Ina Dolmova:
The aim of coaching is to improve visibly someone’s life in the shortest time possible, dealing with the way people think, make decisions and act. Through coaching the person also gets the opportunity to discuss and structure himself with the help of a professional, whose interest is really the client’s interest.
That’s his job, that is what his personal success depends on.
Coaching is a practice that is extremely and entirely focused on the present and the future of customers. One’s past is not discussed, nor delved into, unless this will lead, for example, to a direct positive result. People are not seen as such, in whom “something is wrong” or who are “damaged”, just the opposite – they are regarded as responsible for their own happiness or unhappiness, and as fully able to make decisions and take positive actions.
Through coaching you meet many new and interesting people. What type of people turn to you and what kind of problems they have?
The people I work with are most often the so called “high performers” – ambitious, willing to work on themselves and their future, and those who have reached the point when they are not ashamed to admit they need such a professional support and to ask for it in order to get where they want.
The most common “problems” are:
1) They are not sure what exactly they want and what is actually really important and a priority for them.
2) Lack of confidence and enough true “love to oneself”
3) They do not have effective control over their own emotions and have not taken the time to learn how they themselves operate.
4) Lack of enough motivation for the things we really want to have in our life.
The principle of coaching is that no direct piece of advice should ever be given to the customer. If he/she is given a piece of advice in a particular field, this is not coaching, but mentoring. Upon achieving certain success, one must be fully aware of the fact that the effort and the responsibility for this success are completely his/hers! Otherwise, you take away one’s “wings” and the opportunity for the person to repeat this again and again. Coaching is not intended for holding someone’s hand all the time, but for teaching the person how to cope on one’s own.
Briefly, in coaching the following approach is used: the coach clarifies what the customer wants, what his/her purpose is; why one wants it; what is important to him/her; how to achieve it, or not; how it will affect one’s own life and that of the people around.
It works by asking questions and making various exercises when necessary.
Do you see positive changes in your customers after a session with them?
This is my job, and it would be hard for me, if I did not see such changes.
Recall a moment in your own life, when it took a second for you to make a definitive decision or something happened and you never looked back again. In life change rarely happens as a slow and painful process. Rather, when it actually happens, it happens instantly, almost urgently. You may have been getting ready for something for years, you have thought it over and over again, you have wondered and have changed your mind 100 times, but when the change comes, it “just” happens.
Has coaching helped you look at yourself, your life, your problems with new eyes?
I started doing this when I was very exhausted from my work, from the expectations imposed by society, from personal difficulties. Seen from outside, I was very successful, but inside I had lost myself and the notion of why I was so successful. This disappointment was the bitter end that I remember and that made me take measures… take up coaching! From that moment on, my life and I have radically changed.
Now I use coaching and other techniques, which I work with, in absolutely everything, every single day! Starting from getting up and how I plan my day to how I speak at a meeting, when I am in a major investment bank, or how I treat my own doubts and concerns.
You’re an ambitious person. How do you turn your ambitions into results – through hard work, desire, or just by being focused and letting things happen by themselves.
So far it has been through a lot of work and efforts. But I say “so far”, because I am learning how to leave more room for things to “just happen.” The majority of the things that happen in our lives are dictated by our attitudes and beliefs.
So far I have believed that success can only be achieved through very hard work, but this is not necessarily true! However, if I continue to believe that any success is directly proportional to the work carried out, it would mean that I myself am setting an insurmountable barrier, as I will always expect of myself more and more work, but the day has only 24 hours and I’m only a person who will eventually reach the limit of “more and more work possible”.
© Graham Jarvis
© Graham Jarvis
© Graham Jarvis
© Graham Jarvis
© Graham Jarvis
© Graham Jarvis
