Serban Chinole

A week ago, I arrived in 2 Mai with a bad back and hopes for sun, relaxation and some fresh fish. My back pain was something that reminded me about my age, minutes spent walking or working out, and many other personal failures in the sport arena.

Weather was hot, so we went to the beach and had the usual procedure, sun bath, water, beer etc. In all this usual and repetitive ritual Mihai was the breakthrough. First he fixed my back suggesting some water exercises, later he cooked some stir fry with unique ginger sauce, secret recipe that I am not sharing, BTW this is not a how to blog:)

Today I woke up at 5:30 being prepared for a double action, fish acquisition and massage in Siemens hotel. We accomplished only the fishing part, you can see the witness pictures.

The turbot we found was around 6 pounds, so we bought 4 and reserved 3 more, the Master cook worked for almost 2 hours to cut the pieces for different dishes.

I can only say this: if you have a bad back and want to eat fusion, look for Mihai, he is the One.

There are many good things to mention about this holiday. Meeting my family from abroad is one of them, my nephew gets bigger every day and challenges my sense of humor.

Ebro Delta was that ”new” thing, unexpected, good example of a Nature 2000 area, well preserved, clean, attractive, smaller than our famous Danube Delta.

We choose this place, close to Barcelona, hoping to get some taste of Catalunya, the first impression on the local services was as low as it can get. Many tourists mean for people working there, at car rentals, villas etc, just a flow of income, nothing from treating customers, hospitality and other fairy tales.

Perhaps we get used too much with Turkey, Greece or more recent Bulgaria, make sure you go in Spain to enjoy the wines, food and places, about service, choose a different place.

Am I too demanding? Not at all, the only smile and welcome I heard was in a gas station run by Romanians, so, we can!

Monica Popovici

Monica is sharing authentic bread

This post is less turistic as you may think. It is about people, spirit and connection. Let me explain, back in 1998 when I was still working for a multinational, I had a 2 weeks holiday in Paris. At that time, my impressions where linked to the time spent with my cousin and less about museums or buildings.

Actually I do remember that I felt more interested in watching the recent awarded movies from Oscar than visiting Versailles for instance.

We arrived Tuesday night in a cold Paris, the hotel did not make us the  best impression, the intensity of mold smell combined with lack of heat gave us a false start. The first morning started with a strong coffee and hopes, however the wind made us wonder what is this seasons discussion, we felt like in a late fall. The destinations chosen made us appreciate more the Romanian hospitality, customer service is a foreign language in Montmartre restaurants.

Why do we always have high expectations? Because we visited  other cities like Barcelona and felt much better treated. Slowly we came back in Denfert and found many good restaurants with different people. Tony, for example our neighbor Bistro, was very friendly and explained that they all know each other, I saw them eating together Saturday, even taking a snack on a car of one of the regular clients.

So what is the lesson here?

We belong to communities and when travel is better to lower the expectations and look for normal places, without flashy marketing or intense traffic. If Paris can be number 1 in the world, I wonder if we as Romanians can invite friends from abroad and show them our way.

Just an idea, the action behind this will follow soon in Meschendorf.

Back in 2004 I was browsing the Internet and I found an article about coaching. Being curios I read the whole thing with surprise and resonance. For the first time in many years I felt connected to a missing element from my practice. At that time my consultant career included several projects in major companies and working with managers and sales forces.

First step was to seek some seminars online, more on how to market yourself as a coach, however the shift in my believes regarding consultancy and training versus the new and mysterious coaching was not coming.

I asked Steve Mitten,MCC how can I see this and he suggested to sign in for a Fundamentals seminar in person in San Rafalel, California and this was the moment I had been missing for a life. Needless to say or describe my feelings and new perspectives after this  introductory seminar, since than I had only one goal, to seek new results for me and with my clients.

My first client hired me in 2005, his goal was very important for his new life in Canada. I visited him in 2008 and I saw the house from his vision in reality, all the accomplishments that he had in a few years. I know that coaching is working because I can notice my changes when I receive coaching, so I decided to celebrate my progress in coaching career today.

Let me explain: This year ICF(International Coach Federation) celebrates 15 years of existence and we organize as local chapter the second ICF Romania conference with global speakers and Balkans participation, more than 100 persons in audience.

My contribution to this celebration is a special offer for all the friends and interested persons who can hire me for a month minimum at my original fee from 2005!

Why? Simple, today I was announced that I reached the PCC level (Professional Certified Coach) and I want to celebrate with my new clients at an affordable rate for them.

This celebration will be on a first come, first served basis, limited to 3 months, coaching done via skype or phone. I want to thank all my existing clients, and looking forward to continue the journey.

So?

We learn every day from many events certain things, not always in a nice way. You wake up in a winner perspective, get ready for the meeting you will attend, engage a powerful conversation and leave with a good feeling about yourself.

In the same room of reality, you start to organize a celebration for the weekend, make choices on the guest list, catering, music and imagine the cool feeling of play.

Messages are coming via e-mail, another opportunity, another plan, who knows maybe you can repeat success.

Who is this person? What is his story? Is this his life?

What is missing? Perhaps we love too much our opinions and we can only accept the win. Life is good and sometimes you cannot control everything. It is ok to tell your story from a healthy perspective, and this is called failure.

If you are ready to fail too and keep an empty cup mentality you will be listened.

Enjoy the journey !

The last video message from Tony Robbins was about Sly Stallone and his dream to become an actor, how easy was for him to have this dream and what was the importance of not giving up.

