Rzeczpospolita
October 2007

Katarzyna Lorenc was interviewed by Grażyna Raszkowska

You graduated from the faculty of economy, not psychology or pedagogics. You are not a therapist either. Where does the interest in psychology, in its practical side-coaching, come from?
I graduated from economy and I specialized in strategies of organizations. I approach coaching in an economic way-looking for efficiency. I discovered that application of coaching significantly increases efficiency of managers and in result-efficiency of their teams and organizations. Coaching searches for areas which-if improved or enhanced-release new possibilities of acting. Efficiency of coaching is measured through the change in behaviour, e.g. when the manager used to be passive when it came to relationships with people, closed themselves in their office, avoided workers and then started to communicate with them efficiently and without fear. This is the required change. It all depends on what we want to achieve. It may be about restoration of previous professional activity or preparation for a new role in organization.

You cooperate with people who are at least on middle management level. How many managers have participated in your program so far?
Among the ones I cooperate with are mainly companies' presidents and departments' directors. Last year it was 13 persons on top management positions.

What did they expect?
They wanted to better manage their workers, time and efficiency.

How do you manage to convince a serious president of a big organization that you are able to teach them something?
I know that I am an expert in my field. It provides me with self-confidence during talks and initial meetings. Time works to my advantage. Moreover, the manager-before deciding who they are going to work with-usually has a number of people to choose from. During such meetings we establish the rules of cooperation and-either somebody decides to follow them or not. A coach who is aware of their role would not start cooperation with a person who has reservations about coach's qualifications or simply dislikes them.

And when contract has already been signed, do you ask your client: what do you want to achieve at work?
Yes, although it happens that something must be changed not at work but in family life or attitude to health in order to notice a change at work.
This is a self-regulating system and coaching is a holistic process. I often hear: I need to improve the relationships with my team as they are really bad. And it turns out that this particular person needs to change their attitude to people in general, not only to employees. Or they may suffer prom professional burnout and react badly to any obstacles, e.g. when they cannot cope with their emotions if somebody has carried out some order differently from their expectations.

How often do meetings take place?
Once or twice a month. And between the meetings it is important to do the tasks which are prepared by the coach individually for the client. Sometimes it requires a little change in behaviour or doing something else, not practised before. It may also be about reading a book, doing a test, filling in a chart, there are different kinds of tasks. It may as well happen that I propose a change in dressing style or in hairstyle. It is important that the task creates or enhances required behaviours, being a stage on the way to achieve the goal. There is a rule in coaching according to which the coach asks questions and the manager tries to find the answer. It happens that when someone answers one question it moves all the coaching session many steps forward. It also means that we deal with a safe process, as everybody outlines such a border in the change they want to achieve which is good and sufficient for them in any particular moment.


Katarzyna Lorenc was interviewed by Grażyna Raszkowska