Leadership - Fatima

A professional presenting ideas to a team beside a whiteboard

Advancing Women’s Leadership through Coaching

January 15, 2023/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.

Advancing Women’s Leadership through Coaching

The 12 habits that hinder female leadership

Leadership culture, organisational practices and individual behaviours are three dimensions identified as important in international studies to achieve change in the development of female leadership internationally.

In this article we focus on the individual behaviours, mentality and behaviours that distinguish executives who have progressed to leadership positions in organisations.

Some of the most distinctive behaviours and beliefs of these professionals are the ability to advocate for themselves, the development of support and influence networks at different levels of the organisation, taking risks and developing new competencies, and a high degree of self-confidence.

In the book “How Women Rise”, Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith identify the following 12 habits or behaviours that hinder the development of women in organisations:

Reluctance to claim achievements.
Expect others to spontaneously notice and reward your contributions.
Overvaluation of experience.
Just build, rather than build and leverage relationships.
Do not recruit allies (peers, mentors and sponsors) from day one.
Put work before your career.
The trap of perfection.
The desire to please.
Minimization (in words and body language).
Too much (too much emotion, words, information).
Rumination.
Let your radar distract you.

These habits frequently appear together. For example, the habit 1. reluctance to claim achievements often appears accompanied by 2. expecting others to spontaneously notice or praise and reward their contributions, leading to women not developing and assuming the importance of advocating for themselves.

Other behaviours that can be found together are habits 3. overvaluing experience, 6. putting work before your career and 7. the perfection trap, which together can limit the professional’s ability to take risks, open up to strategic projects and develop the competencies and skills necessary to progress in leadership roles.

To still refer to the behaviours 4. only build instead of building and leveraging relationships and 5. not enrolling allies from day one, which when given inhibit the development of support and influence networks at different levels of the organisation.

The behaviours 9. minimization, 10. too much and 12. letting your radar distract you, with absorption of too much information and/or decreased focus, hinder the development of influence in the organisation and for professionals to be perceived as having an executive presence.

In the coaching process, the coach supports the executive to:

Clarify your purpose and vision of the desired future.
Recognise your personal power and authenticity, your competencies, experiences and knowledge, that is, what you bring to the table.
Evaluate how you present and act in different situations, how you empathize and create rapport and relationships of trust, how you communicate with others, how you respond in crisis situations, what are the triggers that can arise and that must be taken care of.
Map your people of interest and identify potential allies, mentors and sponsors.
Define what value and impact you want to create, what new perspectives or emotional changes you can provide to enhance solutions in critical situations.

The coach accompanies the professional in her actions to:

Develop a learning and growth strategy with clear purpose and objectives.
Structure an active network of relationships and support.
Simultaneously manage work, career, and personal and family life.
Create greater impact and value in your communications and interactions.
Develop self-confidence and assume your personal power.

A professional coach supports the client in their development process, stimulating reflection and creativity, acting as a mirror for the client, encouraging the discovery and implementation of new lines of action. Sometimes, he supports the client with experimentation or role-playing techniques that allow him to visualize different perspectives, actions, and experiment in a safe environment, in a continuous process of reflection, action and learning.

Author: Fatima Ribeiro

The author is a PCC Coach, Coach in professional development, leadership and teams processes, and member of the Board of Directors of ICF Panama.

Fátima Ribeiro and Susana Azevedo, co-authors of articles on leadership and team coaching

Systemic team coaching, why now?

November 22, 2022/in Blog/by Fátima Ribeiro

This article was originally published in Portuguese in Líder Magazine, in the October 2022 issue.

The online version was later published on the magazine’s website. The original article can be consulted here link.

Systemic team coaching, why now?

In today’s world we are increasingly aware that change and uncertainty are constant, and that the context can change rapidly, with uncertain consequences and complex challenges.

We know that the leadership of the past will not be the best fit for the solutions we will need in the future. In organisations there is a perception that it is essential to develop shared leadership, reinforce trust, collaborative work and mutual responsibility for performance, well-being and learning in teams and companies, transforming processes and creating connections with a systemic and interdependent vision.

In most organisations, development plans essentially focus on individual competencies, through training, mentoring or executive coaching processes. We observe that development plans for teams, the driving forces of organisations, are mostly non-existent or scarce. They concentrate on training or team building, more oriented towards the development of individual skills or the relationships between team members, but with results that, in general, do not directly influence the performance, well-being and learning of the team as a whole. There is still no perceived sustainable impact on the team’s daily work dynamics nor a significant influence on its interactions with other areas of the organisation.

