What do you love about coaching?
I love that I am able to help set people free in the same way that coaching continuously sets me free and helps me to operate more effectively.
I love that I never know exactly what is going to happen in coaching session or what the person I'm coaching will discover about themselves. While it's normal to have "ideas" about what might happen it's usually something else I'd never have predicted.
I love that moment when a new realization creeps across a client's face and they realize not only that far more is possible than they imagined, but that they know what to do next. In a moment, they are no longer stuck.
And I love that I'm continually learning through my own work with my coach and the unexpected discoveries my clients have.
How do you unwind?
I prefer not to unwind. I seek to be unwound at all times. Peace is one of my most important values. Stillness in solitude is one of my favorite things to do. I make sure it's a part of every day. I believe everyday stress and drama are optional activities we choose to participate in or not.
When I'm not coaching or recording podcasts I like to walk and downhill ski. I also enjoy maintaining Linux servers to do a variety of tasks, including hosting Minecraft worlds I play in with my son.
What inspired you to work with CTG?
I was introduced to Brad during my time at Red Hat. I love CTGs long history and connection to Red Hat. I didn't hesitate at the opportunity to put my extensive open source software experience and personal development expertise to work with CTG's clients.
John Poelstra
Executive Coach & Facilitator
It seems that my whole life has been about discovery, searching, questioning and clarifying. It started with managing and completing financial statement audits as a CPA, led to testing software and managing software releases as project manager, and online marketer for a well-known cloud computing platform.
Half way through my career I was disillusioned with the path I was on and worked with a coach to find something better. Through discovering my personal values I landed on part of my mission that I live into every day which is “bringing order chaos and clarity to confusion."
Along the way I mentored and managed teams of people while questioning what I saw, seeking to make sense of the world around me. Some people saw this as skepticism. Eventually I saw it as one of my super powers to reach the essence of things.
Rather than suppress or ignore my feelings, I followed them. I used the tiny inklings I had to inform the actions and experiments I took. From that, new paths began to unfold. One path opened up around coaching by signing up for an intensive, world class coach training program. It was rigorous, challenging to my core—and transformative. An idea I was initially very skeptical of.
I changed as a result of this program and I became convinced I could help others do the same. As I dived into bringing order and clarity to the chaos and confusion of my life and career I’ve learned, and deeply believe, that we can't get something new or change a situation until we ARE different.
By that, I mean we must live into and BE what we want to have instead of KNOW more about it through the illusive, tempting path of knowledge acquisition.
I help people BE the person they want and need to be to in order to achieve what they want in any situation.
My professional certification and training as a Certified Professional Co-active Coach (CPCC) is with the Co-active Training Institute (CTI). I'm also accredited through the International Coach Federation (ICF) as an Professional Certified Coach (PCC).
Delighted to have John featuring as a regular of The Lockdown Sessions podcast in Episode 16, 31, 40, 52 and 64. Details of how to listen and subscribe can be found via our Leaning Lounge page.