Power Of Coaching Revealed by Our Coach Of The Month

A lot happens during the session, and a lot more happens in between sessions — that’s the magic of coaching.

TEDx Speaker and India’s Top 20 under 40 Woman Coaches - Ruchira is a Leadership and Executive Coach with over 15 years of working experience in top global firms like Microsoft, IBM, Inmobi, Amadeus, and more.

Her versatile background in Product, Marketing, HR, and Operations makes her one of the most sought-after mentors/coaches on our platform.

As a coach, her mission is to uplift people by making them more self-aware of their identity and purpose in life.

Being mindful of outcomes, she opens doors for her learners to discover the true purpose behind their goals for improvement, resulting in sustainable and long-term growth both personally and professionally.

Today Ruchira is an eminent organisation psychologist with global footprints across the United States, United Kingdom, and the African continent, working to develop sustainable leaders for the modern world.

Let’s take a step back and uncover Ruchira's journey into the world of coaching.

When did you realize that you wanted to become a coach?

Up until a few years ago, I lived a basic template-driven life — completed my bachelor’s, pursued my MBA, picked up my specialization in human resources, got married, and checked off all the milestones set in the template. However, it didn’t feel complete and I hit an absolute crisis of meaning in my early 30s.

It became redundant for me to look for a change in titles and organizations with the hope that something will change and there will be more to what I do.

As I look back now, I recognize that I was in a deep search for the meaning of my time in this life. When I’m gone, what would I leave behind?

It wasn’t a question of “what is next?”

It became a question of “where do I even start searching for my purpose?”

I took a few steps back to examine myself — my strengths and qualities, to take stock of where I can start this journey.

That’s when I recognized a God-gifted quality that I possess, that is not easily or commonly available everywhere. And that is the ability to influence.

Thereon, I kept questioning myself..

“What to do with this ability to influence?”

“Who would I like to influence?”

And that introspection drove me to the answers being —

“I would like to influence outcomes.”

“I would like to influence people who can make an impact.”

It was clear to me that this is the road I wanted to take and I searched extensively to know how I can achieve this. Back in the day, I wasn’t even sure if this was a profession or whether there was any structure or tool that was already present to enable me on this path.

Every question I asked myself took me in the direction of my calling, and that’s how I stumbled into coaching.

Having the courage to start with coaching without having all answers was in itself a realisation for me that it was my true calling.

Have you gone through coaching for yourself?

When I chose to take up coaching as a profession, I found myself spinning in circles, lost and confused about how I wanted to carry out the practice.

All the calories spent on imagining and intellectualising the impact I wanted to create finally translated to intentional actions when I was coached by a senior coach.

I took a few coaching sessions with him and that’s what helped me the most to move forward in my coaching career.

Being coached helped me discover what it feels like to be on the other side of coaching and was an experience of personal growth for me..

Going through it for myself, validated my aspirations to impact others in the same way I was impacted by my coach.

Do you recall an incident when you witnessed the impact of your coaching?

I was once working with a CTO of a multibillion unicorn company. He was an extremely action-oriented person and prided himself on being an execution specialist.

For him, it was all about moving the needle and he kept pushing everyone on the ground to get things done to achieve the best results.

While this approach paid off well for the business, this self-image he highly identified himself with held him back from expanding further into his next level of abilities.

Through the coaching conversations, he began to realise that he may be great at execution, but there’s more to his ability which is, strategy and the ability to align teams to execute it.

That was the turning point for him when he discovered his true potential of being a leader beyond his ability to understand technology and get things done.

Coaching allowed him to re-evaluate the way he had perceived 20 years of his career.

It was a powerful moment to witness how he was able to switch the gear and realise his strengths and abilities to unlock the next level as a leader.

How does coaching help overcome barriers at work?

Coaching, I believe, opens the door to self-awareness. A coaching conversation can help unblock your thoughts and show you what you are truly capable of.

Through coaching, people can leave their old scripts behind and expand their value systems to accommodate more.

I once interacted with a learner who came into a coaching session with the idea that strategic thinking was all about looking in the rear-view mirror to make decisions. In just a few sessions, she was able to shift her understanding to realise that strategic thinking is about looking two steps ahead, figuring out patterns where others see chaos, generating creativity from intuition, and forming an action plan that is in line with what benefits the organization.

Coaching is a non-judgemental partnership in which people find emotional support to overcome their limiting beliefs.

Nobody wants to discuss or throw light onto their dark side. But when a coach can create a safe space to bring that side out of you, that’s when they begin to see the potential for change. And that’s how the transformation happens.

What role does a coach play in helping people realize their true potential?

Deep down, each one of us holds an innate desire to move forward and be better versions of ourselves in life. However, many lack the direction to get there.

Here’s where the coach comes in and plays an anchoring role (and sometimes even a catalytic role) to help individuals analyse their intention to change and build a muscle to act on it.

When a coach is able to provide a safe space to be vulnerable, it leads to people opening up about their true intentions to change. It also helps them identify who they really are vs who they want to be. When these thoughts are challenged, people begin to realise what’s important to them and why they want to change.

This realisation in itself increases their will to take action and unlock their true potential.

What do you enjoy the most about being a coach?

I enjoy working with intention, meaning, and purpose. And it gratifies me to take people to that place of realising these aspects about their life. It’s a bittersweet and rewarding experience to take them through the journey of strong will to skillful will, to creative will, to transpersonal will, and finally arriving at free will.

It energizes me to enable people with choices and values to improve their worldview of things.

I find it interesting to learn about their past values and help them create new ones based on their discovery of self.

Who can benefit the most out of coaching?

Whether people transform or not, whether their behaviour and thinking patterns change or not is purely a function of their intention. And not just intention, but also their will to act on that intention.

Anyone who is open to the idea of change can benefit from coaching.

Coaching requires dedication and patience with yourself. You cannot have all the answers in a said number of sessions.

Those who are willing to work on themselves and are patient enough to see the results are the ones who achieve real and measurable growth with the help of coaching.

When you take a chance on yourself, the universe will come together to make your dreams come true.