Sometimes we enter a new profession not because we deliberately chose it, but because one day we realize that we simply don’t have enough tools to do our work as well as we know we could. We feel that something is missing. We sense untapped potential within ourselves: “I know I can do more, do it better, faster, more effectively – but I don’t yet know how.”
I Didn’t Become a Coach Because I Was Looking for a New Profession. It was 2017. At the time, I was working in HR for a large international company, specializing in L&D (Learning & Development).
I genuinely loved my work: working with people, learning, designing and coordinating educational programs, delivering training, and developing talents.
The company I worked for had its own corporate Institute and a dedicated Talent Pool – a group of high-potential employees whom the company intentionally developed and prepared for their next career steps.
Each member of the HR team, including me, was assigned several Talent Pool participants whom we supported through a mentoring relationship.
And that was where I encountered my first real challenge.
I was very good at connecting with people. I already had solid experience in learning and development, employee development, delivering training, and designing educational programs. I knew how to explain things, motivate people, and structure information.
But I realized that I was missing the tools to truly help people grow, move beyond roadblocks, navigate challenges, and achieve their goals.
You can know a great deal about employee development, but that doesn’t automatically mean you can help a particular person gain greater self-awareness, recognize their strengths, clarify what they truly want, set meaningful goals, and find their own way forward.
I was incredibly fortunate that, at that point in my career, I had the opportunity to study coaching and develop the competencies I was missing.
To be honest, I didn’t really know what coaching was or how it worked. But I joined the program with an incredible sense of curiosity and excitement.
As the training progressed, I gradually began to understand just how powerful coaching could be. I still remember thinking: “Why didn’t I know about this before?”
Coaching gave me what I had been missing in my work with people – not ready-made advice or instructions, but tools and approaches that enable people to find their own solutions, take ownership of their actions, and move toward meaningful change.
I began applying coaching tools in my work with Talent Pool participants. And I saw the results very quickly.
People began to develop a clearer understanding of their strengths and development areas. They became more confident in their roles, learned to interact more effectively with their direct reports, became better equipped to handle challenging situations, developed a stronger presence in their communication, and learned to negotiate more effectively with senior leaders and clients.
And, most importantly, the changes were not limited to the professional sphere. Coaching turned out to be about so much more than careers.
We would often start with a workplace challenge, but behind that initial agenda there was frequently a much deeper and broader need. Some people started exercising. Others changed their lifestyle. Some, for the first time in many years, began asking themselves: “What do I actually want?” And they discovered answers that were genuinely their own.
People began to re-examine their beliefs, their relationship with themselves, their work, their sense of responsibility, and their own capabilities.
And I discovered something that later became one of the core values of coaching for me: People don’t necessarily need someone to tell them what to do. Very often, what they need is the space, the right questions, and the tools that enable them to discover the answer for themselves.
Why Coaching Works So Well in Organizations
Today, coaching is increasingly becoming part of corporate culture – and for good reason. A modern organization develops not only through processes and technology. Its most important resource is PEOPLE.
For a leader, simply assigning tasks is no longer enough. Leaders need to be able to develop their people, give effective feedback, navigate conflict, conduct difficult conversations and negotiations, sustain motivation, and support their teams through change.
This is exactly where a coaching approach becomes particularly valuable.
Research and professional practice indicate that high-quality coaching can support the development of leadership capabilities, self-efficacy, goal-setting skills, and a person’s ability to generate their own solutions and take ownership of their development.
Whatever your profession, if your work involves people, I genuinely recommend learning about coaching.
At first, I thought I was simply adding another professional competency to my toolkit.
Now, almost ten years later, I realize that coaching has become an indispensable everyday tool for me – not only in my professional life, but across all areas of my life.