Understanding the Power of Executive Coaching, Chat With Virginia Molet

Yasi: Virginia, welcome to the Fast Track podcast. 

Virginia: Thank you. Thank you for inviting me Yasi. 

Yasi: And now in your past 10 years and more as a professional in big companies, and also you have lived in so many different countries and. What made you change from being business development? As I have know from you, when you told me before, and also in recruitment employee development, and now as an executive coach, why did you make a career change? 

Virginia: Everything started when I move in my transition from sales and business development to recruitment and employee development.

 I had been 15 years in sales and business, and I started with my father in a property in his business property agency in Madrid. And then in my last corporate company. My former company is the biggest private education company in the world. And I had always worked in sales, but then in my last role, I was offered the recruitment and employee development director.

So I accepted that and I felt that sales and recruitment have a lot of similarities. And you have the same rhythm. It’s a lot about people. Gold. I feel very confident with that. And then, but the employee development was completely new for me. So on the first day my new role, I was asked to do a StrengthFinder test.

So that was the first time I did a personality test. I fell it super strange to be locked in a room, analyzing my personality. So, you know, after so many years in sales, training is very, very, to the point direct and very dynamic. So I thought, I wondered if I had made the right decision, but then. The StrengthsFinder gives the results in 24 hours. So the day after to that I looked at it, my natural talents, and that made a huge impact on me because it gives you your strengths. And I had never reflected on that. So I realized that, you know, there were, there were like aspects and a space that I was not putting as much attention as I should and energy.

it’s a space that I love and where you usually are better than average. I need to see for you to stand out. If you work on those from those strengths. That was the beginning. That was the kind of the starting point and my introduction to the personal development world.

My journey of self-awareness started there. 

Yasi: This new career opportunity that’s provided by your previous employer, you, you found your natural talent. You kind of feel that it’s for you, 

right? 

Virginia: Yes. Yes. I felt I was, I was very curious. I was very curious. And for the first time it was not about me and my goals.

It was always about helping others to reach their goals and I have worked a lot with trainings and it was about developing others and teams. That was the first step. And then a year after that, the pandemic, he tower industry, he was traveling and education. So I kind of sense what was coming and the changes that it started to happen in the company.

And I hired a coach. An executive coach. What I wanted from him was more mentoring. I wanted him to help me with my CV, with my interview mock-ups and to prepare for my career change and for, that transition. I was very lucky. I found a super competent professional, very, very intuitive.

And after a few sessions, he made a super powerful question. I cannot articulate exactly now, but a very, very powerful question. Like, what is your obstacle? What is preventing you from express your full potential. There was a super long silence. And when came up with the answer.

I realize a lot of things from that. that self-awareness made me change. My attitude made me, realize many things and then I knew that powerful effect came from from a technique because he was not in their first session. we were already in the third session and I became very curious about that.

and I really appreciated that and I thought, I wish I would have known and I would have, had those answers before. In my career because, you know, I went through some challenges in the past and I wish I would have had that. So it was very, really revealing. my curiosity brought me to a two day introductory course I loved it.

And executive coaching course. And then I, I follow that, course with a four month, practitioner diploma And that’s how I started with my practice clients. And that’s what I’ve been doing the whole past year. 

Yasi: I want to ask for many of the audience out there who have not heard about, or who have not experienced executive coaching, how would you explain to them, what is executive coaching? 

Virginia: Executive coaching is the process of learning and development. Be signed to improve the performance of the executives.

 Are there to that improvement to happen, there needs to be some change. It’s a positive change. So there is growth and there is positive change. And the change is usually related to, attitude to perspectives or to behavior. for that to happen, there are many techniques and many ways of, routine that point, I think that would be a good description for those who are not very familiar with it. So it’s coaching in a business context 

Yasi: and the who can benefit or who should benefit from executive coaching.

Virginia: everyone needs a coach I didn’t invent it. It was bill Gates. I heard it, uh, uh, last year, uh, in a video. And I think it’s very descriptive. So everyone, everyone needs a coach. You need someone to give you a perspective to, to help you raise that self awareness for things to happen and to change and to improve.

there is a a big misconception, people think that you need to have. performance problems. So you have a performance problems and then you need a coach not to solve that. But actually there is very little that coaches can do. If you have a performance problem, the coachability is really low if that’s the case.

So it’s on the contrary. The excellent coachability is for those who set high standards for themselves, for those who are. We lean to improve, to learn to self develop those who, take any piece of advice, no matter where it comes from to improve, to reach their goals.

So that’s, that’s the excellent coachability. Plus if you have a motivation to be coached, Then that’s the perfect profile.

Yasi: My understanding is that, uh, it’s not about when you have a performance problem, then you look for coach, but also for people who want to improve, who want to progress and learn, they can also benefit from executive coaching, 

right?

Virginia: Yes. that’s the great profile, the perfect profile

Yasi: Why should someone find a executive coach instead of, you know, reading books? And, um, there are lots of resources online, or the other resources, what’s the benefit of having a executive coach, a person instead of other resources?

