Know thyself

I was myself facing a career change when I was lucky enough to cross paths with Stephane Dieutre, founding member of the Institut Aristote and author of: Et maintenant, que vais-je faire ?

As I was leaving his conference « Leader, know thyself », I was left with :

#1 an observation : I have spent a lot of energy trying to smooth out my weaknesses but I have invested very little in my strengths and talents

#2 a question : in the end, what makes me unique and allows me to be impactful as a leader ?

Fueled by the desire to learn more about myself and find more purpose in my life, I decided to get to know the Aristote method.

The Aristote path

The Aristote method is a path structured around 7 steps meant to guide you through a benevolent introspection: who am I when I am being my best self? What makes me unique? How can I activate my talents, with impact and authenticity, while serving my team?

Each step of the path allows us to build a visual representation of our talents, values, needs and aspirations. Little by little, we build our talent characters®, our vision and purpose, which each strand of our being contributes to.

The last steps of the path aim at clarifying our ambition and projects as well as defining a personal and concrete action plan.

What I have learnt:

# Listening to yourself and observing

Traveling the Aristote path requires to take time to find yourself and get to know yourself all over again, like yourself, with benevolence, and be in the moment, conscious of yourself. The exercises facilitated during coaching enable the multiplication of information channels, the activation of creativity, observing with curiosity while welcoming self-discoveries under guidance.

# Reconnecting with your talents

Influenced by the teachings of Martin Seligman, founder of positive psychology, the Aristote method relies on our strengths, our talents, and our best attributes. Aligned with who I am, my impact is stronger, fairer, and more authentic. This alignment with my values, my talents is an engine for my life and my choices.

# Look for the positive

I used to focus so much on what I had to improve, that it led me to lose sight on everything I was doing well, naturally, and effortlessly, and which drove me to a positive and authentic energy. My impact is all the greater when I activate my talents, enjoy my contributions to the team and consciously place them at the service of a project.

Would you like to hear some more?

You are at a crossroads, looking for more purpose and fulfillment in your life. You would like to develop projects truly align with who you are and meaningful.

Reach out for a free individual information session.

Virtual teams: common and complex

For over 15 years, I have worked with virtual teams, that is with teams whose members are spread across geographies. Our meetings more often happened behind screens rather than in an office.

Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the transition to remote working and numerous companies have adopted hybrid working methods since the end of lockdowns, fueled by technological advances.

According to an HBR study, remote workers tend to feel less connected than their onsite colleagues. They feel left out of priorities and communications, even on topics central to their job responsibilities or common projects.

In a virtual environment, it is also harder to emulate feelings of team belonging, of engagement, and to say “we” rather than “I” or “them”.

Isolated, unmotivated, and lacking cohesion, virtual teams often struggle to deliver results.

Definition :

Let’s come back to the concept of virtual team, as the name can be misleading: do virtual teams really exist?

A team is a collection of individuals with a common goal. Looking up virtual in the dictionary will yield the following results:

1. To be theoretically, as a possibility
2. To hold the conditions of existing: potential, possibility

These definitions would seem to imply that a virtual team is a possibility, and not a fact.

And it’s rather true. The potential teams, the collective opportunities will only materialize if there is a will to activate them, to identify talents and combine them to build something greater than the individualities. (By the way, this holds true for all teams).

My passion for collaboration

I love this type of collaboration because it gives the opportunity to engage with people from other cultures and horizons, to be creative to sit around the (imaginary) table diverse talent and figure out a way to make it all work together.

Thanks to my Organisational Relationship System Coach (ORSC) training, I know that each team is different, with its own energy and intelligence, and that the role of the manager is to listen to the collective, reveal it, and serve it to achieve greater performance.

3 tips to develop relationships and collaborate remotely

#1 – setting aside some time to get to know one another and develop social interactions

Developing social interactions starts with a very simple question: how are you doing today?

When I coach teams, I begin our sessions with a little ritual in the shape of an informal chat, akin to the coffee break usually taken prior to entering a meeting room, this little moment enabling social bonding.

This virtual coffee is a key moment to welcome where everyone stands, to connect to the other but also an opportunity to overcome the barrier that the screen creates by trying to truly understand one another.

Teams too often dive right into the matter at hand, without taking a moment to acknowledge what or who sits on the other side of the screen.