Without pretending that my dream is similar, I choose to share it with you, five years ago while working with Steve Mitten MCC, I was challenged about my dream on coaching and development of this new profession in Romania.

The early days looked similar with ICF global story, I traveled to Timisoara and participated in a discussion with potential team members for ICF Romania, the resistance and skepticism I found made me wonder if this is a good idea. After all many new things started there, however in the coaching case we were asked what is the benefit of participating in this common project.

I did not take this personally, somehow two persons were open to support my dream so in August 2006 we opened the local chapter. The years after we grew up as a chapter slowly and many times I wondered if all the obstacles are part of this journey. Now I know and I want to acknowledge the effort of the active members and the accredited ones because they honour their commitment to themselves and coaching profession.

I also want to thank Alain Cardon,MCC, who develops coaches according to the ICF 11 competencies, also Gerard O’Donovan who kindly accepted our invitation last year in our first conference.

We celebrate the 15 years of ICF global by launching the 2nd conference and we benefit from 3 fantastic speakers, join us in our dreams, come with yours and let us see the resonance.

Two years ago during ICF conference in Montreal I had the honour to see Vandana Shiva

speaking about the importance of seeds. At that time I was not aware of her work, or about the importance of original seeds. Take a moment, and ask yourself how much of the food you eat now is natural and has organic base. It is useless to say that food is food, and it is not important if we still eat organic tomatoes or vegetables, if our flowers that we love and give to our wives, mothers and friends are from our gardens, if the eggs and meat we buy have hormones and chemicals inside.

Spring is here and if you have a small garden you can choose to start a small organic garden, there is a seeds bank in Romania who can provide organic seeds if you convince them that you want to grow organic vegetables.

What is the link with coaching?

Let me explain, 15 years ago a group of enthusiast people in US decided to start a non-profit organization, called ICF. In the early days they were around twenty people, today ICF has more than 16.000 members, over 150 chapters in more than 45 countries. It is offering the only global recognized, independent credentialing program. This process is based on eleven competencies to support understanding the coaching profession.

The way of working in every country is like having a small organic garden, every member of the local chapter participates to the greater effort of educating the market, of course one person at a time. Last year our local effort was globally recognized in Orlando in the section for small chapters with global spirit.

This year in Bucharest we will benefit from the wisdom of three recognized international coaches, Andrew Atter, Alan Seale and Alain Cardon.

We invite all the ”organic” seeds of coaching from Romania and Balkans and why not Europe to join us in celebrating 15 years of ICF and 4 years in Romania.

I dedicate this post to my wife Raluca, also business partner, coach and friend.

We both graduated in 2007 Coaching Training Institute, and I remember how I sold her the idea, in the first two days of her Fundamentals, she called me saying that coaching is not for her. In the last day, somehow she recovered and became motivated to continue.

The context for starting a new career was not very good, she was busy with our daughter Ana, and thinking on going back to her corporate life.

First clients were enough to make her change her mind, and despite the tough and unknown market, she is now coaching C-level and High Potential executives.

How easy is to be in coaches family? Well, if we just ask each other using our tools, action does not take place, is just like having two opposites forces. The good part is that we can agree on our commitments and have precise boundaries.

In my last working group, in a coaching exercise, when I shared my project for this year about ICF Romania 2nd conference, one of the managers asked me: so, Serban who is organizing this event, my wife I answered, and everybody laughed, and then I was asked: what about you?

My answer was: I am in charge with strategy. So it is nice for me to design a nice plan and ask questions the project team, but  I am confident because she is in charge.

I still recall the days I went to my first CTI coaching training. CTI approach is to help you absorb what is like to be a coach through an experience.

Woaw, what an experience. I was shattered by that experience. I found myself with the choice of getting to be a COACH. At that time I was a successful salesman at Microsoft. I chose to be fulfilled over comfort and to grow by being a coach.

It was quite a journey. A hard stretching one. If I would have known how hard it is, I would have considered more before leaving the comfort zone. But here in the learning zone is the place where the growth happens.

After more than one year I managed to have my record revenue month. Besides the personal coaching I am having I  coach a team of Sales Management Executives in one corporation and there is one more about to be signed.

What helps you?

Choose the right niche, built a strategy, use your inner strengths exercised wherever you live and be in constant contact with your spiritual part.

Now guess what are some of the coaches biggest problems?

• Clients, how to get them? How to choose a niche and how to deal with it?
• Find resources that would make the human in the coach and  client transcend all these problems?
• How do you coach in the corporate world?

Does any of the above sound familiar to you?

If you are curios how to get to be a professional coach, how to coach in the corporate world and how to tap into the infinite resources reservoir you are at the right place, in the right moment. Join us at the International Coaching Federation - Romanian chapter 2010 conference. If you consider that you want to get the answers click here.

In  the last two weeks I had a chance to work with three groups of managers, to discuss with some prospect clients and to work on launching the ICF Romania 2-nd conference.

What is my learning point? The only way to project and make yourself clear about what coaching is and why is considered one of the best ways to achieve change and results long term, is when you practice.

Talking or promoting is not enough, selling is even worse, however when you embark in a coaching journey no matter in what format you are in a different reality.

I heard comments on the recent Oscar awards, and many reported disappointment for Avatar score. I wonder why, my answer is simple, many of us have fantasies and avoid what IS.

The Iraq war is reality and we like to believe that this will not happen to us, the analogy I see here is that people are determined to pursue fantastic outcomes, but will avoid what is here NOW.

Five years ago I was wondering if coaching can change lives, now I measure the results, and boy, the journey is just starting.