If we take a look at the professional activity of our collaborator and friend, Coca Staicu, we notice that she is involved in many projects, but due to the calm and tranquility she conveys, she gives the impression that there is enough time for everything.
She is fundamentally a chemical engineer, but she has been trained for 18 years in a dynamic and competitive sector, the pharmaceutical industry, in sales, promotion, and management. Here she gained vast experience and expertise in sales and leadership. Her passion for working with people and understanding their way of thinking and acting led her to first pursue a psychology degree, then a coaching training course, becoming a certified coach in 2015 at the International Coach Academy. Although she oscillated between psychotherapy and coaching, being a person of measurable results and personal performance, she decided to choose the path of developing leadership skills. Thus, her main activity at present is coaching in leadership development, and the spare time she has is divided between life coaching, where she works with women over 40 who want to improve their lifestyle, personal passions, and family.
I think it would be interesting for all of us to get to know her better on a personal level and to share with us her vision and plans.
B.S.: – Hello Coca, I would like to start by asking you to tell me something about yourself, what hobbies you have, what you do in your free time, and if you have a passion project that you would like to share with us.
C.S.: – I have many activities that fill my free time. I really enjoy being in nature, it is one of the main activities, ever since we got Athos, the family pet. After the snow melts, on Saturdays and Sundays, we go hiking, and if I have a free day during the week, I quickly turn it into a nature walk. Nature inspires me in everything I do, helps me gather my thoughts, and often offers solutions to impossible situations. I also enjoy painting, but due to limited time, I have skipped this activity lately. I have also made sketches, but that’s about it. In addition, I read and of course, prepare meals for the family, the latter activity being related to the other area in which I am active – wellbeing. Regarding this passion, I have a personal future project, I have set out to write a book about improving lifestyle, harmoniously combining everything related to mental, physical and social health because all three are interconnected, and the result of this connection greatly influences our lives.
B.S.: – Thank you very much for the complexity of your answers, and now to get a little into the trainer’s area of interest, please tell me, what do you aim for participants to achieve from the leadership course you deliver in the Leadership Land programs?
C.S.: – The courage to be themselves. I have noticed that many of the participants in the course seem hesitant to fully expose themselves, preferring to hide their qualities and keep them in the shadow, probably due to lack of self-confidence. I am convinced that it is essential to be brave to express your point of view, to actively implement the knowledge acquired, thus discovering excellence in the field you work in.
B. S.: – How do you support participants in discovering their own leadership style and how do you help them find solutions when they encounter problems?
C.S.: – Through questions because we always have the answers the moment we are asked a very good question. As a coach, I have encountered many cases where although those in the training room have positive experiences and results in certain contexts, when faced with new situations, they do not realize the skills they possess or the fact that they know how to solve those tasks. Here, if you ask the right question, you help them realize that they are already doing that and thus they gain more confidence and implicitly more value than if someone were to tell them how to do it. Therefore, coaching practice in the training room helps us a lot, both as trainers and especially as participants.
B.S.: – Thank you very much for your answers, and I wish you success in all your projects.
C.S.: – Thank you too.
