Blog.
Geetha Ramachandran - Snippets from my journey as a Coach.
Diversity in a Coach, Aug 2020
Who makes the best Coach for any role? Is it necessary to have been a Chief Executive to coach a Chief Executive? This question has been triggered for me by some Coach-assignment practices that I see prevalent in some places.
If you have 'done it before' are you a Mentor then and not a Coach? What other learnings could there be for an executive, working with a Coach who has 'not' been in their role before? As I made my choice a couple of years ago to specialise as a leadership coach, these were questions that I had to think about.
This article shares my journey into diversity and explores how this has helped me as a Coach. Will this diversity also address the question above?
1. Cultural diversity
"Working with an intercultural coach allows the executive to increase his/her awareness of cultural differences and to deal productively with challenging differences when they arise. Coaching enables effective learning."
International Journal of Coaching in Organisations.
Growing up in India, it was an exciting trip to Canada to work as part of a 80-member team within Bell Northern Research. This offered an exposure to a rich diversity of people from different cultures. Continuing with Bell Northern Research and working in their R&D centre in USA continued this exposure within North America. My later work with Siemens over 5 years enabled me to work with Siemens in Germany, Austria and Belgium in addition to India. Participating in workshops and working in these countries with colleagues provided a great insight into working in Europe. I moved to Singapore shortly after and this gave me also an opportunity to explore the working culture in this city and island nation. It was quite a different experience than the others. Moving then to the United Kingdom where I have since lived, with visits to the Middle East has enabled me to have an appreciation of these different cultures and its people. I have seen different strengths emerge from these different cultures, both East and West. This helps me as a Coach as it teaches me respect for this diversity.
2. Educational diversity: An engineering degree in Electronics and Telecommunication leading into Business Process analysis. A Change Management certification to understand why and where change happens, followed by an interest in working with people and process. A decade of understanding Agile Principles, Values and the psychology behind frameworks like Scrum and Kanban. My further exploration as a Professional Coach into psychology, neuroscience, transactional analysis and systemic work. Using both left and right brain thinking has helped me understand Coachees who have different preferences.
3. Role diversity: Starting off as an R&D Engineer, analyst, tester, team lead, senior manager to leader and then a Scrum Master (servant leader) and Coach, has helped me understand the value that different roles bring in an organisation. It helped also to experience traditional management approaches and then dive deeper into Agile ways of working. Working within different departments as a coach and working in different business sizes from startups to large corporates has also given an appreciation of different business challenges.
Understanding the power of this diversity and yet appreciating factors of common humanity, has helped me as a Coach to work with leaders and teams from different cultures.
On reflection, particularly as a Transformation Coach recognising different perspectives, my preference is to keep away from familiarity bias, encourage a growth mindset and be open to this diversity. I believe this diversity will only add value to the leaders I work with.
Knowing that the Coach brings the container and the Coachee brings the content (metaphorically speaking), and as we believe that in Coaching, the Coachee knows the answer best and not the Coach - this makes it even a stronger argument that we need to feel comfortable as a Coach that we haven't actively been in (all) of their roles. The Chief Executive role is no exception. Exposure, awareness and empathy of their role challenges for sure helps. That is not the same as saying that we need 'direct experience' in that role. It is the quality of our mindset and our Coaching that decides how best a Coach we can be. Not the roles we have played or not played in the past. This is something to remember, as Diversity in a Coach helps.
If you have 'done it before' are you a Mentor then and not a Coach? What other learnings could there be for an executive, working with a Coach who has 'not' been in their role before? As I made my choice a couple of years ago to specialise as a leadership coach, these were questions that I had to think about.
This article shares my journey into diversity and explores how this has helped me as a Coach. Will this diversity also address the question above?
1. Cultural diversity
"Working with an intercultural coach allows the executive to increase his/her awareness of cultural differences and to deal productively with challenging differences when they arise. Coaching enables effective learning."
International Journal of Coaching in Organisations.
Growing up in India, it was an exciting trip to Canada to work as part of a 80-member team within Bell Northern Research. This offered an exposure to a rich diversity of people from different cultures. Continuing with Bell Northern Research and working in their R&D centre in USA continued this exposure within North America. My later work with Siemens over 5 years enabled me to work with Siemens in Germany, Austria and Belgium in addition to India. Participating in workshops and working in these countries with colleagues provided a great insight into working in Europe. I moved to Singapore shortly after and this gave me also an opportunity to explore the working culture in this city and island nation. It was quite a different experience than the others. Moving then to the United Kingdom where I have since lived, with visits to the Middle East has enabled me to have an appreciation of these different cultures and its people. I have seen different strengths emerge from these different cultures, both East and West. This helps me as a Coach as it teaches me respect for this diversity.
2. Educational diversity: An engineering degree in Electronics and Telecommunication leading into Business Process analysis. A Change Management certification to understand why and where change happens, followed by an interest in working with people and process. A decade of understanding Agile Principles, Values and the psychology behind frameworks like Scrum and Kanban. My further exploration as a Professional Coach into psychology, neuroscience, transactional analysis and systemic work. Using both left and right brain thinking has helped me understand Coachees who have different preferences.
3. Role diversity: Starting off as an R&D Engineer, analyst, tester, team lead, senior manager to leader and then a Scrum Master (servant leader) and Coach, has helped me understand the value that different roles bring in an organisation. It helped also to experience traditional management approaches and then dive deeper into Agile ways of working. Working within different departments as a coach and working in different business sizes from startups to large corporates has also given an appreciation of different business challenges.
Understanding the power of this diversity and yet appreciating factors of common humanity, has helped me as a Coach to work with leaders and teams from different cultures.
On reflection, particularly as a Transformation Coach recognising different perspectives, my preference is to keep away from familiarity bias, encourage a growth mindset and be open to this diversity. I believe this diversity will only add value to the leaders I work with.
Knowing that the Coach brings the container and the Coachee brings the content (metaphorically speaking), and as we believe that in Coaching, the Coachee knows the answer best and not the Coach - this makes it even a stronger argument that we need to feel comfortable as a Coach that we haven't actively been in (all) of their roles. The Chief Executive role is no exception. Exposure, awareness and empathy of their role challenges for sure helps. That is not the same as saying that we need 'direct experience' in that role. It is the quality of our mindset and our Coaching that decides how best a Coach we can be. Not the roles we have played or not played in the past. This is something to remember, as Diversity in a Coach helps.
Geetha, is open, honest, direct, helps you to step out of your comfort zone whilst being supportive, inspirational and motivating. I highly recommend her.
- Jeannette Gilbert, Marketing Leadership Team, RXUK
As a Sales Manager, working with a team in 8 different countries with different cultures, I felt the need to really revisit my management style. I am deeply grateful for having had an opportunity to coach with Geetha. I feel very pleased that I now feel confident both as a Manager and as a Leader with feedback from those around me confirming this growth.
- Ilyas Idigov, Sales Manager, Reed Exhibitions
I couldn’t believe the progress I made just after our first meeting. It made me reevaluate my beliefs and realise there is a straight path in sight. It’s incredible how many ‘penny drop’ moments I’ve had and Geetha has facilitated that.
- Joanna Wilczynska, L&D Manager, The Welcome People
I cannot recommend Geetha as a Coach enough! These sessions have allowed me to rebuild confidence through focusing on my strengths and achievements, manage the impact of negative influences more effectively and see many things in a different light.
- Marzena Borowka, Launches Manager, Reed Exhibitions