"Did you plan your career?"

I'm sometimes asked this question by young people trying to work out “what they want to be when they grow up".? And I can honestly report that I had no idea what I was doing when my career “happened” (well, I wanted to be a waitress, up until about age 20) and I certainly could never have dreamt of the world of coaching, or of becoming a coach when I was twenty-something.

I'm happy to say that I fell into coaching in a serendipitous way, by answering a call for help from two friends in 2002.? I knew Anne Gorman and John Matthews from my meditation center, and my (late, ex) husband and I were close friends of John and his wife Lisa.? Anne and John set up their little company in 1999 and called it the AIEC (Australian Institute of Executive Coaching) in response to a keenly felt need for #executivecoaching in Australia. They already had two or three big blue-chip clients (several of which are still IECL clients today) and an alumni of around a thousand people who had been through coach training in the preceding three years. I was teaching yoga full-time back then so I was in need of some additional funds, just to pay my Sydney rent.

AIEC's office was in Anne's spare bedroom, in Bellevue Hill, Sydney and we ran everything from there, from one desktop computer. The work we were doing was solid and attracted the attention of new investors, Barry Parkinson and Julie Parkinson and Chip McFarlane MCC , in 2003. We moved to the gravitas-filled 343 George Street at the base of Sydney’s beautiful Martin Place and the company began to truly expand, hiring great coaches like Des Doyle and Dr Hilary Armstrong .? My two days a week became three, and in 2005, five. I gave up teaching yoga and worked full-time on managing AIEC's coach training program. Soon we changed our name to Institute of Executive Coaching and Leadership (IECL) (because so much of what we do addresses the L; leadership) and moved beyond Australia, opening offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore and hiring more coaching luminaries like Jill Livesey, Executive Coach , John Raymond (仲睿盟) MSc, PCC and Irene Booth PCC .

In 2006 we gained our ACTP status with the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and in 2015 we partnered with Charles Sturt University to offer post-graduate qualifications in coaching. More incredible coaches joined, including Renee Holder , Tony Mathers and Jane Porter MCC ACTC GAICD and in 2018, IECL was acquired by our parent company, GrowthOps Ltd.

During the lockdowns of 2020 we moved to virtual delivery, allowing us to train organisational coaches throughout the world. In 2022 we have become re-accredited by ICF to deliver ICF Level 1 (ACC) and Level 2 (PCC) accreditation in 2023 and I'm truly excited about the new programs we will offer next year (more on those here).???

So, how’s my career going?? Well, I'm still here at IECL, 20 years later, not by design or by following a plan or even by setting particular goals for my career development.?

It's been more about following my heart.??

Our vision at IECL is for every leader to have access to world class coaching and I can hand-on-heart affirm that I share that goal.? Having read several thousand of our student's reflections on their coach training over the years, I have experienced first-hand how learning to coach creates awareness and change; for the coach, for their relationships (at work - with peers, managers and direct reports - and at home - with partners, with their children, with their friends) as well as increasing organisational performance.? And I'll never tire of seeing a new coach's eyes light up with excitement when they realise "hey, this stuff really works!"

Working with my colleagues and a mentor, and using the support of IECL Membership, I'm working my way towards my PCC, at last (100 hours to go; DM me if you want to discuss some "cut-price" after-hours coaching!)??

I've been so fortunate to be able to get paid for doing work that I love for 20 years.? I don't think I've ever had a case of "Monday-itis", a minute to get bored, or a moment to look at the clock (despite the fact that we used to gaze up Martin Place to the GPO clock tower from our offices).? I can't think of a single IECL colleague or alumni member that I don't like and admire. I can think of hundreds and hundreds that I adore and miss, and many that I get to see every day, even if only virtually; you know who you are!??

I have been fortunate to have been led by some amazing leaders over the last 20 years, including some of those luminaries mentioned above, as well as Tony Mathers , Gabrielle Schroder MBA FAICD , Jane Porter MCC ACTC GAICD and Renee Holder ; huge shout-outs to all the great IECL leaders.

And to all the (countless) IECL superstars, past and present, thank you for being part of my "second family" at work. I'm honoured to count many of you as life-long friends. We know we are truly fortunate to work for an organisation that really and truly does “walk the talk” and put people before everything else (“relationship before task” Julie, every time, promise!)?

To many of those in my LinkedIn network, thank you for being a part of why I love my job.? I can't promise another 20 years, but I'm not going anywhere any time soon; I'm having too much fun!

With love to all the fam,

Mandy

p.s. If you wish you were a part of the IECL coaching family, you can be...come to a free introduction event next week (5th October, 5pm Sydney time) Toni Butler and I would love to see you there (online of course...BYO glass of wine if you want...it will be 5pm on Australia's East Coast and dinner time in New Zealand).??Register via www.iecl.com Home page. And if you're reading this after the event, there is always the next one...

p.p.s.? Sorry/not sorry for the shameless marketing plug; can't help spreading the word!