coaching - Fatima

Tigo Business invitation to Fátima Ribeiro's conference on team management

Coaching Tools in Team Management

September 10, 2021/in Events/by Fátima Ribeiro

On September 9, 2021, I collaborated with TIGO Business with the conference “Coaching Tools in Team Management” for the SME segment with transmission for 9 markets (Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay and El Salvador).

Coaching is a creative process and the focus is on the future, on developing solutions.

Key coaching competencies such as establishing trust, being present, developing effective communication and facilitating learning and results are very important in the current hyperconnected context, with greater volatility, complexity and uncertainty.

In this conference we explore how leaders can use coaching tools in managing their teams, exploring tools that contribute to enhancing results and taking care of the well-being of teams, supporting leaders and entrepreneurs to face the challenges of today and the future.

Thanks to TIGO Business for the opportunity and to all the participants who joined us!

A team listening to a colleague during an office meeting

Coaching culture in organisations

August 8, 2021/in Blog/by Fátima Ribeiro

This article was originally published in the newspaper “La Estrella” and is part of a biweekly column from the ICF Panama Chapter to disseminate what Professional Coaching is. It seeks to inform, create more awareness and differentiate professional coaching, in which the Coach is governed by ethical principles and is continually improving his or her skills.

See the original article in this link.

At a global level, the ICF – International Coaching Federation has developed several research projects on Coaching Culture and to illustrate its importance I like to highlight this phrase from the report “Creating a Coaching Culture” of the International Coaching Federation (ICF) y del Human Capital Institute (HCI) (2014):

“With a better understanding of why Coaching is so important, in terms of developing the company’s workforce as a whole, ensuring the competitive advantage through its people, the organisation can lay the foundation for a culture of coaching successful and lasting. As a result, the company can convey its commitment to the continuous development of its employees, helping to retain better talent and attract better candidates.”

Let’s review then the definition of coaching from the ICF – International Coaching Federation: “Coaching is a process of alliance with clients in which the stimulation of thinking and creativity is promoted, seeking the maximization of personal and professional potential.”

Coaching is a development process that involves structure, focused interaction in accordance with the objectives defined for the process and the use of appropriate strategies, tools and techniques that promote sustainable and desired change for the benefit of the coachee or client. The focus is on the future, on people’s potential and not on their past performance.

It differs from other interventions in companies such as formal or informal “mentoring”, which is a process of transferring knowledge or skills. Mentoring should be seen, not as a “substitute”, but as a complement to “Coaching”.

Coaching Culture

We already looked at the importance of a coaching culture, let’s now look at two definitions of what a coaching culture is.

“A coaching culture is built by leadership beliefs and practices that at the organisational level reflect coaching as a strategic business driver and as a crucial tool for talent development.” ICF and HCI (2016) cite Blessing White, Inc (2009).

Another definition that includes more systemic thinking and shared value is that of Peter Hawkins, who in his book “Creating a Coaching Culture” tells us:

“A coaching culture exists in an organisation when a coaching approach it’s a key aspect how leaders, managers and staff engage and develop their entire people and involve their interested parties, so they create a higher individual performance, of teams y organisational y shared value for all interested parties.”

Coaching Modalities

The three main Coaching modalities used in organisations are:

External coach, professional with training in coaching, trained as a professional coach, and who practices it from outside organisations, that is, he is hired for specific processes on a one-off or continuous basis.
Internal coach, professional with training in coaching and who practices it within an organisation. Whether or not it integrates it with other roles in the organisation.
Coach Leader, uses coaching tools and competencies in his role as a leader.

Barriers to Implementation

The three main barriers to the implementation of a Coaching culture in organisations, identified in international studies, are:

The lack of time.
A limited ability to measure return on investment.
Budget constraints.

For organisations to value coaching as a methodology or development tool, it is important that adequate knowledge about coaching and its benefits exists in the organisation, mainly at the level of senior management and the human resources department, since we observe that the greater the knowledge, the more coaching is used as a development tool and the more it expands to different levels of an organisation.

Author: Fatima Ribeiro

The author is ACC (ICF Associated Certified Coach), Coach in professional development, leadership and teams processes, and member of the Board of Directors of ICF Panama.

Exploring the Contribution of Systemic Coaching

August 4, 2021/in Events/by Fátima Ribeiro

On August 4, 2021, I participated in a discussion organized by ICF Chapter Panama whose main objectives were:

Explore the contribution of systemic coaching, from two different perspectives.
Analyse/reflect how systemic coaching can impact people, processes and results in organisations.

