Designed with organizations in mind, the Atom Wave ICF Level 1 certified course for Internal Coaching is the only program in Greek specifically designed to integrate internal coaching within the organization. It equips participants with professional coaching skills for use in organizations, as well an operating framework that will allow them to combine professional coaching services with their functional role. 

Internal coaching is the offering of coaching services provided by professionally trained certified member of the organization, who undertake coaching assignments with colleagues outside their line management responsibilities to support their professional development. The Internal coaching process is supported by the organization.

Internal coaching is one of the most effective strategies for creating a coaching culture, supporting organizational transformation, and increasing agility.

For more information contact us at: info(at)atom-wave.com

Contact us for Registration or visit here to get additional information.

• Date: Friday 13th & Saturday 14th March 2020

• Language: English

• Location: Athens (Centre - Venue TBA)

• Cost: 770 Euro / 700 Euro if member of ICF or EMCC

• CCEUs: 10 ICF CCEUs

Atom Wave team together with Lizzie Crudgington of Bright Green Learning and an in-house team of 32 people, designed and organized the 1st Corporate World Café in Greece for Eurobank.

In less than 6 hours, 150 participants fully engaged and discussed a series of 4 key Solution Focused questions about the business future, shared practices that have worked, brainstormed ideas and put all the findings together, created an action team which got started for implementation as of the day after. How did this happen?

So here are 3 tips that can help you ease large groups into meaningful discussions so that they can benefit from sharing each other's wisdom.

1. Engage - It is not so much as to what happens during the actual meeting, it is the before that counts. Organize a core team that will participate in the whole design of the meeting. Beyond the obvious of sharing work and assigning roles, this is more about involving the core team into co-creating a meaningful outcome about the meeting.

One of the solution focused questions we always make is: Suppose this meeting is meaningful, how will you know? How will your people know? Your boss? Your clients?

When the core team has ownership of the design and the process, then they communicate their support and engagement to the participants and this helps the process become more productive.

2. Excite - If we want participants to bring in this meeting their creativity, their whole self, we need to pass a message of positive climate and openness. And this is something people get from the "warmth" of the invitation, the set up of the room with music and rotunda tables with checkered tablecloths, from the tone of the facilitator but more essentially from the communications with the representatives of their own organization.

3. Prepare - prepare - prepare - as they say in facilitation. In World Cafés, discussions take place in small groups of 4-6 people and for each question/round, participants change tables and get to work with a whole different team. At the same time, a team at the back of the room is simultaneously processing the output from all tables and filters key points, while a graphic recorder is capturing these key points and creates a graphic representation of everything said. So this whole meeting looks like an informal happy gathering, with busting energy, rich output but has a lot of work behind it. Key things to do: create succinct questions that will hit the mark and make people think beyond the obvious, plan what everyone will be doing, set up an agenda that will have everything to the minute including everything even the unexpected.

At the end, participants said they had never imagined they could have done so much work in so little time. I would say that we feel very thankful we had the opportunity to introduce the World Café methodology of discussion in the Greek corporate world through Eurobank!

The program designed was a Solution Focused Mentoring program that moves beyond the traditional mentoring concepts of "downloading advice" to the concept of "hosting genius".

Atom Wave has pioneered the design of formal mentoring programs since 2002 designing programs with:

• Defined purpose,
• Selection criteria for mentors and mentees
• Training in developmental solution-focused conversations
• Defined duration and monitoring
• Outcomes with ROI

How are Solution Focused questions different from Problem Focused? Why are they Better? How to craft them? 

Join Olympia Mitsopoulou, Christiane Kosub and Alan Kay at this new experiential webinar about how to craft Solution Focused questions that orient to a resourcefulness mindset of opening up possibilities and how the SF questions differ from more problem focused methodologies. 

Please fill in your Registration details here.

The presentation gave an inside view about about Eurobank’s journey in Developing a pool of Internal coaches, the organisational framework put in place to support the sustainability of internal coaching, about the measurement methodology of the program's business results and how it was designed to fit for the organisation needs from the perspective of both Atom Wave (provider) and Eurobank (Client organization). The session was co-presented by Ms. Alexandra Flilippidou, Talent Development Manager at Eurobank, and Ms. Olympia Mitsopoulou, Atom Wave Founding Director and Program Designer.

The Eurobank Group, a dynamic banking organisation active in seven countries, with total assets of €64.0 billion, 15,846 employees and a total network of 897 branches. The Group offers a comprehensive range of financial products and services to its retail and corporate customers. In Greece, Eurobank is one of the four systemic banks. The Group also holds a strategic position in retail and business banking in Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia, as well as offering offers distinguished Wealth Management services in Cyprus, Luxembourg and London.

