs
- Gaining clarity of what is right for them and not what others’ expectations are of them. The list can go further as people sometimes look at very specific aspects in their lives.
Background
My career has included education, marketing, sales, electronics engineering in oil exploration, importation and finally training and coaching. The need to adapt and take on new challenges has been really important in my development.
My experience includes several years in business development as an executive and then a manager. During this time, I worked for global companies like 3M and in IT Training, for New Horizons who are the largest franchised IT training company in the world. I was then head-hunted to work at Manchester Business School Worldwide as their Corporate Development Manager, helping establish a new centre in Dubai amongst other responsibilities.
The last ten years have been spent in the world of Learning and Development. I am also a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts - FRSA.
My other activities apart from developing Result CIC’s work with coaching and training include:
Delivery of Personal Effectiveness workshops to managers and leaders at private sector organisations as a freelance facilitator for Simitri Group International, a global training, coaching and consultancy company.
My most recent associate coaching have been with the Clore Social Leadership/Lived Experience (LEx) Movement including online leadership coaching for Migrants and Refugees, the Rise Up programme run by Clore, London Youth and supported by the Mayor of London. This is a leadership programme for Youth Practitioners as part of reduction of violence in the capital city. The associate relationship has continued with a another project for a programme called Double Lockdown for ‘Rebooting leadership in the criminal justice’.
In May 2019 I became a trustee of 42nd Street, a charity working with children and young people living with mental health issues aged 11-25.
Coaching volunteer for entrepreneurial Young People for UpRising, a youth development organisation.
Coaching volunteer and later associate for Coaching Inside and Out (CIAO) at Styal Women’s Prison and then paid work at Kirkham Prison.