I have often thought of myself as a work in progress. I never seem to be satisfied with my level of learning and I am constantly searching for what is next and what tools I can add to the “toolbox”. A few years back I was fortunate to work with an Executive Coach and became interested in the process of professional coaching.
I have a strong belief in helping others learn from my experience and have mentored many future leaders over the years. To add to the practice of mentoring I really was drawn to a process where I could help people reach their aspirations – not by sharing my experiences – but by helping them figure out what they wanted to do and then working on the path forward with them.
My desire to learn more and explore what coaching could accomplish led me to iPEC. iPEC is an organization that provides the tools and training you need to become an expert coach, thriving business owner, or influential leader at your organization. I enrolled in a yearlong program that began by exploring my own aspirations first and learning about what characteristics and competencies I already had that would hopefully make me a good Executive Coach!
The program teaches future coaches what it is like to be coached and requires many hours of peer coaching to graduate. I learned that you truly must have the desire to help others and the skill to help them solve their own challenges. By asking powerful questions individuals can create their own answers and solutions. Helping people determine what they truly want to achieve, and then helping them identify what is getting in the way of accomplishing it, is truly rewarding.
My personal experience with coaching is that being coached gives you greater awareness of how you think, feel and act. It also enables you to reduce stress by changing your reaction to circumstances through the process of becoming more self-aware. Best of all, it empowers you to be at the cause of your life instead of its effect.
Coaching helps us all be more emotionally intelligent and aware of the things that drain our energy. That knowledge enables us to then create opportunities to make the necessary changes to either do more of something or do less of it. Learning about Catabolic and Anabolic Energy was enormously enlightening for me. Very briefly, Catabolic Energy is a draining, contracting and resisting energy. The body uses it to counteract a stressor while Anabolic Energy is the constructive, expanding, fueling energy. It is rejuvenating and sustaining, building the body up.
As part of my training I have become certified to administer iPEC’s Energy Leadership Index™ (ELI) Assessment. It’s an attitudinal assessment, not a personality-based one, and it puts a numerical value to the types of energy a person experiences and expresses. I have had great results with people I am coaching who have participated in the assessment and debrief.
I am fortunate to work for an organization that believes in the coaching and development process and I have the opportunity to work with many of our current and future leaders. My desire is to help them achieve their personal and professional goals by providing them with the space to explore, identify and achieve milestones and ultimately find the happiness and satisfaction they most desire.
I am still a work in progress and I always will be, however I am pleased to have had the opportunity to continue to develop my coaching capabilities. I am confident that my work with iPEC will allow me to continue to drive transformational change in the workplace and effect continuous improvement through organizational excellence.