It was an opening of perspectives from the field of systemic coaching, which allowed participants to learn about two different views of systemic coaching, and interact in a collaborative learning space.

Thanks to the participants who joined us!

A professional gesturing during a tense conversation in an office

Ineffective leadership behaviours

June 27, 2021/in Blog/by Fátima Ribeiro

This article was originally published in the newspaper “La Estrella” and is part of a biweekly column from the ICF Panama Chapter to disseminate what Professional Coaching is. It seeks to inform, create more awareness and differentiate professional coaching, in which the Coach is governed by ethical principles and is continually improving his or her skills.

See the original article in this link.

In the leadership development process, through executive coaching, different approaches can be used, depending on the context of the leader and the organisation, the needs identified and the objectives set.

One of them is working from the outside, from what is visible and perceived, such as behaviours (doing) towards the inside (being and thinking), in an iterative cycle to promote sustainable changes over time.

This approach is particularly suitable for leaders who perceive that leadership behaviours associated with their success in the past may not be those necessary to achieve success in the future, in more complex, ambiguous and changing contexts.

This is a work that begins with the identification of the leader’s behaviours, how this is perceived by his or her people of interest or stakeholders, and the impact of their behaviours on their organisation and the broader system. The work continues to promote the interaction of the leader with his stakeholders for integration of their suggestions for improvement into a plan of action, which is evaluated and adapted in a regular cycle, simultaneously facilitating the change of behaviours and perceptions.

Most of us look at behavioural changes that others should make, and are available to provide suggestions for improvement, but in general we are not as perceptive of the behavioural changes that we should implement and have a difficult time doing so on a day-to-day basis.

The impact of our behaviours is significant on the people around us, on our organisation. This impact grows with the level of responsibility of the leaders and with the size of the stakeholders internal and external that we impact.

As a leader becomes successful, this behaviour change is even more difficult to make, because he associates it with past success, he does not understand that he needs new behaviours to be successful in the future.

Benefits can be identified from implementing changes, but we are not always willing to accept the costs, to let go of behaviour that no longer serves us, we can even think and verbalize, but “I am like this, I have always been like this and it has always worked for me…”. This indicates that we do not want to commit to the process, we may not have the humility or courage to do so.

One of the challenges for coaches is to perceive their clients’ willingness to work on their objectives and implement the changes they propose. The success of the process is the responsibility of the coachee with their reflections, learning and actions. The coach facilitates the process and provides the appropriate encouragement, reinforcement and support to achieve the objectives.

One of the authors who most developed and implemented this approach to behaviours is Marshall Goldsmith, internationally recognised as a thought leader in leadership, as an executive coach and as the author of various best-sellers.

In his book “What got you here won’t get you there” Marshall Goldsmith identifies 20 ineffective habits or behaviours in leadership. Among them we can mention:

earn too much, or the need to win in all situations, when it is important, when it is not, and even when it is totally irrelevant. This is the behaviour identified by Marshall Goldsmith as the number one challenge for most leaders.

Other related ineffective behaviours are: add too much value, that is, adding our grain of sand in each conversation or discussion even when it does not add value; he retain information, to gain advantage over others; and the play favourites, to gain allies.

It is also ineffective to devalue the opinions expressed by others by making destructive or sarcastic comments; express negativity, or “I’m going to tell you why this doesn’t work”; or a more unconscious way responder, to comments or suggestions, with “no, but, however…” withdrawing value from what the other is expressing.

They are still ineffective behaviours. speak with anger, using emotional volatility as a management tool and the not listening, not being consciously present for our people of interest, advocating lack of time, overwork, or listening with partial attention due to distractions such as the cell phone.

To develop more effective leadership behaviours, the client must recognise that they need to change and commit to the process. The coach, based on his knowledge and experience, and in alliance with the client, promotes, among others, self-awareness, self-management and management of relationships with people of interest.

Author: Fatima Ribeiro

The author is ACC (ICF Associated Certified Coach), Coach in professional development, leadership and teams processes, and member of the Board of Directors of ICF Panama.

A team sharing ideas on sticky notes during a collaborative session

Psychological safety and learning from mistakes

May 3, 2021/in Blog/by Fátima Ribeiro

This article was originally published in the newspaper “La Estrella” and is part of a biweekly column from the ICF Panama Chapter to disseminate what Professional Coaching is. It seeks to inform, create more awareness and differentiate professional coaching, in which the Coach is governed by ethical principles and is continually improving his or her skills.

