We are aiming at the empowerment of people’s potential
Translated and summarized in English from the original Greek text
What is coaching? Which the role of the coach? How can it contribute to our life and mostly to our professional activity?
Jeny Androukaki answers these questions. She is a professional coach, practicing at Syros, member of the International Coach Federation, certified HR Professional SHRM-SCP, holding an International MBA, from the Athens University of Economics & Business.
Mrs Androukaki, what is coaching?
‘‘Life and Professional Coaching aims at people’s empowerment, in order to unleash their potential, accomplish their goals and live in accordance with’ their values and in harmony with their environment.”
-Tell us what you do as a coach.
“ I am a coach with experience in the area of Human Resources. My interest in coaching came from this experience, and my understanding of the importance of self-motivation at work, which provides joy and fulfillment. This is not important only at work but also at life, for our work-life balance.
Having worked at the HR department of a big firm and studying coaching at the same time, I saw how it can influence a person and a team as I applied it at my everyday job. Now, I am a free-lance coach, working also at Syros and I work with people, professionals and organizations.
Coaching is a collaborative process. The coach works with the client and together they reveal the client’s potential; the clients express their dreams, transform them into goals and make their action plan in order to make them real. It is self-evident that there can be obstacles and challenges in this process and the coach is by her client in order to overcome them.
Coaching is not consulting, which means that the coach does not advise her clients what to do; the coach helps the clients find their own way, to discover their aspirations and the change they wish and make their own action plan. This means that the clients stay accountable of their own actions.
Coaching is not psychotherapy, although there are aspects of positive psychology in its methodology. Coaching starts from the present and looks towards the future.
-Do you coach also young people deciding to start a new business?
Coaching can help people who start now their professional activity, or people who change course and start their own business. The coach helps them find out what they want to do, seek the market and go for it. They have to offer the services the customers need and promote their business. This means that they start with a plan according to the current market needs and trends.
- Can you help your coachees at their orientation for choosing their business and succeed in it, which means to select a business not currently existing in Syros?
Sure. The coach can help the coachee find the new business that is needed in the island. I can guide them, using coaching methodology, to find the information they need. The information, existing in Syros, the internet, the information and knowledge they already possess. So, the coachees will have the tools to seek the right business for them and the island.
-When the business in on, your role ends or you stand by the business owner?
It all depends on what the business owner needs. The business starts and then there are challenges to face. I can support the new business owner to celebrate their successes, to manage and learn from their failures, not get discouraged and find the solutions they need in order to respond successfully to their challenges.
- Can coaching benefit the companies?
Yes, it can benefit all businesses that succeed through their people. The coach helps the working team to coordinate, gain mutual trust, speak about the problems, ask for help, and align to the common goals. This is team coaching. Team members come into the team, carrying their own personalities, agendas and goals and they all need to align to the common goals.
