What did you hope to achieve by being coached?
I wanted to work with a Coach because this was my first experience working in the Higher Education Sector and my first experience working in Scotland. I was facing many challenges in my life, and I needed to find a way to embrace them. I was positive that it would help me find the best way to use my skills and experience and unlock my potential. I was having many doubts and insecurities, to be honest.
My main aim was to help my team, my department and interact with the rest of the departments in the best way that I could. I wanted to be an active member of the Research Engagement Directorate. At the same time, I wanted to develop strategies to build constructive relationships with my colleagues, especially academics (local and internationally), and be aligned with the University’s vision, mission, and ethos.
To belong to the University was my final goal. I wanted to make my work at the University a commitment of life and plan a work-life within the University.
How did coaching help you achieve your goals?
In my case, it helped me enormously in strengthening my self-confidence, while it helped me design resilience strategies, and these strengthened the relationship with my colleagues.
A coach is not someone who tells you what to do or who resolves all your problems. A coach guides you to find solutions by yourself, using your skills. Recognizing strengths but also weaknesses and thus working to strengthen what needs to be improved.
In my opinion, Coaching was a tool that benefited me a lot and benefited the University because the coach is contagious. When you receive all that positivism, the first thing you want is to share it and make everyone vibrate in the same tune as you.
I was able to embrace my position and give the best of me, then progress in my career, because of this positive thinking I decided to apply for a better role in my team, and I was successful. I also started a Master’s course in Delivering Successful Project and Leadership Theory and Practice, aiming to gain more knowledge and skills to help my organization flourish.
What do you think the key benefits of coaching are?
Coaching is a powerful tool because it is a process that helps you get to know yourself deeply, rediscover and bring out the best in you. Including knowing your strengths well but also your weaknesses and limits, being self-aware. When you gain confidence, you can help others, and the main benefit is the satisfaction of being able to serve in your community.
What would you say to anyone else thinking about accessing coaching?
Everyone who aspires in growing personal and professional should give her/himself the chance to have some coaching session. Coaching puts you in a positive tune with your environment, helps you believe in yourself and your abilities. Enabling you to believe in yourself and others, create positive work relationships, and embrace all the potential to be, do and have whatever you can imagine. Coaching is extremely contagious. When you receive coaching the mind is programmed to replicate it with your colleagues. It is a positive thinking and lifestyle practice.
Catalina Bastidas, GCRF Development Advisor
What did you hope to achieve by being coached?
Hoped to find solutions or an approach to help me move forward when dealing with issues in general or specific issues
How did coaching help you achieve your goals?
It allocated a time, a space and quietness to allow me to think through, with a clear head, how to tackle what seemed like big tasks/problems into manageable bite-sized stepping stones to achieve the end outcome that I wanted.
What do you think the key benefits of coaching are?
- Being in a non-judgemental space which allowed me to put random/wild suggestions out there as options which I could consider later to see if they were actually feasible or something I wanted to pursue. It’s the getting what’s in you, out – saying it out loud and being willing to accept it, as its the true feelings that are coming out.
- Realising this was all about me and what I wanted
- Being challenged on my thinking which opened up different doors/approaches for me to think about that I wouldn’t have initially considered
- Whilst talking, being asked what energies I associated with different issues I was talking about as my demeanour altered with topics
What would you say to anyone else thinking about accessing coaching?
It can be life-changing. It may not be for you but nothing is lost by trying the coaching experience whereas by saying no, ask yourself what could have been lost?
Research Fellow, EGIS
What did you hope to achieve by being coached?
When I first started my coaching sessions during the covid-19 pandemic, I was juggling work and homeschooling, so for me, I hoped that the sessions would help me to achieve the goal of better managing homeschooling and working from home.
How did coaching help you achieve your goals?
The coaching sessions helped me by providing me with a source of support and encouragement to focus on achieving my goals at my own pace. I was able to explore the issues in a very relaxed and informal way.
What do you think the key benefits of coaching are?
The benefits of coaching are realising that, with the right support and effort, you can achieve your goals, no matter how big or daunting they seem.
What would you say to anyone else thinking about accessing coaching?
I would say to anyone else who is thinking about accessing coaching, I would highly recommend it. I didn’t think before I started coaching, I would get so much out of the sessions. Coaching is a great way to help you achieve your goals in a way that suits you.
Administrator, EGIS