April: Coach Trainer Interview

Meet your peers and their pioneering work within the COACH TRAINING community! Starting with this edition of the newsletter, we will be interviewing a coach training leader from around the world and featuring their work.

 If you wish for a particular coach training school or a coach training leader to feature in our newsletter, please write into acto@actoonline.org and we will ensure that we schedule time with you. Together, let us shine the light on some of the best practices and innovative work that our members accomplish.

This month – we welcome Elgiz Henden, a coach trainer and coach par excellence whose pioneering work in Turkey has led to young adults discovering their unique voice and choice.

1. Tell us a little about your journey as a coach and a coach trainer.

My coaching journey started in 2004. I used to be a teacher and I taught Geography at school. One day in the canteen something caught my attention by chance.  I saw a 13 years old student sitting alone and he looked really sad; this was a life-changing moment for me. When I checked with the student on how he was doing, he opened up to me. As my student expressed himself while crying, I realised how he had bottled up his emotions. The pressure and expectations of teachers and parents were weighing him down which made him feel lost. I listened.  I then asked the student, ‘Now I’d like you to put away all the expectations from others. What is it that you want?’ He was caught off guard by that question. He had no answer. He was always instructed by the parents and teachers on what to do and how to do things, but never asked himself what he wanted.

At that moment I realised that as a teacher my skills were not enough to support the students. I realised that I had to do something, I felt responsible as a teacher for my students. I felt a strong need to learn something new to help and support all students, and that is when I discovered ‘Coaching’.

2. How did you grow your work? What has been your journey?

I started with a small two days coaching training, which did not feel enough to be able to support the students. I then went deep into coaching and that is when my teaching style changed. It shifted from ‘explaining’ to ‘asking’ the students. This inspired the students to think. They started to wonder about themselves and about the world around them. They got more curious and  more connected.

For the next two years I worked as a teacher and a coach. I soon felt the need for more people to ‘coach while teaching’; to help and support the students. With this intention, I wrote about my work, and shared it with ICF, and requested to have an approved ‘Student Coaching Training’ that would be suitable to their guidelines.

In 2009, I started a business for coach training. It encountered many challenges. Due to the lack of awareness of coaching and it’s scientific background in Turkey, we faced many difficulties in explaining the concept to people in Turkey, especially to those in the field of education. Teachers and school managers were not open to the concept of coaching. I had to start from the beginning by explaining what coaching is, things it offers and how it was different from other methods.

In the beginning, people participated in the programs due to their curiosity. However, they soon experienced a shift in their lives when they started to use the skills they learned. They realised how these skills are inherent; however they are uncommon due to their lack of usage in our society. We do not have time to listen and to ask. Coaching means making time for the clients and  your own time as a coach too. One can only imagine the difference it can potentially make, if the time and listening is provided to the younger generation.

In Turkey people are getting to know about my company through other people. We work with thirteen to thirty-three year-olds, as this is the age bracket WHO describes as the young people. Our sessions help the children and teenagers to think for themselves and find their own ways. When parents see the positive impact on their child and how coaching impacts their child at home, they spread the word to others.

3. What is the parallel between Geography – the subject you taught and coaching and coach training?

It is interesting that you ask this. I have transferred my learning from Geography to Coaching. Both fields are similar and act as integrative cross-points in respective ways. Geography is a cross point for all science, human and physical topics. Coaching is a cross point for many social sciences like sociology, psychology, management and leadership. This skill of combining different subjects and knowledge, is what I focus on as a coach trainer.

4. What is your dream? What makes you proud?

I believe that one can achieve perfection by learning different skills. The knowledge is not just for one but can be used by co-creating and through co-relationships. In a classroom there are no teachers or students, but a group who explores and learns together. Contribution and unity are important values for us. I hold a dream of equality where everybody is together. We are all part of a whole. Everyone is connected and we create the world we live in together. In this, we strive for young people to learn the coaching skills and support them to explore their social identities. I want to create a world where youngsters have self-confidence and where their parents give them the freedom to explore and make choices by themselves.

To support this process we work one-on-one with young adults and teenagers, parents and teachers. We work with the social identity of these young people as we believe it is a very powerful tool to change the world and that this can be done by training the teachers and the parents.

It was not always a smooth process. We face challenges when the students’ aspirations do not match the wishes of their parents. This is when I took a stand to support the student and help them dive deeper into what they aspire to be.  We say ‘If one loves their job then they can change the world. If they don’t, they feel stuck and then there is no action. If I change one thing, I can change everything’.  This supports individuals by making them believe in their purpose, and feel authentic. The first step to this should be to help them acknowledge who they are as humans first.  The second step should be the job we choose, where if you are a hairdresser, is hair, if you are a gardener, plants, if you are a teacher, knowledge, if you are a lawyer, laws, if you are an engineer, then technologies are your tool to change the world.

In my coaching life, I have learnt to believe in the person I am coaching. My basic principle in coaching is to always believe in young people. That is where one notices the potential. We give time and attention to bring out their brilliance from inside to outside, which may stay unexplored otherwise. The pandemic and the lockdown period gave people time to think about themselves; about what do they want, how could they achieve their goals. When people think and bring such issues to the coaching sessions, your belief in them as a coach can help them achieve anything.

I am pursuing a PhD in education management. My goal is to have “Student Coaching Training” as a university program for teachers. If the teachers know the coaching skills, it will help teenagers or children connect with themselves and their aspirations.

We have had many success stories, which makes us proud of what we do. I once asked my student about what he wanted to achieve from the coaching session. He mentioned he was in the last year of  college, and by the year 2023 he wanted to work with Ferrari and design car models. Today, he is working with Ferrari. A really proud moment for us.  We believed in him and he achieved his goal. If more and more people move to coaching circles, they can change someone’s world and for this reason  we need more coach trainers in the world and not only coaches.

5. How is ACTO relevant to your work?

It is through ACTO that one meets coaches and coach trainers from across the globe and learns about the many cultures and how they impact different coaching styles. ACTO’s conferences have helped how we as coach trainers can be better at our craft.  Thanks to my association with ACTO, I realised that we may come from different countries, have different cultures, but we are essentially the same. We are all human, with love at our core. At ACTO I have  witnessed people support each other, which makes me feel like I am a part of the global community.

THANK YOU ELGIZ for your time and insights. We wish you the very best!

If you do wish to be in touch with Elgiz, please visit www.izkocluk.com