Ann Rindone, during the ICF Qatar workshop at W Doha Hotel. Pic: Baher Amin/The Peninsula
One thing common among high-performing organisations is not just success, but their intentionality in nurturing a culture of coaching, Ann Rindone, Senior Director for Membership & Global Development of the International Coach Federation (ICF) has said.
Rindone, who has flown in to Doha from the ICF Global Headquarters in Lexington United States, was speaking at the knowledge-sharing event of the ICF Qatar which was held at the W Doha Hotel recently. With an extensive experience of professional coaching, Rindone has led the C-suite (senior executives) and marketing teams through complex initiatives such as defining Company Purpose for a Fortune 500 company, managing cross-functional teams to develop multi-million dollar marketing campaigns, and establishing an award-winning, multi-brand cause marketing initiative.
Talking to The Peninsula on the sidelines of the event, she said, “Based on the research that the ICF does with the Human Capital Institute, high performing organisations are in large part, organisations that have a coaching culture. And that means that they might have not necessarily coaches on staff, but they might have managers and leaders that are using coaching skills. And coaching is a partnership. It’s really about behavioral change and not short-term, but long-term systemic behavior change. And if you have better individuals having good results, the company ultimately has greater business results because you have a more engaged employee. And then the way they engage with other people, it becomes a ripple effect”.
With the run-up to the FIFA World Cup 2022, more companies are coming to Qatar to participate in World Cup-related projects. With this, Qatar is increasingly becoming an attractive destination for professionals seeking to boost their careers. Rindone said coaching can be beneficial to the country’s growing workforce.
She added, “There are a lot of professionals coming into Qatar in particular. And so if those companies that may have experienced coaching elsewhere, know they can tap into this, we can actually help the integration of all the influx of different people, experiences, and companies to really help their general success. And through coaching, you can start to identify what does success mean to me.
Because a lot of these questions we don’t even ask ourselves. Like why do I want to be successful? What does that look like? So coaching can help you first understand what that vision is, what is it in your way of getting there. And identifying barriers requires discipline and self-reflection. Coaching does help to identify these barriers and give you the skills, tools and strategies to overcome them so you can have career success”.
Amidst government initiatives aimed at encouraging entrepreneurship among the residents, Rindone said coaching can also help aspiring entrepreneurs meet their business goals and objectives.
She said, “In this entrepreneurial country and within the entrepreneurial spirit, coaching can absolutely help you develop yourself as an entrepreneur. How can you build your business that will have an impact in the country. And building out the country as a place where people would want to come, live, and work. Especially in a changing society as we’re having, we are a more global society. We’re more connected than ever. But in a lot of ways it seems that we’re disconnected than ever. Coaching is a way to help us to get us to that awareness of ourselves and about our interactions with each other”.
Earlier during her presentation titled ‘Leading from the Core’, Rindone examined the types of challenges women face and how professionals can have constructive, issues-based conversations that go from awareness to action to outcomes, and how to create successful and diverse inclusive cultures that strengthen financial performance.
Over 40 professionals working in various sectors in the country attended the event. According to Dr Clare Beckett-McInroy, executive coach for the Qatar Financial Centre, the ICF Qatar chapter currently has 39 members since it was established six weeks ago. She said the chapter will host eight events in 2019 to foster continued professional coaching, growing chapter numbers, support members in their professional development, assist organisations in their coaching culture, and contribute to social responsibility.
