Aaminah, Human Resources Business Partner, Cape Town South Africa
This was my first time being formally coached and I’ve wondered why I haven’t started this sooner. Coaching has helped me tremendously on my personal journey of self-discovery and introspection; some things may have been tough to admit to myself but the way coaching allows an open space free of judgement made it easier for me to get to terms with. Due to understanding myself better, and more importantly accepting things about myself, I was able to do introspection from a professional perspective as well. My approach to certain situations and interactions with clients changed.
Within a coaching session I found that I would admit out loud thoughts that I may have had for a while. Once I was able to give voice to these thoughts it gave rise to reflection – not necessarily within the coaching session, however if not for the coaching I don’t believe it would have been possible. Being able to talk to someone who is genuinely interested in what you have to say and asking good questions allowing you to explore your thoughts more and finding the answers within self is one of the best things. Coaching has a way of making me feel overwhelmed initially, but then further than that I get a sense of what I am thinking or wanting to achieve is attainable and possible – coaching then goes a step further and helps in attaining what I before thought was unattainable.
The enneagram taught me a lot about myself – wow! It also reaffirmed a few things that I’ve pondered on but wasn’t really sure about. I must admit, there were a few things I was quite surprised about when initially reading it, but upon discussion with my coach on what it means in general and then bringing it home for what it means for me, it made sense. I’ve been able to take the bad with the good; and some of the ‘bad’ things I was able to adopt or alter for it to work in my favour and no longer see it as a negative. Enneagram has assisted me a lot in understanding myself, and why I do things a certain way as opposed to another; and then from that my coach was able to assist me in being 100% okay with this and accepting of myself in all my perfect imperfections in being a human.
I appreciate the 100% attention I get in our sessions. The attention is not only looking at me while I am explaining or exploring thoughts, his attention includes really listening to what I have to say and I know he is listening because he is able to reiterate what I’ve just said to gain a better understanding. The fact that he tries to fully understand what I am saying/sharing means so much to me as he is not taking it under his own interpretation, instead he wants to know what I am saying means to me and he takes it from there. Malcolm asks me really good, tough questions and I think this brings the most out of the session and helps me a lot with certain thoughts I struggle with. In our sessions I don’t ever feel insecure or judged, even when I say what I think is silly Malcolm has a reassuring presence and makes sure I am feeling comfortable. I appreciate his presence and interest with me very much!
Aaminah