From: AustraliaGraduated: 2008 - January
Website: Inspiration Coaching
I started my working life as an accountant and worked with large multinational companies and was fortunate to be able to work in different countries.The two best things about this life were meeting new people and developing the team that with whom I worked. Most people say that can’t understand how an accountant could become a coach but for me it was a natural progression. I am working in two niches.The first one is with accountants, engineers and small business owners. I am using my coaching skills in combination with my analytical accounting skills to offer people a structured development product.
The second niche is providing leadership coaching in large corporate businesses. I am using my background in this world and my coaching skills to develop the leadership qualities of both new and experienced leaders.
How are you using coaching to make a difference?:
Recently I worked with 26 people in a large corporate business. I was one of six coaches who worked with about 140 people in total. The aim of this coaching program was to develop the leadership skills of each leader in the business. An assessment tool was developed and each leader in this organization was assessed on satisfying the attributes within the assessment tool. Then each person was coached for six months and then re assessed.
What was the most valuable thing you learned at ICA?:
The two main reasons why I chose ICA were that it was aligned with the ICF and it was a truly international education facility. It was a great learning experience and I enjoyed the teleclasses. I was continually blown away that I was sharing this learning experience with people from the Americas, Africa, Europe and Asia. The curriculum was strong and the power tools in particular opened my eyes to the power of coaching. My ICA experience has impacted me by changing me from being tolerant of the different personalities, perspectives and qualities of people that I met to actually enjoying and learning from these differences. I think that I have used this word a couple of times already but one of the greatest things that I learned while studying with ICA was “perspectives”. For me that meant that they may be not a “truth” as such but different versions of the “truth”. This was a great philosophical lesson that i did not expect. Also I learned more about myself and this has helped me “respond” rather than “react” to different stresses that come up in my life.