Πως μπορείτε να αξιοποιήσετε τους δικούς σας Internal Coaches;

Οι εφαρμογές ποικίλλουν καθώς το internal coaching μπορεί vα υποστηρίξει¨

• τη βελτίωση συνεργασιών
• τη βελτίωση συγκεκριμένων δεξιοτήτων 
• το career management,
• τα προγράμματα leadership,
• το Τalent Development
• τον μετασχηματισμό Agile του οργανισμού σας,

Με βάση τηv εξειδίκευση της Atom Wave στο lnternal Coaching διαμορφώσαμε μια ενδεικτική λίστα με τα DOs and DOn'ts του lnternal Coach. Καντε κλικ για να κατεβάσετε το INFOGRAPHIC Do's and Don'ts - Ελληνικά

H Atom Wave είναι η πρώτη εταιρία που σχεδίασε Πιστοποιημένο από τον ICF, πρόγραμμα ACSTH ειδικά για το Internal Coaching.

Για περισσότερες πληροφορίες για το πρόγραμμα Internal Coach Certification ΕΔΩ

Not surprisingly, 85% of organizations report at least one failed Change Management initiative as per the 2018 Human Capital Institute (HCI) & the International Coach Federation (ICF) research "Building a Coaching Culture."

In the same research, people were asked to report the change management activities they have used and how helpful they have been in achieving the change goals.

Accordingly, people within organizations report as most helpful to have access to a professional coach whom they can confide, someone who is going to listen to them, empower them, with no agenda. They also want support as a group, to deal with the different dynamics and learn from each other and finally, they want their senior management out there, to communicate with them, and to listen to what is actually happening.

Ironically, those initiatives that are listed as the least efficient, are the ones that are the most applied. Easy, we herd people in a classroom, tell them what to do and done with it, or even better let's have everything in a shorter time as a micro-learning or also via technology, here more money saved, for now…

It may be that key decision-makers don't really care about the long term effects of poorly managed change onto business results. After all, stock price and profitability have to be reported every 3 months, no time for a long time. However, for those who do care for the company's future, there is more and more evidence proving the link between a strong coaching culture and organizational performance.

• Organizations that were assessed to have strong coaching cultures had leaders with stronger Management capabilities.
• High-performing* (HP) organizations have two times stronger change management capabilities and stronger coaching culture. 

*High Performing organizations were the ones that met the highest criteria of Talent AND Business outcomes.

Quite merely, coaching helps actualize all those changes planned on paper, because simply people don't want change that is imposed upon them, they want Change that they have helped co-create.

Until now, 1to1 coaching in organizations is mainly offered by external coaches, i.e. Executive Coaching for senior leaders. Apparently, there are many good reasons to have external coaches for this seniority level but its high cost can't make it accessible to large numbers of employees. So what about the rest of the employees? As per the 2018 Global Leadership Board research, the Top Challenges reported by CEOS are related to developing people. The first one reported by 64% of the 1000 participating C-level executives is "Developing Next-Gen Leaders" and the second reported by 60% is "Failure to attract/retain Top Talent".

Hopefully this is reflected in that 59% of organizations plan to build their own teams of Internal Coaches. ("Building a Coaching Culture" - 2018 HCI & ICF research)

It essentially means that an organization prepares and certifies its own team of professional coaches, who parallel to their current role, support specific individuals in the organization through coaching.

As almost everyone who has managed people or has attended some coaching training self-proclaims to be a coach, there are some DO's and DON'Ts of Internal Coaching and here are some key points for efficient Internal Coaching service that will not backfire and "burn" the concept of coaching within the company:

• Internal coaches are professionally trained and certified.

• Individuals supported by coaching are not reporting in any way to internal coaches.

• The internal coaching service is supported by an organized operating framework linked to the organization's strategic objectives.

Internal Coaching, gives access to coaching and its benefits to larger numbers of employees, in a shorter time and with lower costs.

Internal Coaching "democratizes" Coaching and helps people respond to Change because Organizational Change is about KPIs and Coaching is about the people who will implement it.

Recent research* indicates that ONLY 37% of leaders rated the quality of their organization’s development programs as high or very high while another** reports that 88% of organisations would like to be able to calculate the ROI of their coaching programs.

So we can either opt for explaining to business how complicated it is to evaluate the effectiveness of Coaching (which is true!) …OR measure what can be measured and come back with some much needed numbers!

This ICF Denmark Chapter webinar is about how coaching programs can showcase their significant and visible business results. It is about how the ROI of coaching can get evaluated. 

We will share a practical Solution Focused methodology - the Zoom IN - Zoom OUT model, and how it was applied at an organisation to identify the tangible business outcomes derived from Leadership Coaching, and how these were monetized to calculate the ROI of the coaching delivered.

Date: Wednesday, September 5th 2019

Time: 1 pm (CET)

Title: MEASURING THE ROI OF LEADERSHIP COACHING

Cost: Free

Register here to reserve your seat today!

All ICF members will receive 1 CCEU.

* The Global Leadership Forecast 2014|2015 is part of the continuing series of trend research conducted by DDI’s Center for Analytics and Behavioral Research (CABER).

