Coaching: my future, and perhaps yours too
I have worked with and in coaching for many years now. In the late 1990s, I was a coachee within a framework called Re-evaluative Counselling. A few years later, I was a coachee in a more corporate environment. This time, it didn’t work out as the corporate culture was poor, and the coaching was confined to those of us in executive positions. Impostor syndrome wasn’t understood, let alone addressed.
Since then, things have become much better and I have one company to thank for that: IBM. Not only does the company and my colleagues treat me with a great degree of humanity, but I’m being actively encouraged to progress my skills and knowledge in this area. IBM’s own offerings contain a great deal of coaching — whether it’s through badge programmes, IBM Garage, Agile, or Design Thinking — it’s part of IBM’s DNA now. And, I am delighted to be here.
In the past couple of years I have coached many IBMers and teams as well as upskill myself and be a coachee for others. This year, with IBM’s support, I’m delighted to be on the path to become an official qualified coach, and to gain the ICF-ACTP qualification. The course is spread over 13 months and I have just finished the first two days. It’s absolutely brilliant, and my fellow students from around the world are lovely and supportive. I can’t wait to spend more time with them this year.
You may be thinking “Why are you, of all people, looking to be a coach? You’re damaged goods”. I have some news for you: we all are. And, perhaps I can give you some insight into your own situation based on my past experiences. Coaching is about people, not monocultures.
Here’s where you come in.
As part of my work to achieve the ACTP, I am looking for people to coach. The topics don’t matter. Your background, situation, time commitment, and means of engagement… we can work all of that out. This is an open offer. Hopefully I can help you with some points or topics that you would like to work through and discuss, and you can help me with becoming a better coach.
So, all that you need to do is to get in touch — by LinkedIn Messaging or a Twitter DM.
I’m very much looking forward to us working together!