See the original article in this link.

The concept of Psychological Safety popularized by Amy C. Edmondson, a professor at Harvard University in her book Teaming, refers to the belief shared by members of a work team that, within the team, there is a safe environment to take risks and admit mistakes. Not to say that there should be no consequences for errors, but that errors can be admitted in an environment of psychological safety and at the same time comply with the organisation’s standards and controls. This is the way we can truly learn from our mistakes, find the root cause and creatively focus on solutions.

The responsibility for creating this feeling of psychological security in work teams falls mainly on the leaders of the organisations.

Through team coaching we can work with organisational leaders and their teams to raise awareness of the existing level of psychological safety and implement actions for its development. Team coaching can help facilitate spaces for conversation and feedback, develop trust in teams through observation and intervention methodologies that promote self-awareness, release of tension, critical self-assessment of performance, and recognition of worth, among others.

We can also support leaders to deploy their competencies as leaders who coach, through active listening and direct communication, a creative approach to visualizing options, developing solutions and integrating lessons learned.

In his 2011 article, Strategies to Learn from Failure, Dr. Edmondson, talks about creating an organisational culture where mistakes are seen as a source of learning, encouraging teams to detect, analyse and even experiment to learn from their mistakes. A leader at a technology company said: “We are in the discovery business, and the faster we fail, the faster we succeed.”

In this sense, in the aforementioned article, we talk about “The Spectrum of Reasons for Failure”:

Reasons with the greatest reason for Individual Responsibility:

Deviation: An individual CHOOSES to violate a prescribed process or procedure.
Inattention: An individual INADVERTENTLY deviates from existing specifications.

Reasons with some Individual Responsibility:

Lack of Skill: An individual DOES NOT HAVE the skills, conditions or training to perform a task.
Inadequate Process: A competent individual adheres to a prescribed process that is INADEQUATE.
Challenging Task: An individual is faced with a task TOO DIFFICULT to be performed reliably every time.

Reasons with little or no Individual Responsibility:

Process Complexity: A process composed of many elements suffers BREAKS when it finds new interactions with other elements.
Uncertainty: Lack of clarity about future events causes people to take APPARENTLY REASONABLE actions that produce undesired results.
Testing Hypotheses: An experiment to prove that an idea or design is successful fails.
Exploratory Testing: An experiment conducted to expand knowledge and investigate a possibility leads to an undesired result.

It is important to emphasise that this is a spectrum and there is no clear and defined border between each of these reasons. The idea is not to find guilty people, but to explore the reasons for the failure. Having knowledge of this spectrum helps to more consciously explore the root cause, find appropriate solutions and implement them in an organisational development process.

The leader can apply coaching competencies in a conversation of exploration and creative reflection between leader and collaborator, using open questions that explore the personal or systematic causes of failure, in an environment of psychological safety in which the focus is on integrating learning, promoting the development of people and processes and finding solutions that create value and sustainable results for all Stakeholders. Team coaching can support organisations in creating a culture of learning and responsibility.

Authors:

Alberto Navarro, He is an Executive Coach and Team Coach, credentialed as a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) by ICF. Vice President of the Board of Directors of ICF Panama Chapter.

Fátima Ribeiro, He is a Coach in professional development, leadership and team processes, credentialed as an Associated Certified Coach (ACC) by ICF. Member of the Board of Directors of ICF Panama Chapter.

A screen reflected in a professional's glasses

Agility and Coaching

March 22, 2021/in Blog/by Fátima Ribeiro

This article was originally published in the newspaper “La Estrella” and is part of a biweekly column from the ICF Panama Chapter to disseminate what Professional Coaching is. It seeks to inform, create more awareness and differentiate professional coaching, in which the Coach is governed by ethical principles and is continually improving his or her skills.

See the original article in this link.

How do we look at and understand the world around us?

Everything we perceive passes through our the mindset, mindset, which can be defined as a combination of attitudes, beliefs and values that influence our behaviours, daily actions and the way we learn. As mentioned in the study conducted by Ashley Buchanan Margaret L. Kern, our mindset subconsciously affects the way we think, act, and even how we perceive future possibilities. However, mental changes can be generated consciously and in appropriate contexts that could improve one’s own and collective well-being.