** 2016 Ridler Report

Κάποιος μπορεί κιόλας να αναρωτιέται "γιατί να απευθυνθώ σε έναν coach αν δεν μπορεί να μου βρει μια λύση;" Διότι απλά, αν υπήρχε λύση να "βρεθεί" θα είχε ήδη βρεθεί! Όταν κάποιος έχει ένα "πραγματικό" πρόβλημα δηλαδή κάτι που θέλει να επιλύσει και όχι απλά να γκρινιάξει για αυτό, ασχολείται με αυτό το πρόβλημα. Το σκέφτεται, το συζητά στο περιβάλλον του, το επεξεργάζεται. Ο ρόλος του coach είναι να υποστηρίξει τον πελάτη να προοδεύσει περαιτέρω σε ένα πρόβλημα στο οποίο έχει εξαντλήσει τις προφανείς λύσεις.

Η λέξη "προοδεύω" έχει την έννοια του προχωρώ βήμα-βήμα και δημιουργώ μια επόμενη καλύτερη κατάσταση. Ο coach, μέσω εξειδικευμένης εκπαίδευσης και πρακτικής εξάσκησης, γνωρίζει πώς να στήσει ένα πλαίσιο συζήτησης που θα βοηθήσει τον πελάτη ή coachee να δει το θέμα του από νέες οπτικές γωνίες, να αξιολογήσει και να αξιοποιήσει τα πεπραγμένα του, να συνειδητοποιήσει όλες τις επιλογές που διαθέτει, και να επιλέξει την επόμενη του κίνηση με βάση το δικό του επιθυμητό μέλλον.

Το coaching δεν βρίσκει λύσεις, διότι οι λύσεις δεν βρίσκονται... δημιουργούνται! Στους οργανισμούς, οι άνθρωποι δέχονται τις αλλαγές στις οποίες έχουν συμβάλλει.

Even in the most open minded and trustful organisations, an executive will find it difficult to “open his heart” and fully disclose “areas for development”. After all, how one can be sure that this opening up to an internal coach/HR person will not negatively impact their next promotion within the organisation.

Our latest ICF ACSTH  certification course is exactly about Internal Coaching.  One of the main prerequisites of a coaching relationship is confidentiality, but when you as an internal coach have to play a double role, maintaining confidentiality can be hard. On the one hand, you have your current responsibilities within HR, you have to take decisions about people future, you know future plans, and on the other hand, you undertake coaching assignments with internal clients, abiding by very specific ethical rules. Thus, balancing an HR role together with an internal coach role is a form of art.

Internal coaching is on the rise. According to the latest 2016 Ridler report, internal coaching accounts for 39% of the total coaching volume delivered, just behind external coaching that makes up the 42%. Moreover, 75% of organisations expect internal coaching to rise within the next 2 years.

So...more and more organisations are training their own group of coaches so as to generate greater benefits for their people. It is no doubt that internal coaching is beneficial in multiple ways.

1.    Internal coaches know the organisational culture from within and can readily understand the ins and outs of a coachee's topic.

2.    They are more readily accessible. Scheduling a coaching assignment with them takes lesser time than setting up a session with an external coach.

3.    They are a more affordable choice than external coaches.

However, If the ethical considerations of internal coaching are not addressed, it may not be so beneficial anymore. It will probably continue to exist, but it will be regarded as one more developmental chore, something to get over with quickly. Thus, the opportunity to actually support people’s development through coaching may be lost.

Beyond abiding to ethical rules, confidentiality needs trust building between the coachee and the coach. In the case of Internal coaching, it involves setting clear expectations and defining the boundaries of what can and what cannot be discussed. For instance, would the coachee be able to discuss an offer from a rival organisation, and how would the information be treated internally? Also what would HR do in case of conflicting feedback from the boss and another employee? What processes would be followed and how transparent will they be?

In a nutshell, it’s about putting together an operating framework within organisations through which internal coaches can deliver high quality services and move seamlessly and ethically between the role of HR and an Internal Coach.

The following list includes some of the key elements to consider when offering an internal coaching service:

• Clarify the roles and accountabilities of: Internal coach, Coachee, Line manager, HR representative(s) and communicate these explicitly between all involved stakeholders.
• Set a transparent process of the steps involved in the Internal coaching assignment: from coachee intake to the closing of the project.
• Minimise ethical barriers by matching coachees with internal coaches outside hierarchical lines.
• Include in the Contracting procedure what topics can and especially what cannot be included within a coaching assignment.
• Communicate within the organisation what coaching is and how it is differentiated to other forms of services like training, mentoring, consulting, psychotherapy.
• Adhere to the Code of Ethics of one or more of the major professional bodies for coaching (indicatively ICF, EMCC, AC).
• Have in place a Complaints procedure that will allow coaches air concerns related to the coaching they received.
• Last but not least, give your internal coaches access to supervision to get support as to how to navigate successfully between the two roles.

If you would like to talk about developing your coaching skills as a leader or about how we might work with your team or group, contact us for more information.

