Case
Personal Learning Journey
Individual Learning Process
Narrated, in the first person, by Andreia Costa | Digital Manager | Adagietto
It is not coaching, it is not mentoring, it is not counseling. What is it?
We challenged Andreia to write about her experience. We could not be happier and prouder with the result.
The images were chosen by Andreia, and they were created by two artists that, by an extraordinary coincidence, we love and follow at Way Beyond: Christoph Niemann and Wasted Rita.
At the beginning of the year, I embraced a new position: coordination of the Digital Department at Adagietto. Besides already having some qualities and competencies for the position, it was important to have a focus on the training part and a better notion of leadership. This was the starting point to begin the individual learning process with Way Beyond.
It started with a session between me, Miguel Moreira Rato, CEO of Adagietto (who proposed this training) and Sónia from Way Beyond. This session aimed to be the kick off of this process, during which each of us shared our expectations and what we would like to happen in 6 sessions, in which Sónia and I would work together.
Honestly, I really went with no expectations and not knowing what I was going for, as it was the first time I would be in one of these processes, moreover "customizable" to the point of being individual.
Unfortunately, with the covid-19 theme, I only had one face to face session, but still, remotely, everything went beautifully and the conversations flowed better and better, session after session.
The first reaction was: "ok, this is going to be hard to read", because it is not every day that we know what people think, see and feel about us, inside and outside of work. On March 26, I received the document and I immediately went to read it and tried to identify the people who had given certain answers. I read it three times in a row. I stopped and closed the document again.
In the next session, Sonia and I talked about the Public Identity Questionnaire (PQI) in brief, my first impressions, little did I know that I hadn't really read it seriously yet. Sonia asked me to analyze and reflect on the QIP and fill out a reflection paper.
This was when I really read it with different eyes and a different attitude. I read things that I had not seen in the first three readings. One of the findings was that I did not listen, I made monologues when talking to people... And this, besides being a discovery, created some discomfort for me, honestly.
I talked to Sonia, we both went through the reflection I had done on the QIP, and this issue of me not listening to the other worried me. About this, what I remembered that would be a good exercise, and after sharing and discussing some ideas with Sonia, was to create the "Andreia Listens": conversations with people from the department I coordinate, in which I would just listen. A good exercise for those who, like me, when the other person is still talking, I already have a thousand answers on the tip of my tongue and end up really stopping to listen.
Sonia also shared her perception (from my listening) and we came to a conclusion: this homework I did helped, no doubt.
One of the points I shared in the first session that I would like to be worked on was my dependence on others to make decisions.
The process helped me a lot in this regard, again, to better build feedback, and to improve the thinking process and the preparation for any topic.
After two months, I feel more confident and I have a much more disciplined and structured attitude towards issues.
Another thing Sonia did, was to open my "pandora's box" (as I told her at the time) about the leadership styles that exist and how I should adapt a style to different situations and people, and what is the impact of that!
Definitely, the document that Sonia shared with me will be "food for thought" for quite some years.
There will never be a model that can be applied equally to ten people, nor to similar situations, each case is a case and each person is different in different situations and environments.
This course/workshop/coaching, is called Individual Learning Process, and yes, it had a focus on helping me with leadership, but it went far beyond that.
It has helped me relate better to others, communicate better, organize my feedback, my posture, and in preparing for any task, be it work or even conversations in personal life.
Everything that was discussed, throughout these two months, was an important contribution for me, Andreia, as a person. People are more than what they work on and where they are. People relate daily with each other and communication is the basis of everything.
The main thing I will keep from this learning and these sessions is how important are the relationships and the communication with each other, the feedback we give to each other greatly helps in relationships and in everyday life.
It was undoubtedly an experience that marked me professionally and personally and which I will carry with me for a long time."