Unscripted interactions are also a tremendous source of creativity, which feeds innovation.

#2 – Defining our common ways of working

Through coaching, I focus some time on identifying the team potential and its ways of working: how does each member want to contribute to the collectivity? how do we want to work together and interact?

Going back to the definition of “virtual”, the second option brings me to view the team as an entity which holds the conditions of its own existence.

I like this idea of potential. A potential that the manager or team needs to understand, grow, and guide through a long-term vision.

What does everyone contribute? What is the team potential? How can it be developed and grow?

#3 – Developing a two-way communication

Communication is an essential lever to develop remote collaboration. According to a 2020 study published in the MIT Sloan Management Review, 47% of participants cited effective communication as crucial to their transition to remote work.

In cross functional projects I managed, I placed a substantial emphasis on communication right from project inception, so as to ease team members’ integration and so as to understand where each one stands, what each one brings and what each one needs so as to perform.

Active listening is also a key resource which is essential to any relationship.

The more time, space, and structure the leader or project manager will give to interactions, the stronger and the more frequent the interactions and relationships will be, with a positive impact on creativity and engagement.

As an ORSC coach, my role is to guide leaders and project managers in the development of workshops where we collaborate to foster collective intelligence while integrating the know-how and the soft skills.

What is coaching ?

The International Coach Federation (ICF) defines coaching as an alliance between a coach and a client through a process that stimulates reflection and creativity to maximize their personal and professional potential.

Coaching is a relationship built together to guide you in achieving your objectives and unlocking your potential, grounding yourself in your individuality and singularity.

I wanted to begin this blog post with the official ICF definition so as to provide a framework. Too often, « coaching » is used to describe situations that have nothing to do with actual coaching: a coach doesn’t give advice or recommendations; a coach doesn’t pass judgement or lectures. A coach is neither a consultant, nor a mentor, nor a professor.

My role as a coach is to create a safe and trusting space used to deepen learning and motivate you to take action.

What is it for ?

Coaching is an amazing opportunity to learn, to grow, to face and overcome difficulties, or to explore new frontiers, while feeling more accomplished and fulfilled.

With a coach, you will benefit from an external perspective, attentive and judgement-free listening at the service of your personal growth, and a professional partner who sees you for who you are and progresses with you, while keeping your objectives in focus.

Getting an outside perspective

If you no longer clearly see the path ahead, an outside perspective can be useful. As a coach, I walk by your side, listen, and reflect on what I see or feel. I provide you with a neutral opinion to create new opportunities or to open new pathways to reflect or grow.

A growth booster

At the beginning of our engagement, I take time to explore with you your objectives and your expectations, to outline a clear image of what successful coaching would look like to you. My role is also to keep sight of your ambitions and to use my external perspective to give you feedback. As we embark on our coaching journey, we work simultaneously on your inner resources, on the activation of your talents and on the impact you want to have in the world, while contributing to your development and self-growth.

A call to action

Grounded in human qualities, coaching is a process that serves as an eye-opener and a call to action. Pondering and progress continue outside of our sessions, and it is the activation of your learnings in the real world which allows you to identify what is useful to progress towards your objectives.

How does it all work ?

Coaching is a complete process, which can touch every aspect of our lives.

When we first meet, we define your areas of interest, your priorities, and the results you expect from the coaching process.

Based on what you bring to the coaching session, I provide you with a space and customized exercises to raise your awareness and articulate the objective you wish to achieve.

You always have the choice to accept this offer, to make a counteroffer or to refuse it.

It is a unique opportunity to experiment and play with growth in action. Who knows better than you do what is best for you?

Coaching will demand involvement, courage, and an openness to reexamine yourself, to test new ways of growing sustainably, with a goal to improve alignment and fulfillment.

I trained to become a coach in 2015 in London and Paris and I am a certified ICF coach. I am committed to welcome my clients where they are and to walk by their side through their realizations, with benevolence, and in a trusting space.

Certified by the Co-Active Training Institute, I fully embrace its philosophy because it encourages the client to experiment and connects the “being” to the “doing”.

In today’s world, focused on achievements, I like to stress the importance of who we are and to reconcile know-how and soft skills; it is not only what you achieve but also how you achieve it.

Coaching is about raising awareness. Exploring. Experimenting. Defining your own personal path. Making decisions. Taking action.

Give it a try, the first session is non-binding!