This webinar is about our methodology to identify tangible business related outcomes of Leadership Coaching development programs, how to quantify and calculate business impact and ROI.

Recent research* indicates that just 37% of leaders rated the quality of their organization’s development programs as high or very high while another one** reports that only 7% of top ranking executives are really satisfied with the effectiveness of their company’s leadership development programs.

So we can either opt for explaining to business how complicated it is to evaluate the effectiveness of Leadership Development (which is true!) …OR measure what can be measured and come back with some much needed numbers!

Olympia Mitsopoulou will run a 1,5 hour Webinar on April 23rd at 7 pm (GMT+2) in GREEK.  

During this webinar session you will get a step by step methodology on how to measure the effectiveness of a Coaching Leadership development program. The session will be based on a real client case.

This webinar is addressed HR and L&D managers interested in measurement of business impact and measurable results of Coaching development programs.

Date: Monday, April 23, 2018

Time: 7 pm (GMT +2)

Title: BUILDING ROI INTO LEADERSHIP COACHING DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS

Register here to reserve your seat today!

* The Global Leadership Forecast 2014|2015 is part of the continuing series of trend research conducted by DDI’s Center for Analytics and Behavioral Research (CABER).

** Matthew Gitsham et al., Developing the Global Leader of Tomorrow, Ashridge Business School, July 2009, ashridge.org.uk

The Internal Coach Certification program has been created with the vision of offering state of the art coach training specifically addressing the challenges of Internal Coaches within organisations. Upon successful completion of all program requirements, participants have more than covered the training requirements by ICF for the ACC credential. Within the whole program, they additionally receive mentor coaching hours, supervised practice with real clients and a fully tailorable toolkit with everything needed to set up an internal coaching operating framework within their organization.

Some of participants' comments about the program experience:

Its structure, the way you get to practice the theory that you' velearnt, the inspirational coaches of the program who are there in every step of the way to support us, combined with the actual knowledge you get on how human potential can be unleashed in the working environment, are some of the most important aspects that made this program an incredible experience for me.

Elpida Labrinidou- Head of PeopleRewards, Eurobank

What keeps me committed to the program is the way the coachees correspond and the look they have after a coaching session. The solution focus coaching makes them understand what they have accomplished on their own and what they are capable of doing.

Panos Bougiokos - Head of HR Business Partnering Int'l & Audit, Compliance & Marketing - Eurobank

Using solution focus methodology helps you to delve deeper into a person's issue and shows the path for improvement/change without making any reference to the problem itself at all. As a coach you need to focus on the person's strengths & achievements, trigger the proper questions and the solution is there coming straight away from the coachee himself/herself it's amazing!

Bilalis Nikolaos - Head of HR Business Partnering Central Units - EUROBANK

The Internal Coach Certification Program is offered as in-house or as a public course in Athens and in Lausanne. Next cycle begins on the 6th of November. For more information click here or contact Olympia Mitsopoulou at olympia(at)atom-wave.com

Είναι ο καιρός των Development Plans και μιας ακόμη πονεμένης ιστορίας! Κανονικά τα στελέχη θα «έπρεπε» να περιμένουν αυτές τις αναπτυξιακές συζητήσεις με το HR με προσμονή, συχνά όμως η πραγματικότητα είναι ότι αυτές καταλήγουν διαδικαστικές, γίνονται για να κάνουμε άλλο ένα “tick the box”.

Πως μπορούν οι συζητήσεις για τα Development Plans να γίνουν ακόμη πιο ουσιαστικές; πώς μπορεί ένα στέλεχος HR με επαγγελματική εκπαίδευση σε Internal Coaching να διεξάγει αυτές τις συζητήσεις διαφορετικά;

Στο Webinar της 20ης Ιανουαρίου, θα μοιραστούμε τη δικιά μας μεθοδολογία διεξαγωγής συζητήσεων για τα Development Plans σύμφωνα με τη μεθοδολογία Solution Focused Ιnternal Coaching που διδάσκουμε στο πρόγραμμα “Certification in Internal Coaching”, πιστοποιημένη εκπαίδευση ως ACSTH* από το ICF.

Συμμετέχοντας σε αυτό το webinar θα μπορέσετε να πάρετε μια γεύση από το πρόγραμμα Certification in Internal Coaching, ACSTH από το ICF που ξεκινά στις 24 Φεβρουαρίου 2022.

* To πιστοποιημένο από τον ICF (Internal Coaching Federation) πρόγραμμα “Certification in Internal Coaching” προσφέρει 60 ACSTH ώρες  (Accredited Coaching Specifc Training Hours) δηλαδή όλες τις πιστοποιημένες εκπαιδευτικές ώρες που απαιτούνται για το επίπεδο διαπίστευσης ACC (Associate Certified Coach).

Δηλωστε Συμμετοχη ΕΔΩ!