Psychologist C Dweek talks in her book “Mindset: the new psychology of success” about 2 types of mentalities. The fixed mindset in which people believe their abilities are innate and cannot change or improve, therefore they fear challenges, give up easily when there are obstacles, and see the success of others as a threat. On the other hand, in the growth mindset these people believe that they can develop their skills through practice and effort, enjoying challenges, seeing obstacles or failures as learning opportunities and successful people as sources of inspiration.

C Dweek explains that in his research he found organisations and managers with a growth mindset, in which employees say they feel more empowered, more committed and that the company values creativity, innovation and teamwork. In organisations with a fixed mindset, there is also talk of creativity and innovation, however, when something does not work as expected someone must pay the price.

There are frameworks or reference frameworks that encompass agile principles and practices that allow companies to increase creativity, innovation, adapting quickly and effectively to the demands of the VICA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) world.

The success of implementing these frameworks: Lean-Agile, requires leaders to have a growth mindset, which some frameworks often call the Lean-Agile mindset. This type of mentality allows us to drive the necessary transformation of the organisation, improving culture and business agility.

Through coaching, leaders can be accompanied to evolve from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset that offers great potential to generate changes at an individual level that impact the entire system.

Through executive coaching, we can support the development of leaders with a mindset focused on agile principles or practices, exploring values and beliefs (BE), mental models and cognitive structures (THINK) and/or working on what is visible, at the level of practices, behaviours and perceptions (DO).

The work of coaching can be done from the outside (what is visible and perceived), from the behaviours and perceptions inward to obtain sustainable results, or from the inside (values and thought structures) outward, always in accordance with the coaching contract established between the parties.

The coaching methodology to use is the one that the leader and the organisation recognise as having the greatest value. The important thing is to support the leader to involve his collaborators and other interested parties, to listen to them and value all opinions, in a learning process that is not only individual but collective, and in the creation of an agile and customer-centred culture.

Coaching could become a key piece for the success in the evolution of agile organisations, accompanying leaders in the development of their agile teams, promoting a growth mindset throughout the organisation.

Through the systemic coaching approach, agile teams can be developed as a self-managed team, defining more clearly its purpose, the creation of value, obtaining sustainable results, decision making, work organisation and the way of relating between its members and with other teams in the company. In this way, coaching contributes to reinforcing and consolidating the cultural change necessary in agile organisations.

Authors:

Romina Leveau and Fatima Ribeiro

Professionals meeting in an informal workspace

The leadership revolution

February 8, 2021/in Blog/by Fátima Ribeiro

This article was originally published in the newspaper “La Estrella” and is part of a biweekly column from the ICF Panama Chapter to disseminate what Professional Coaching is. It seeks to inform, create more awareness and differentiate professional coaching, in which the Coach is governed by ethical principles and is continually improving his or her skills.

See the original article in this link.

The way we think about leadership must change. We think there is a “leadership crisis”, but in reality we do not know what the leadership of the future should be like. The global study “Tomorrow’s Leadership and the necessary revolution in the development of today’s Leadership” sought to explore this question and summarize some findings.

This study published by Henley Business School, United Kingdom, led by Professor Peter Hawkins, researcher, author and developer of a systemic team coaching methodology, reflects on four key questions:

How will the leadership needed in the organisations of tomorrow be different versus the leadership of today?
What needs to be developed for the leadership of tomorrow?
How appropriate is today’s best practice for developing tomorrow’s leadership?
What else needs to be done?

Some of the main challenges that leaders consider will impact them in the next 20 years are:

A relentless and accelerated transformation of organisations
A technological and digital evolution
Change in business models, disintermediation and “uberization”
Fewer collaborators in organisations and increasing stakeholder complexity
Globalization
Climate change and
The need to learn and adapt faster.

These challenges are interconnected, each driving and being driven by the others.

In a context of incessant transformation, change is no longer just an event, but a constant worldwide, impacting organisations at an accelerated pace, affecting not only the individual but also the organisation itself. The global trends identified are: changing demographics, change in the workforce and ways of working, political instability, economic unpredictability, market volatility, globalization, climate change and migration.

The impact of digitalization, robotics and outsourcing contribute to “hollowing out” the organisation. Tomorrow’s leaders will have fewer people to manage and a growing, diverse and complex number of groups and organisations with which they will need to partner to succeed. Leadership changes from vertical to horizontal, leading not only the organisation, but also creating partnerships and synergies with different interest groups to be successful. Developing alliances and working through networks is an essential leadership competency.

