Stuti Sahajpal
Co-Founder and Coach
My coaching approach draws strongly on my personal and career experiences, as well as my core values and beliefs.
Reflecting on my personal and career journey, it has been one of constant evolution. At each stage, I made conscious decisions to make a transition, based on three key elements. I believe that these are important ingredients for any successful personal change or self development, and I would like to partner with clients to enable them to explore these:
· Awareness: understanding what drives you - what you value, what you believe in, what you enjoy and/or do well
· Clarity of context and choices: analysing the situation, being clear on your various options
· Trust yourself /be True to your values: better self awareness lends itself to understanding your values clearly and I think this then helps your instincts to “speak out” when something does or doesn’t feel right. It takes self confidence and sometimes a leap of faith to trust your instincts in certain situations, especially when the logical approach doesn’t back this up, but having seen it work out in a couple of situations has helped me to recognise the importance of this element
You might have spotted that these elements spell out an acronym: ACT. This is consistent with my natural tendency of moving forward through change. However, I’ve learned that change is most sustainable for most people when it’s based on small steps/actions, and also that where decisions are concerned, the important thing is that a decision is actively taken, even if it’s to do nothing different. This is how I would qualify what might appear to be quite a directive summary for a coaching model – do something or nothing at the end of coaching, but make the choice actively, based on self awareness, logic and instinct, and make the actions realistic and manageable.
Although this model guides my overall approach as a coach, I strongly believe in a core ethos of coaching – that the client is resourceful and has the abilities (wisdom, expertise and experience) to achieve their own solutions. Coaching is the opportunity for you to explore and learn for yourself.
Therefore, as a coach I see my role as one of a partner - “dancing in the moment” with the you as a client to provide a balance of space and support for you to explore your path, listening actively with authentic curiosity and questioning appropriately when it serves to help you to challenge yourself to dig deeper. I won’t tell you what to do or provide direct advice, as I trust that you have the ability to learn about yourself and understand and make your choices given the right space and time - ultimately what’s right for me isn’t necessarily going to be the same for you.
I have a strong value of helping others and I sincerely hope that a successful coaching relationship will help you to achieve your full potential in a way that is authentic and feels right and sustainable for you.