The key design considerations to design the internal coaching program for Eurobank will be presented at the EMCC 24th International Annual Mentoring, Coaching, and Supervision Conference will be held in Amsterdam, Netherlands from 11-13 April 2018 by Olympia Mitsopoulou and Marialexia Margariti. Moreover, the business results and ROI of 40 internal coaching session together with the methodology incorporated in the Atom Wave Internal Coaching Certification Program will be presented.

Is there a way that you can become a more productive team member, a more inspirational leader, or a better person overall? Indeed your genes harbor a great amount of information in addition , to your  environment which also teaches you so much as you grow up.  How much of your behavior has been a result of genes, and how much of it was influenced by your surroundings. Is there any way that you can find out? The answer lies in a combined analysis of your saliva sample and a psychological self-assement

Karmagenes, a Swiss biotech, has come up with an innovative way of determining the contribution of genetics and the environment to your personality traits. Using a sample of your saliva, their advanced molecular analysis methodologies identify the link between genetics and 14 behavioral characteristics like innovation, spontaneity, strategy, risk taking, decision making,  confidence, stress tolerance, calmness, optimism and self awareness.

Some facts about the DNA

Your DNA plays a great role in pre-defining aspects of your personality . It is found in every cell of your body, and is mainly located in the nucleus. Your DNA stores all information in a code, which is composed of four bases: adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine, represented by A, G, C and T, respectively. These bases total to about 3 billion.99% of different people’s DNA bases are identical, yet you all are unique and have your own unique DNA features, due to variation within 10 million bases of our genome. The order of these bases is important because it contains specific  information about you. This is analogous to alphabets, which can be arranged in different order to form different words.

The bases in your DNA occur in the form of unit pairs; A combines with T and C is linked with G. Each of these is attached to a phosphate and sugar molecular. Together these three form a structure, which is referred to as a nucleotide. These nucleotides are present in the form of two spiraling strands, called the double helix.

The link between your genes and behavior

Genes and behavior are simultaneously studied under behavioral genetics. Your genes alone do not control your behavior, but instead, they enable you to respond and use what is around you. Environment may also influence the manner in which your genes act. Environment does not only refer to your physical surroundings, but anything that excludes inherited factors. Typical environmental factors which can affect your behavior are your family, friends, workplace, and individual experiences in your everyday life. The nutrients, hormones and even the toxins in your body are also regarded as environmental factors. please be careful here, it may get confusing

How does the Karmagenes Analysis or Technology or Innovation combine with Atom Wave Executive coaching?

Karmagenes algorithm creates your personalized profile using the behavioral information extracted from your DNA tests and the KG5+ physiological assessment. Your 14 personality characteristics are then linked to specific, relevant genes and your KG5+ results so that you know the contribution of both DNA and the environment to your personality. This information can be valuable for discovering one’s own strengths.

The test can highlight areas where you thought you were not so strong and discover you have these in your DNA. For example one of our coachees said after taking the test: “I found out that based on my DNA I am far more strategic that I thought I was and it was an area that I had underdeveloped so far. Only knowing that I have this in my DNA has already made me act more strategically”

At Atom Wave, we propose this analysis to those who are in a career transition phase and every one who wants to look at their skills in depth and make the most of them. Discovering ourselves is a big journey and having the opportunity to find out about our DNA is exciting news!

For more information contact us at: solutions@atom-wave.com

Sounds interesting?

Learn more about the business results of our brand new Solution Focused Internal Coach Certification program by visiting us   on October 4 - 5, 2017,  Espace Start up (Halle 2), Palexpo Geneva. Contact us to reserve your free entrance ticket HERE.

Our brand new Internal Coach Certification program has been conceived and designed with the HR Internal Coach in mind. It is a  Solution Focused certification program for internal coaches only, designed to equip participants with a set of comprehensive skills to coach confidently within their organizations while simultaneously get prepared for individual certification. 

The Solution Focused Internal Coaching Certification program features a carefully designed in person training spread in three modules over a six-month period. During this time a Mentor Coach supports learners in the process of mastering all the coaching tools and at the same time the latest technology of the Practify social learning platform, contributes to the creation of learner community and exchange of experiences. By completing the full training program and all the assignments successfully, internal coaches earn their Certificate in Solution Focused Internal Coaching and get the 90 Coach training hours.

At the Salon RH 2017, we also have two special half hour presentations scheduled at 12:00-12:30 on Wednesday October 4, and at 15:15-15:45 on Thursday October 5 – Espace Start up (Halle 2).

We will be presenting a client case study as to how Atom Wave designed and implemented its Internal Coach certification program.

Contact us to reserve your free entrance ticket HERE.

The client is the Eurobank Group, a dynamic banking organisation active in seven countries, with total assets of €64.0 billion, 15,846 employees and a total network of 897 branches.

The session will be led by Ms. Alexandra Flilippidou, Talent Development Manager at Eurobank, and Ms. Olympia Mitsopoulou, Atom Wave Founding Director and Program Director. The presentation will be about Eurobank’s journey in Developing a Credible Internal Coaching Program. For more information about the presentation HERE.