Thinking and being alert globally, understanding global trends and adapting agilely to the unexpected is another leadership competency. The learning capacity of leaders and organisations must consider the speed at which the environment is changing to prevent extinction.

The study identifies the following changes in leadership as necessary:

From ‘leading my people’ to ‘orchestrating business ecosystems’
From “heroic individual leaders” to “collective and collaborative leadership”
Leadership driven by purpose and value creation for all stakeholders.
From serial and fragmented innovation to working simultaneously in three time frames (today, tomorrow and the future).
Embracing multiple individual diversity and also systemic diversity
The leader must be a developer of others.
Leadership must be able to maintain a high level of motivation in diverse generations of collaborators.
The ethical maturity necessary to live in a transparent world.
The importance of creating successful alliances and networks

The study highlights the need to evolve towards greater leadership maturity and ethical maturity, the importance of creating value for all stakeholders, developing greater awareness of the organisation’s diversity, and the importance of collective and collaborative leadership.

This change can be facilitated through systemic coaching, which brings the perspectives of different stakeholders to teams, supporting them to work connected with purpose and a vision of success, promoting the development of trust to increase the quality of engagement, the development of relationships, alliances and connections, and the co-creation of solutions that promote organisational learning.
Fatima Ribeiro

The author is ACC (ICF Associated Certified Coach), Coach in professional development, leadership and teams processes and member of the Board of Directors of ICF Panama.

Illustration of a person between symbols of a brain and a heart

Emotional Intelligence as a Coaching Tool

October 19, 2020/in Blog/by Fátima Ribeiro

This article was originally published in the newspaper “La Estrella” and is part of a biweekly column from the ICF Panama Chapter to disseminate what Professional Coaching is. It seeks to inform, create more awareness and differentiate professional coaching, in which the Coach is governed by ethical principles and is continually improving his or her skills.

See the original article in this link.

In the coaching process, various concepts and tools are used to support the coachees, according to the approach of the process and the training and toolbox of the coaches.

The concept of emotional intelligence is one of the tools we can use.

Yuval Noah Harari, historian and philosopher, author of books such as “21 lessons for the 21st century,” considers emotional intelligence and mental balance as two essential skills for the rest of our lives.

Daniel Goleman, one of the pioneers of emotional intelligence, published an article in 1996 that is still considered essential reading in Harvard Business Review on leadership issues, called “What does a leader do?”

This article focuses the concept of an emotionally intelligent leader on five elements: self-awareness, self-discipline, motivation, empathy and social skill.

To the self-knowledge The main characteristics are associated with: self-confidence, a realistic self-evaluation and a self-critical sense of humor.

The main characteristics of the self-discipline They are reliability and integrity, being comfortable with ambiguity and openness to change.

Passion to meet objectives, optimism, even in situations of failure, and commitment to the organisation are the three main characteristics in motivation.

The ability to build and retain talent, sensitivity to different cultures and being focused on customer service are the characteristics of the empathy.

In the social skill The author refers to effectiveness in leadership of change, the power of persuasion and the ability to build and lead teams.

Looking at the characteristics described, these still constitute a valid model more than twenty years after its original expression. What changes is our mental map and the form or order of importance in different contexts.

The concept of emotional intelligence was developed more recently, with a very practical approach, by Travis Bradberry & Jean Greaves, who define two major competencies, personal and social. In the personal competence, it is important self-awareness -recognise one’s own emotions and tolerate discomfort- and self-management – tolerate uncertainty and pursue objectives, not needs. In the social competence, it is important social consciousness -recognise emotions in others, listen and observe- and relationship management -manage interactions successfully and strengthen connections.

Particularly, I consider the model, developed by Dr. Reuven Bar-On and Jonathan and Leight Bowman-Perks, to be quite useful as a tool in coaching, which considers factors of emotional intelligence, intrapersonal factors, connected to self-awareness and self-expression, factors interpersonal of social awareness and interaction, factors of stress management associated with emotional management and control, factors of adaptability and change management and factors general like self-motivation.

In coaching, these models can be worked on, for example, considering the areas or factors in which the coachee has opportunities for improvement, the areas in which they already function effectively, and the areas in which they have superior performance.

The concept of emotional intelligence significantly impacts behaviours and relationships and can thus be worked on using any of these theoretical frameworks. The most important thing in the coaching process is the use of methodologies appropriate to each client, the objectives of the process and the specific objectives of each session.

