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Our graduates each took their own unique path to becoming a coach. However, it is always instructive to understand what motivated someone to abandon the conventional and pursue the untrodden.

About the Interviewee: Vinay Srinivasan

We had an amazing time talking to Vinay Srinivasan, an aspiring Coach. Have this wonderful read about his journey on the coaching path and how he is paving the way.

Vijay is a software engineer. A Bangalore University alumna, Vijay has worked for more than 20+ years with leading companies. He is an experienced DevOps and an Automation, Performance Engineering Professional.

Let’s start with knowing a little bit about your journey till now. How did you start your journey as a coach?

I started on this particular path in October last year. That’s when I took the art and science of coaching by Erickson in October now. Currently I’m working for a company, which is a business analytics practice. So my experience has been in the IT field till now. I am looking after processes and implementation for the organization to standardize those processes. And that’s pretty much the work. I completed The Arts and Science of Coaching, and completed that on the 29th of November last year. So that’s how it started. That way I’m just four months old. And I am on the path of giving my ACC a by the end of this year associates, which is work in progress with respect to that as of now.

Is there any incident that would you like to share that made you feel that you can go on this path of coaching, leaving the ordinary?

That’s interesting. One time I was discussing with my acquaintance, I always had that urge that I should do something of my own. So I was exploring that with this type. He said that why don’t you look at coaching as an option? He recommended to me that why don’t you talk to this particular institution, Erickson International. And I said that, fine, I’ll do that. Let me give it a try. And let me try to explore it.

As I proceeded I just had a talk with the members of xMonks team. I had a discussion with them, I tried to understand. Rather they understood what I wanted. I connected with Gaurav as well just to understand how exactly this coaching journey would be.

This served me as an alternate career. It was per se from a career point of view. Then Gaurav made a very pertinent point when I asked him what exactly would I achieve at that end? He said something that stayed with me. Something along the lines of 1001 reasons why you will be able to achieve how many I would like to know.

He said that it would just help you to be a better version of Yourself. That actually made me think. Somehow there was an instant connection with Gaurav. Before that I had an extensive talk with Archana as well and it resonated. So that’s how I landed on this path.

How would you describe your transformation with Erickson?

As I started with this coaching journey, I thought we will be learning some skills. Typically when we talk of any learning we talk of acquiring some skills. And then we are going to put that particular thing in practice. Infact Gaurav was our facilitator during the course. Gaurav made a very well thought and a very particular point and that resonated with most of us including me.

He said “Journey of a coach is the journey of a human being”.

Before you coach anyone you will have to understand the transformation yourself. Another thing that came in during this process of coaching is about asking some powerful questions.  And before you ask that it is better that you ask yourself. Once we got into this particular course it was exactly a 360 degree reversal. That it’s not about us it’s about you.

As it progressed over a period of time and by the end of the sessions those notes actually produced some kind of magical effect.

That’s pretty much how this course has helped me transform.

What is one belief you broke out of during the journey?

I will be as vulnerable as I can be (which we appreciate). I am the kind of person who starts a lot of things but never finishes. That is typically what I would say I was. And that’s not exactly the observation that I was talking about. What if a client who’s coming with the same set of problems, what do I do? How can I ask him or tell him that you have to do something when I am not doing it.

That is when the shift started happening once during the course and more specifically after the course. The first thing that I thought for myself is I have to get rid of this habit or improve on that habit. I will not get rid of it. I started exploring how I can take coaching to the next level. I enrolled for a few of the other courses on the internet. How can you reach a larger audience and all those things that they again made me make a fundamental shift in terms of my thinking. Slowly but surely that something was happening.

I was not accomplishing much. I was someone who was starting and not giving up. I was realizing that I am actually much more focused. Laser focused I would say and I was completing things. So I started doing that particular course for the last 45 days. I would say I am on a consistent basis. There are some inherent fears that I was having like, “Hey I want to communicate my ideas to the world. Is there a better way of doing that? “

I started writing blogs which I was not doing because of the fear of people. What will people think about me if i go wrong or whatever the case may be. In one of the one class that I was listening to, the person said, the biggest problem that all of us are facing is what people will think of us. Yes. And he said, he didn’t stop there. The other person about whom you are thinking what he will think of us is also thinking the same way what we have and what you will think about him. Like a mirror.