I met Alina in 2018 when I was recognized as a leadership talent and started following Leadership Qualification Program in order to develop my leadership competencies. I knew I wanted to have a coach but for me, that had to be someone who understands me and with whom I feel comfortable enough to talk openly about myself and my personal goals. After a few talks with Alina, I felt she was the right person and I asked if she could be my coach. At that time, not being exposed so much and without much experience in dealing with high level Management directly, there were many things that were unclear to me. Moreover, there was a challenge of dealing with different cultures since I work in international organization.
Alina and I talked quite often and what I really liked is that she was able to follow all changes in terms of my ways of thinking as well as my goals, since they were subject to many changes that were happening in our organization. When after a certain time, I said to Alina that, unlike the usual type of coaching, where a coach is mainly asking questions, I would like her to sometimes openly share her opinion with me, Alina started doing so. I then realized how much she knows and how much I could learn from her. The two most important topics for me, where I felt I had to learn more, were strategies and diplomacy in business and this is something Alina knows a lot about. With this comes developing negotiation skills to achieve personal goals and grow in my career and this is also something Alina helped me to develop further. She always found time for our talks and through a careful listening, she found best ways for me to learn, such as listening to the podcasts. This worked very good for me and I appreciated that Alina always made a right choice when sharing the podcasts with me.
I perceive Alina as a very smart lady, with lots of knowledge about business, different cultures, strategy, diplomacy and negotiation. She is someone who can help you to have clarity in your mind about the goals you want to achieve and about the strategy you should use. Alina knows a lot about diplomacy and she can help you to be diplomatic in negotiations with respect and understanding of different cultures, which is, in my opinion, crucial to achieve your goals. These skills and knowledge are especially valuable when you want to grow in an international organization.
When I think about myself two years ago and now, I feel that my talks with Alina helped me to understand what exactly do I want in terms of my career, what are the possibilities and how can I achieve what I want or at least do my best to achieve it. I’ve learned how to be more diplomatic and how to understand others better. I’ve also learned how to adjust my goals when necessary and know when my strategy is working in my interest and when I have to adjust it or even change it completely.