The coachee can use their own reflection and/or incorporate the perception of their stakeholders or people of interest, such as family, friends, co-workers, peers, bosses and members of their team, benefiting the coachee from a systemic perspective. Humility, courage and discipline with the process strongly impact the results.

The process in general is enriched when the coachee opens up to feedback from his or her stakeholders, in a positive circle of reflection, integration of learning, listening to suggestions for improvement, evaluation and action.

Fatima Ribeiro, ACC

The author is ACC (ICF Associated Certified Coach), Coach in professional development, leadership and teams processes and member of the Board of Directors of ICF Panama.

Habits and Triggers

September 17, 2020/in Events/by Fátima Ribeiro

On September 17 in a Linkedin Live we talked about habits and triggers that impact our leadership.

On this topic I invite you to listen to the recording and read the article “Becoming aware of our triggers” reproduced on the blog.

On September 3 we also spoke with Priscilla Solano on the Anexión TV programme in Costa Rica, about “Behaviours that serve us.”

Illustration of a person carrying an explosive load with a clock

Becoming aware of our triggers

August 23, 2020/in Blog/by Fátima Ribeiro

This article was originally published in the newspaper “La Estrella” and is part of a biweekly column from the ICF Panama Chapter to disseminate what Professional Coaching is. It seeks to inform, create more awareness and differentiate professional coaching, in which the Coach is governed by ethical principles and is continually improving his or her skills.

See the original article in this Link

Today’s world is increasingly uncertain, complex and hyperconnected and the stimuli we receive daily are also growing in volume and complexity.

Our daily life is full of stimuli that we receive from the people with whom we interact in person or virtually, from the events around us that attract or require our attention in a more passive or active way, from the quantity and diversity of information, from distracting elements that exist on social networks, on television and on the internet.

The impulses received generate behaviours, which are not always the ones that best suit us, since they do not serve either the results we seek or our well-being.

What then are the triggers?

Triggers are thus any stimulus that can affect our behaviour, regardless of the origin or form of the stimulus.

Triggers can be direct or indirect, external or internal, conscious or unconscious, anticipated or unexpected, encouraging or discouraging, productive or counterproductive.

Between impulse and behaviour we seek to develop self-awareness about how these stimuli impact us to make a more conscious choice of our behaviours, according to what best serves us in terms of our objectives and/or well-being.

As Victor E. Frankl tells us “when we are unable to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”

In a coaching process, whether executive, professional or personal, the coach who works with these tools can support his client or coachee in the awareness process, to explicitly identify their main triggers and how these are impacting their behaviours.

Tasha Eurich in her research tells us that 95% of people consider themselves self-aware, but that the real number is 12% to 15%.

The coach helps raise awareness, facilitating the client’s understanding and learning through the use of different methodologies from their toolbox.

Marshall Goldsmith is one of the authors who works on the topic of triggers in his methodology for changing leaders’ behaviours and changing stakeholders’ perceptions of leaders’ behaviours. From its methodology, I highlight the classification of triggers into four quadrants, in which the axes are: “I want them and I don’t want them” and “I need them and I don’t need them.” The triggers that I want and need empower me, the ones I want and don’t need distract me, the ones I don’t want and need I have to look for, and the ones I don’t want or need I have to isolate.

Knowledge or self-awareness of our triggers is not enough to stop responding to them. We need support to make changes in our behaviours, even if I think they only affect me. Most of us need to have a structure, establish rules, implement a routine in a continuous process of change and adaptation of the behaviours that serve us most at all times. For example, to improve our physical fitness, it is not enough to know the stimuli that lead me in a different direction and to be aware of the need to do exercises. Strategies must be developed to establish a new routine, associate it with another activity, create a dedicated space in the weekly agenda, provide rewards in the process and recruit support from a friend or a coach.

Humility and courage support us in the process of self-awareness and commitment, discipline supports the implementation of actions, in achieving more constant changes in our behaviours.

In his process, the coach encourages his client to implement actions, evaluate the results of the actions, define and implement successful strategies, accompanying the client in his process of progress towards his objectives and his well-being. Coaching is thus a process of learning and growth, which facilitates the Client’s self-awareness and growth in the process of transforming knowledge and learning into actions, promoting the autonomy of the coachee in the process.

Fátima Ribeiro

The author is ACC (ICF Associated Certified Coach), Coach in professional development, leadership and teams processes and member of the Board of Directors of ICF Panama. The article was originally published in the ICF Panama Chapter column in the newspaper “La Estrella”.

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