Systemic team coaching emerges as a response to transform leadership and organisations. Its simultaneous focus on purpose, processes, people, aligning expectations, creating value with and for its stakeholders and collective development promotes a culture of learning and the sustainability of results. It allows the team, as a whole, to respond more effectively and creatively to the main current and future challenges.

The support of the organisation’s leaders is essential to obtain the desired results. It is essential that the team has between 4 and 10 participants, autonomy to implement changes in its scope of action and commitment to the process.

Team coaching is a process that evolves over time, not always linearly. Establishing agreements and continuing alignment of expectations between the sponsor, the team, and the coaching team are important aspects to consider.

The transfer of the coaching process to the team begins from the first meeting, since the objective is for the team and its members to be co-responsible for their future development.

Most organisations work primarily with teams. Therefore, not investing in its development is contradictory, considering current and future trends and challenges. Systemic team coaching is a response to this need. We invite you to explore and integrate this process into your organisations.

Authors: Fátima Ribeiro and Susana Azevedo

Poster of the Systemic Team Coaching workshop: Expanding Borders, with Susana Azevedo, Bianca Aichinger and Fátima Ribeiro

Systemic Team Coaching – Expanding Frontiers

August 10, 2022/in Events/by Fátima Ribeiro

On August 9, from ICF Brasil Charter Chapter, in a workshop with more than 50 coaches from Brazil we shared our experience on Systemic Team Coaching.

Thank you to the ICF Brazil Charter Chapter for the opportunity to share and to all the participants who joined us!

Why Team Coaching?

May 31, 2022/in Events/by Fátima Ribeiro

On May 18, from ICF Panama Chapter, in an event integrated into the international coaching week, we shared with coaches and executives from Latin America about Systemic Team Coaching.

Develop knowledge about team coaching, its importance today and how it differs from other interventions. Learn what to expect from a team coaching process and its benefits, through a real example.

A professional receiving recognition from their team during a presentation

Executive Presence: How to Influence and Make an Impact

May 16, 2022/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.

Developing executive presence is one of the objectives that professionals and executives most seek in coaching processes since it helps to have greater impact and influence.

In an increasingly complex, interconnected, and rapidly evolving world, with more virtual than in-person interactions, where many collaborators work in matrix structures and belong to multiple teams, where power structures change, developing a system mindset, understanding connections, reading context, and developing relationships is increasingly relevant.

Some of the strategies of current professionals to be able to successfully surf the waves of change are:

deploy active listening and be present in every interaction,
create greater value with and for your people of interest,
have greater impact in your communications and interventions,
develop a growth strategy with a clear purpose,
simultaneously manage work, career, and personal and family life,
structure an active network of allies, mentors and sponsors.

In a coaching process, it is important to clarify with the client their understanding of what it means for them to develop executive presence, supporting them to analyse and prioritise their objectives, define their measures of success, and focus their action plan on the 20% that allow 80% of the results.

In the process of self-knowledge and self-management, it is key to clarify the purpose, the client’s north, and establish with them the predisposition to change, to let go of what no longer serves them, in a relationship of benefit versus cost. In many cases the cost is letting go:

an attachment to past behaviours and success factors,
the idea of control,
making excuses – not remaining a victim of circumstances,
the excessive need to be “I”,
thoughts and emotions from the past, opening to create a new and more emotionally agile version of the “I”.

It is opening oneself to uncertainty, not knowing, having to develop new resources and different solutions, seeking the opportunity and gift of each unforeseen situation.

In the process of self-knowledge, the coach supports the client to:

recognise your personal power and authenticity, your competencies, experiences and knowledge, what you bring to the table;
to evaluate how he presents himself in different situations, how he empathizes and creates rapport and relationships of trust, how he responds to others and in crisis situations, what are the triggers that can arise and that must be taken care of;
and what is the value and impact you want to create, what new perspectives or emotional changes can you bring to enhance solutions in critical situations.

Achieving the intended results with well-being also requires the client to work on continuous feedback with their stakeholders. It is important to map your people of interest, who your key internal and external stakeholders are, expanding your sphere of influence and impact, defining what formal and informal power structures to take into account, and what value to create with and for each stakeholder.

A process of continuous feedback and alignment of expectations allows the client a more real knowledge of the evolution of the perceptions of their people of interest, preparing them for faster strategic action in situations of changes in the organisational or business context.