Visit us at the Genève Salon Resources Humaines (Salon RH 2017), on October 4 - 5, 2017,  Espace Start up (Halle 2), Palexpo Geneva.

Συνάντηση Feedback.... μια πονεμένη ιστορία! Ακούμε... "ζητάω feedback και δεν μου δίνεται.", "μου εδωσε feedback μόνο για τα αρνητικά, δεν βλέπει πόσο προσπαθώ!", "νταξει, ξεκινάει με 1-2 καλά και μετά αρχίζουν τα αλλά...", "τι να σου λέω τώρα, δεν γίνεται τίποτα..."  και πολλά άλλα είτε από την πλευρά του υφισταμένου ή του προϊσταμένου.

Με γνώμονα την μεθοδολογία coaching Solution Focus, θα δούμε πώς μπορούμε να δομήσουμε μια διαφορετική συζήτηση feedback, μια συζήτηση που να οδηγήσει στην διαμόρφωση επόμενων βημάτων πρόοδου που να πηγάζουν από τους αξιολογούμενους, που να είναι ουσιαστική, όχι μόνο για να συμπληρωθεί κάτι στο "σύστημα".

Συμμετέχοντας σε αυτό το webinar θα μπορέσετε να πάρετε μια γεύση από το πρόγραμμα Certification in Internal Coaching, ACSTH από το ICF.

With 10 exciting participants from Nestlé, Eurobank, Loréal, Imerys, Hellenic American Education Foundation, Interamerican and job roles from HR director to Credit Control Manager, and co-trainer/coach my colleague and friend Marialexia Margariti, it was a rich workshop with constructive experience sharing around the all time “puzzle” of team collaboration.

Solutionize^TM your Team, aspires to be the first of its kind, in the sense that it has a Train-the-Leader format that equips participating leaders to apply Solution Focused Team Coaching to their teams as of the following day but also with practical tools that can be used in isolation. More importantly, participants say that they left the course with a new approach towards people, the Solution Focus!

Although the Solution Focus term, may not sound a lot like a “term”, it is in fact about a new way of thinking, a new way of asking questions and a different way of listening to others and spotting resources and strengths instead of looking for the gap.

Watch our 2 minute video to get a short introduction.

Next Solutionize your Team, will take place in Lausanne on the 17^th and 18^th of March, 2016 together with the highly esteemed colleague, mentor and friend Alan Kay who will fly to join us all the way from Canada! Looking forward to it!

For more information about the next Solutionize^TM your Team workshop visit page or download the brochure from here.

• coach or engage one’s team;
• co-create an appealing team objective;
• maximize contribution;
• and agree on concrete next steps to accelerate team progress.

As a free taste of the “Solutionize^ΤΜ your Team” workshop that will take place on the 23 & 24 May in Lausanne. Olympia Mitsopoulou and Alan Kay will run a 1-hour Webinar on March 2^nd.  

This webinar session  “From Managing Projects to Leading Teams” focuses on a team coaching tool designed for leaders who wish to build a better team using an engaging objective that the team really wants! 

The webinar and the workshop are exclusively designed for:

• Senior managers who wish to find ways to make their team more collaborative, innovative and stimulate more initiative and
• HR Executives who have their own teams or coach teams within their organization

Date: Tuesday, March 2

Time: 1 pm (GMT +1)

Title: From Managing Projects to Leading Teams

Cost: Free

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Στα 30 χρόνια της καριέρας μου, δεν μπορώ να θυμηθώ εποχή που το coaching να είναι περισσότερο σημαντικό! Ο COVID και η ανασφάλεια που προκαλεί, όξυνε την ανάγκη για coaching, αλλα το coaching δεν είναι σημαντικό μόνο λόγω COVID. Η αστρονομική ταχύτητα των αλλαγών, απαιτεί να ακούμε ο ένας τον άλλον για να χτίσουμε τις δικές μας ρηξικέλευθες λύσεις, καθώς δεν υπάρχει πια κανένα "manual" από το παρελθόν.

Επειδή όμως το coaching "πουλάει", έχουμε coaches παντού... ακόμη και στο THE VOICE!! Κάποιοι θα πουν ότι αυτό αποδυναμώνει το coaching, προσωπικά το βλέπω ως μεγάλη ευκαιρία! Ο πολύς κόσμος εξοικιώνεται με την ιδέα, και εμείς στις επιχειρήσεις επενδύουμε στο πραγματικό coaching γνωρίζοντας ότι απαιτεί εξειδικευμένες γνώσεις, εργαλεία και κυρίως μια στάση εμπιστοσύνης και σεβασμού. 

Χτίζοντας μια ομάδα πιστοποιημένων coaches δίνεται η δυνατότητα σε όλους τους εργαζόμενους να λαβουν υποστήριξη για την καριέρα τους, για την ανάπτυξη των δεξιοτήτων αλλα και για την αντιμετώπιση προβλημάτων που σχετίζονται με το stress της τηλε-εργασίας, των ωραρίων χωρίς δομή και της ελλειψης επαφής μεταξύ άλλων.

