Shanta Navaratnam - Coaching boosted my life and career

We hope you enjoy…

What inspired you to enrol with The Coaching Academy

I was at a crossroad in my life and a friend suggested I get a life coach to help me sort things out. It was whilst I was researching coaching in order to understand it better that I came across the Free Foundation Life Coaching Course with The Coaching Academy.

I attended the Event and I realised coaching was what I had been looking for. Coaching provided me the tools to make a difference in people’s life. What was more, it also was a means towards personal development. In order to be a good coach, I have to be present in the moment and build rapport with my coachees through developing my listening skills and questioning techniques. I have to walk the talk, so it was all about being positive, optimistic and focussed. What a wonderful concept! I did not hesitate to enrol with The Coaching Academy for the Life Coaching Diploma and I have not looked back. 

The Coaching Techniques complement my current role as a Chief Financial Officer where I use these techniques with my team.

Your journey as a TCA student

I was extremely busy during my stint as a TCA student as I was in the midst of not only a career change but a relocation back to my home country in Malaysia from the United Kingdom. TCA course structure, however, provided me the flexibility to manage my schedule which fit in well with my busy schedule.

I will be honest. The journey was a roller coaster ride for me. There were days when I went through my coaching sessions and came out feeling high. On reflection, I saw how I progressed and developed over time. Yet there were times when I looked back at the coaching session I had just completed and wondered what value I had provided my client.  I felt my open-ended questions were just not effective. The important thing was that I took it all as part of the learning process. I noted down all issues I encountered and cleared them with the wonderful TCA mentors during the one to one and small group mentoring sessions.

The positive vibration in the classroom sessions (accelerator days) was something I really looked forward to during my time as a student. I also enjoyed the coaching sessions with my clients and the discussions and feedbacks I had with my fellow / buddy coaches. What honest and constructive feedback I received from them! Not to forget the TCA staff and mentors, their mentoring and assessment during the journey were invaluable!

Where are you now?

Since qualifying as a Personal Performance Coach, I am focussed on developing and marketing a coaching practice whilst retaining a full-time career as a Finance Professional. I have created a website to market my practice and have got myself a coach / mentor to help me transition from a full-time employee to a business owner. 

I have involved myself in the coaching world by joining the International Coach Federation (ICF). I was nominated as a Treasurer of the ICF Local Chapter for a two-year term. This gives me the opportunity to work with the Leadership Team to promote coaching and create coaching awareness to individuals and corporations.

I am enjoying this next phase of my coaching journey. My years of experience in the corporate world and my coaching experience puts me in a strong place to coach those who require career coaching, be it about work / life balance, advancing in their career, managing teams at work or even personal coaching. 

Your top tips for coaches

• My advice to you, lovely coaches, is to enjoy the journey! Whether you are at the start of your journey as a student, mid-way through or at the end of the journey:  take a deep breath, reflect and enjoy. Only when you enjoy what you are doing can you bring forth the best results. 

• Do work with a buddy and coach each other on getting through the qualifications. 

• What I found really useful was the reflection at the end of each session. Reflect back on your session, reinforce your great points and look at what you could have done differently - what questions could have been asked or phrased differently, what questions were not asked.

• Last and not least, do not neglect your paperwork including your Learning Record Sheets and the Final Assessment paper. Start working on them early and update them as you progress through your qualification.

I hope you get as much satisfaction from this journey as I did, and I wish you all the success you deserve!