Virginia: If we compare an executive coach to a book, so a book is gonna have a very. narrow topic. It’s going to have a topic, that is probably going to be very interesting, but an executive coach is not only about one topic you have as many as, as there are.

So we have all the techniques to help professionals or the executives to reach their goals. the beauty of coaching is that it’s very, very short-term. So you usually have a high level goal, you come to the session we thought more detailed goal. Okay. It depends on what you bring to the session, what you have in mind, as I said, the beauty is that the program usually has a beginning, a middle and an end. So you know where you are in that process you should be able to take out something out of each session. it’s, really effective. there are so many topics that you can bring to that, to the session, or you can bring to coaching.

So coaching can give you clarity. If you need clarity in a career change, for example, you can be coached on balance. Or fulfillment, or you can be coached to learn something very specific. there’s so many, so many topics that you can bring. the keys that the coach is a sounding board.

Then there are different styles, of coating. But, but all of them are more or less were more or less the same where you have a goal and then you have a structure.

You have a technique in order to reach that goal, but self-awareness and perspectives. two very important concepts

Yasi: by reading books is one way learning, but with the executive coach, you are with a person. So it’s more personalized and it’s two way communication to help you in your personal situation to grow.

Virginia: Oh, of course you have feedback There is a work between the sessions that the client usually that’s and it’s a lot richer. And more effective of course. 

Yasi: And right now, who are your clients? 

Virginia: so I have, now I have individuals and usually my programs are six to 12 sessions. I have very different clients now that I will have in three months.

Yeah. In 12 weeks. But now I have a senior executive, for example, Who I’m coaching in more imbalance and fulfillment. Um, I have someone who had a long maternity break he’s willing to go back to work after a few years of rake taking care of her tiles. I have a marketing professional?

Who wants to explore, and know her self-awareness Hare had behaviors at work and she just wants to unlock her potential. She knows there is something that, is blocking she just wants to explore that. 

Yasi: So it’s people from different industries and different backgrounds, but all, uh, have a go to.

Kind of go back or progress within their career. Like in professional progression, 

Virginia: it’s coating in a business context. Right. And in the end, sometimes you need to treat and you need to look, other aspects, personnel aspects, because maybe they are affecting also your professional behavior.

But it’s, uh, usually the goals and the topics and it’s business-related and usually an executive in pure executive coaching. There is a first, I start, there is a triangular relationship. So you have a first meeting with the sponsor of the company. The client and the coach, and usually we follow the client’s agenda, so they coachee’s agenda, but it should be aligned with the company’s agenda.

Yasi: Oh, okay. Besides individuals, it could also be initiated by the company who wants to develop their own employees and They look for executive coach and then help their employees too. 

Virginia: It’s an executive coaching. It has only the three elements, the three elements. So it’s the company, the sponsor and client and coach.

The sponsor can be, maybe it’s a company that has a program for senior executives. I think now the companies are realizing the importance of coating more and more, is not only for the top executives bad. You also have coating programs for new managers, for example, 

Yasi: and then without a sponsor, can individuals still work with executive coach?

Like you directly without 

the sponsor? 

Virginia: Yes. They can. Yes. 

Yasi: If someone wants to experience executive coaching, um, how kind of work with you?

Virginia: They can Google my website, Virginia mollett.com they can contact me. They can send me an email, they can send me a WhatsApp. I would be very happy to have, first chemistry call first. Well, I explained my services, my methodology, and the client, the potential client explains their situation.

And then we see if we are a good fit if we agree that we are and there is coachability, then we schedule the six or a 12 programs, 12 session programs. 

Yasi: Oh, that’s 

great. Because then for, for the potential coachee, he, or she can also figure out if it’s, um, you know, if it’s something they’re looking for.

So I really like the, the first core methodology, but in your, in the first core core, do they need to prepare anything or do they need to, is it like a mini coaching? 

Virginia: No. No, it’s, it’s, it’s a chemistry call is shorter than a coaching session. Which is usually 90 minutes, but in this call we just know each other and the client explains like high level topics.

then me, in this case, they coach explains the methodology and how those topics, you know, how coachable are there because in coaching we have, some boundaries. it’s not therapy and it’s not mentoring. I’m still a period thinker. I’m very lucky that I can stay. I, I can still pure coating.

So, it’s important that the client understands this, that we explain these before we started, the sessions is not, mentoring is not therapy, it’s not psychology. And we explained what coating. 

Yasi: So I will leave all the links, especially the links of your website in the show notes. And people can also connect with you, uh, like by emails, like you said, do you have any social media accounts that you want to share with the audience? 

Virginia: My main social media source is LinkedIn.

So I can share that with you too. 

Yasi: Okay. 

I also lived there in the show notes. thank you very much for telling us, so explain it to us. What is executive coaching and our hope for the audience who wants to progress further in their career, or even progress faster to improve themselves? It’s a great option to hire executive coach or try it out themselves.

Thank you for telling us today. It’s a new concept, I guess, for some people. 

Virginia: Thank you very much.