Tο internal coaching διεξάγεται μεταξύ του στελέχους του οργανισμού που έχει εκπαιδευτεί ως επαγγελματίας coach και ενός εργαζόμενου του ίδιου οργανισμού.

Tα ενδεικτικά οφέλη του οργανισμού που παρέχει μια εσωτερική ομάδα εκπαιδευμένων coaches είναι:

ΠΡΟΣΒΑΣΙΜΟΤΗΤΑ: Συνήθως απαιτείται αρκετός χρόνος μέχρι να ξεκινήσει ένα έργο coaching με εξωτερικούς coaches, καθώς χρειάζεται να εμπλακούν διαφορετικά τμήματα και να ενεργοποιηθούν πολλές εσωτερικές διαδικασίες. Στην περίπτωση του εσωτερικού coaching υπάρχει μεγαλύτερη αμεσότητα πρόσβασης δίνοντας τη δυνατότητα να λάβουν coaching  περισσότεροι εργαζόμενοι.

ΣΦΑΙΡΙΚΗ ΑΠΟΨΗ: Καθώς ο internal coach προέρχεται μέσα από τον οργανισμό, γνωρίζει και κατανοεί την κουλτούρα του οργανισμού, το περιβάλλον εργασίας του coachee, την ιστορία του, τη δομή του τμήματος και πού ανήκει στον συγκεκριμένο οργανισμό.  Έτσι μπορεί σε σύντομο χρονικό διάστημα να διαμορφώσει μια σφαιρική άποψη για τον στόχο ανάπτυξης του coachee.

ΚΟΣΤΟΣ: Το κόστος του Internal Coaching συμπεριλαμβανομένων όλων των σχετικών δαπανών (διοικητικά έξοδα, εκπαίδευση και εποπτεία internal coaches κ.α.) είναι σημαντικά χαμηλότερο συγκριτικά με το κόστος ανάθεσης σε εξωτερικούς coaches και έτσι έχει ένα υψηλό ποσοστό Return on Investment – ROI.

ΔΕΞΙΟΤΗΤΕΣ ΗΓΕΣΙΑΣ: Οι εσωτερικοί coaches αναπτύσσουν επαγγελματικού επιπέδου δεξιότητες coaching που εφαρμόζουν όχι μόνο στους εσωτερικούς πελάτες αλλά και στις ομάδες που διοικούν με αποτέλεσμα την ενίσχυση μια κουλτούρας coaching.

Εκπαιδεύστε και εσείς τους δικούς σας Internal Coaches που μπορεί να προέρχονται είτε από το HR, είτε απο άλλα τμήματα του οργανισμού οπως το Agile transformation, τις Πωλήσεις ή το Business Development.

H Atom Wave είναι η πρώτη εταιρία που έχει σχεδιάσει εξαρχής πρόγραμμα πιστοποίησης σε internal coaching από το ICF. Ο επόμενος κύκλος εκπαίδευσης ξεκινά στις 18/2/2021.

Για περισσότερες πληροφορίες εδώ.

And seriously, although long-suspected, now there is hard data indicating that high-trust teams perform better than the rest. Check out the latest Great Place studies. "30 years of research, in over 40 countries around the world, has shown us time and again that investing in a high-trust workplace culture yields distinct, tangible business benefits. Our studies of the 100 Best Companies show that great workplaces enjoy significantly lower turnover and better financial performance than industry peers.

Read more: Benefits of Great Workplace Culture

Trust is an important foundation for empowerment for all types of relationships, from parent-children, teacher-student, husband-wife, leader-team. In every team, each member is testing the waters to find out how to play within the team, what is allowed and what is not, what are the rules of the game.

When trust is absent, people feel a lack of “protection” to express their view. Therefore they shut down, keep up defenses and only participate partially, focusing on telling their boss what they think they want to hear versus what their true opinion is, playing along the “Naked king” story.

They also lack “permission” to venture out and create anything of real value. In order to innovate, one has to step out onto thinner ice, going into the unknown with an explorer’s curiosity and courage.

So how could that change? As in all relationships, change can go unnoticed for long, and in business this is not good. We need accelerated action! A leader needs to discuss this trust issue openly and address it anew with the team, to be ready to listen to his team, receive feedback and co-create with the team a new "desired future" state for the team's trust level. One of the first great tasks of a leader then, if he wants full participation of those around him, is to create that zone of psychological safety that says, “You can speak up here and you will be listened to respectfully, and you can also think and act creatively.”

Something you can use as a team leader is to address these two simple questions to your team:

Protection: What do you need from me and the other team members in order to feel safe to express yourself?

Permission: What do you need from me and the other team members to feel free to try out new things?

• On a scale of 1-10 where are we now as a team?
• What are we already doing well?
• How can we move one step further?

And a final note, if you really want to build trust in your team, don't just invest your team's time and money on building wooden bridges and jumping ropes, probably it is better to go out for dinner, and chat together instead.