A professional coach supports his client in his development process, stimulating reflection and creativity: “what if…?”, “what would happen if…?”, “what else…?”; acting as a mirror for the client: “this is what I am hearing”, “this is what I am observing”; stimulating the discovery of new lines of action: that “haven’t you tried yet?” “How would you say it?”, “How would you do it?”, and in some cases also supporting the client with experimentation or role play techniques that allow them to visualize different perspectives and actions and try them in a safe environment, in a continuous process of reflection, action and learning.

Author: 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.

A sequence of portraits with symbols representing thoughts and emotions

Saboteurs and wisdom

February 21, 2022/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 intelligence has evolved over time. At the beginning of the 20th century, IQ was considered the main predictor of success. In the 80s we began to hear about the emotional quotient connected with emotional intelligence, that is, self-awareness and self-management, and knowledge of others and relationship management, as a differentiating element for a successful life, having an impact of about 80% on success.

Currently, with the growing complexity and uncertainty of the context, concepts such as collaborative intelligence are gaining importance, that is, the ability to co-create together a result that is greater than the sum of the parts.

We also talk about intelligence for change, closely connected with emotional agility, that is, the ability to navigate different emotions and take actions based on values and long-term objectives, with resilience, that is, the ability to face change and adversity, and with the concept of antifragility, which integrates the ability to not only face, but also thrive in uncertain and adverse situations.

Other concepts are communication intelligence, a conscious and intentional way of adapting messages to the objectives and context, for greater influence, impact and creation of value, and the intelligence of connecting, which reflects the ability to ask questions, design ideas and approach conversations to influence and mobilise others in the pursuit of an objective.

The very concept of work has evolved from essentially manual work, associated with the beginning of industrialization, to more cognitive work, associated with the acquisition of knowledge and active learning strategies with the revolution associated with the Internet and knowledge economy, to more emotional work, connected with the development of empathy and compassion, with the connection to a purpose and values, which enhances the development of relationships, connections and alliances at a more systemic level.

In its entirety, we are talking about intelligence concepts closely connected to the development of soft skills, about work on our being and thinking, in the management of emotions, beliefs and thoughts, in actions connected with a purpose and values, that drive the development of our potential, with simultaneous impact on results and well-being.

In a coaching process, thinking and creativity are stimulated to develop the client’s potential, connecting being, thinking and doing. The objectives of the process and actions are defined from the future desired by the client, its purpose and visions.

When considering a systemic perspective in working with the client, the different levels of context, from interpersonal relationships to the global context, the different concepts of intelligence referred to above are often found in the client’s challenges and in coaching conversations.

Another concept of intelligence that can be in conversations is the concept of positive intelligence developed by Shirzad Chamine, author and professor at Stanford University Business School. Positive intelligence is defined by Shirzard as a measure of mental agility, indicating how quickly we can navigate from “negative” responses to “positive” responses to different challenges.

In her work Shriszad identifies our main saboteurs, who impact our thoughts, our “internal judge”, through the way we react to challenges.

Through self-awareness, self-compassion and reflection exercises, connected with the various senses, that help us recognise the emotions present, and navigate a mental space of curiosity and creativity, we can develop mental agility that allows us to identify the gift and opportunity of each situation, even in situations that appear painful and/or challenging.

Fátima Ribeiro

The author is a Coach in Professional Development, Leadership and Teams processes, ACC (ICF Associated Certified Coach), and member of the Board of Directors of ICF Panama.

Certified Practitioner in Team Coaching

February 17, 2022/in Events/by Fátima Ribeiro

My learning journey in team coaching began in 2019, studying with Professor Peter Hawkins in Portugal.

In 2021 I completed an advanced level in this learning and professional development path as a Team Coach, receiving the “Certified Practitioner in Team Coaching” certification.

Currently I also received the “Team Coaching Individual Accreditation (ITCA), level Practitioner” credential from the EMCC – European Mentoring & Coaching Council.

Doing the internship programme with Global Team Coaching Institute (GTCI) last year was an excellent and very rewarding learning experience, with great teachers and with colleagues from all over the world.

I am grateful for all the lessons learned, alliances, and friendships developed on this journey.

Thank you Professor Peter Hawkins, John Leary-Joyce, Dr Hilary Lines, David Matthew Prior and all the excellent GTCI faculty members and co-dean Professor David Clutterbuck.

Thank you, Susana Azevedo, for being an excellent partner, co-coach and friend on this learning journey.

Thanks to the colleagues in our internship and supervision group. I learned through the experiences and knowledge shared with everyone.

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.

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