My journeys in Agility, Leadership, and Coaching are intertwined, and they start with these life experiences:
Working with people
I started my career as a software engineer, and even though I enjoyed the logic and problem solving skills necessary to perform the role, something was missing. I only figured out what during my sabbatical.
What initially was a 5-month trip, turned into a 2-year and 5-month travel of going with the flow, trying new experiences, and meeting people from different cultures. My personal comfort zone was expanded many times over. I realised I’m adaptable to cuisines, curious to cultures and custom, and attracted to learn languages. But above all, people. People fascinate me! That’s when it dawned on me: I wanted to work more with people than I wanted to work with computers.
Leading without authority
After my sabbatical, I stared working as a team coach for software teams. This role suited me perfectly, I would still be working with technology and software delivery, but I would be working with the people in technology and not directly with writing the software.
However, the career change was not smooth. I felt the Impostor Syndrome kicking in and made many mistakes. I was on a leadership role without authority. I wanted to desperately help the teams I was working with, but I had the feeling I was not being very successful.
A lot of learnings surfaced from the failures (remember, not all failures are learnings). This is when I started this blog with the intention to capture and share them with the world. One of my biggest learning moments on that team I captured here: Radical Candor. “Everyone has reasons to behave the way they behave, and until we don’t get to know the people and get to know those reasons, then we shouldn’t assume we know what’s truly going on.” At about one year into this role, I felt that my own leadership journey was reaching a milestone.
A burning desire to help others
One of the most difficult times for me, as it was for many, many people, was during the pandemic. After the first few months, when I realised that our fight with Covid-19 was going to be a long one, I was struggling. At that time, I was living by myself, and of course, as an extremely social human, the isolation and inability to see others were taking their toll.
I had a mental breakdown. Went to a health clinic and the doctor gave e a couple of days of medical leave so I could focus on myself. Interestingly, it was one podcast I listened to that helped me start a healing journey which would end up contributing with my coaching journey. The podcast said, and I paraphrase: “if you are struggling, it’s because something you value (socializing/seeing people) was suddenly taken way. There is nothing wrong with you. It’s ok not being ok.”
With this new mindset, this license to not be ok, I was able to start pulling myself up and investing on building a world where I could thrive. When restrictions started being lifted, I started running, I took acting and dance classes, and learned how to sail. And then I found myself in a place that I could help people and teams that were not ok during the pandemic.
And this is when I started my coaching journey, and the third experience that got me here. In one of the coaching training sessions, the trainer was leading a session about helping the client follow their dreams. So she asked us: what is your dream? Without knowing the answer or how to even start figuring out, I started to draw a mind-map. In its center I wrote: Helping others. When multiple connections and ideas started sprouting off of this one central point, I noticed that many of the things I was already doing and many of the things I still wanted to do around helping others.
From working with computers to working with people to being on a leadership role to coaching, I’m here to help you. Help you achieve your goals, unblock your blockers, navigate challenges.