Trust in teams is not about being nice to each other, it is about working more productively together.

Olympia’s expertise is in Solution Focused coaching of productive teams, creating collaborative conversations that lead to action, designing innovative programs for coaching skill's training programs with measurable ROI (Return on Investment) and consulting on building structured mentoring networks within organizations. Olympia has developed and implemented development programs for over 400 client corporations internationally.

You can find information about this program here. Follow Olympia Mitsopoulou on LinkedIn  here.

We worked with client projects in three continents and seven countries, launched our new team coaching programs, presented our ROI work on coaching in international conferences and in the media, redesigned our site, our logo, and above all ...

A big thank you to...

• all our clients who trusted us with their teams, and with their dreams for their future perfect,
• all our wonderful colleagues at Atom Wave, at Solution Focus and international collaborations who trusted us and shared with us their expertise, and their inspiration,
• all our providers who handled all our last minute requests with flexibility and creativity,
• and of course our family and friends who stood by us, gave us their generous support and wise advice.

The following project involved working with pharmaceutical sales people in the field, i.e., during client visits.

1. The project role involved shadowing the team. How was that useful to the sales team during visits?

A “shadow” can be useful when it is a “good” shadow, an empowering one. While I was there, I first had to play the role of the little invisible doctor so that I wouldn’t attract the lights and stop being a shadow. My role was to detect what each medical rep was doing well during each visit and tell them what I saw. So after each visit, I would let them know of all the elements of the sales visit that had impressed me. Amongst these were their in-depth know-how of the products, their resilience present despite the limited time with the doctor, the ingenious links between the doctor’s needs and their products, and lots of others.

I suppose you can imagine their initial surprise when we came out of the first visit (I did four visits with each one) and I started telling them what I noticed and was impressed by and nothing else! So they all looked at me and asked “And what else? What should I do better?” And I said, “I don’t know. I am just here to tell you what I see you doing well.” Then we continued to the second visit and all I asked was “what would be an indication that this visit is going in their desired direction?” Then, again, I gave them my resource feedback and this is how we rolled out the whole day. At the end we had a coaching conversation with each person about what they wanted to work on and how they will “experiment” with this until our next session.

2. While sales people have products and services to sell, they also build relationships and trust by listening to the customer. How do you see Solution Focus being useful in the sales person’s role?

http://www.atom-wave.com/SF is liberating sales people from the inside Gremlins haunting a sales visit. The element of noting small positive changes can help a sales person on what they are doing towards the desired sales direction instead of self-whipping and eventually losing one’s motivation.

The “traditional” sales coaching is around feedback that points out some positive behaviors (they usually have to be outstanding to receive positive feedback points) and then emphasis is placed upon things that need to change ie. More open questions, better listening, handling objections, etc. So in order to get a “good” grade, a sales person has to score a list of points running a sales presentation – Opening / Need Questions / Presenting, etc. But again, how predictable can a sales visit be? And even if the doctor allocates the desired 20 minutes to them, how productive is it to have a sales person who acts like a live robot? I don’t argue that sales steps are not required, we all find good use for them, but Pharma selling has overdone it. It seems like the strict scientific nature of the product has influenced the nature of the selling process itself to more “rigid.”

So, SF behavioral sales coaching addresses experienced sales people who wish to move a step further in their sales results. It is about how to talk to the doctor with genuine curiosity and ask real questions, questions for which answers are not known.

3. If I were interviewing the manager of your client’s sales team, what would this person tell me was most useful for the team about your Solution Focus shadowing?

The manager was impressed by the power of resource feedback and how this enabled his team to open up within a couple of hours. Although he was the project champion, he was also a little sceptical about this SF project. It was quite different from anything they had done before, it was not traditional training and the process was not clear.

The project is not completed yet, but I had the chance to ask the manager about his thoughts so far and he reported that his people said that what they experienced was completely different from what they expected – they thought that I, as a coach, would TELL them what to do and of course this did not happen. AND they said that this conversation with me, during which they were “talking so much,” was thought-provoking and insightful.

They have all started changing and experimenting with new approaches to their sales as reported by the manager.

4. In both the banking and in the pharma cases, what pleased you most about using Solution Focus to help the clients make progress in their work?

• I enjoy the joy of the client when we have the resource talk and get so much detail about what I notice them doing well.
• I enjoy the surprise when they expect to get the “BUT… “ after our resource discussion and they don’t get it.
• I enjoy my client’s transformation when they get “infected” by the SF way of thinking from negative focus to strengths.
• I enjoy the gleaming eyes of people who finally feel appreciated for things they do well that are usually taken for granted.
• I enjoy when the participants said they became a better person and better parents by applying the SF principles to their children!

Finally, I enjoy that, through the work as an SF practitioner, we can bring visible business results and ROI.

http://frymonkeys.com/sales-shadowing-in-pharma-sales-an-application-of-solution-focus/

Το επόμενο πρόγραμμα ξεκινά στις 18/02/2021.

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