• Welcome to ELIA

Coaching – A conversation with a purpose

27 May 2020, 16:00 CET

Coaching is a facilitated and reflective process allowing people to find solutions to often complex decisions both personally and within the workplace. By taking part in coaching sessions, individuals and teams can sort through issues to make choices and create an action plan around a decision. In the business setting, this can result in a more aligned and happier team which is to everyone’s benefit.

Coaching is a confidential, purposeful, carefully managed conversation between two equal participants. The purpose of the coaching conversation is to bring the client to a better place of their own choosing. The coach must help the client to set a schedule for their self-improvement. As one of my mentors is fond of saying “A plan without a schedule is just a dream”. A good coach does not have soft “woolly” conversations. He or she asks the hard questions that nobody else will ask, challenges their clients, never judges them and always supports them. A successful coach must be skilled at identifying underlying beliefs and values that influence client attitudes. If we do not do this, we run the risk of dealing with “surface” issues only, and therefore denying our clients the opportunity to make the real and lasting changes that will take them to that better place. In this webinar, I will:

  • Talk to you about how my own coaching process has evolved
  • Discuss the assessment of beliefs and values
  • What can be done when nothing is working
  • Attendees are encouraged to provide input, ideas or observations

Tom Connolly

Tom spent the first 20 years of his career with Apple, mostly based in Cork, Ireland and including a year in Cupertino, California. He began as an engineer and soon moved into NPI (new product introduction). He project managed the introduction of all of Apple’s new products to the European market, first by means of cross-functional teams, then developing a Project Management organisation that included product engineering functions reporting directly to the Californian design teams. For the last 5 years he was Apple’s European Localisation Manager responsible for 29 languages. He re-engineered the operation, ultimately cutting costs by 50% and improving leadtimes by 75%. Since 2001 Tom has run his own business driving hundreds of projects and organisations across the globe in the Higher Education, Retail (LED Lighting), eLearning, BioMedical, Pharma, ICT and Cryptocurrency industries with a brief foray into snail farming and the renovation of a walled garden, as well as managing the total re-furbishment of his own house. Tom is passionate about Project Management and has delivered training all over the world. His localisation specific activities include:

  • PM workshop at the inaugural Summer School for the Localisation Research Centre in 2001.
  • Delivery of the Certified Localisation Professional programme on behalf of TILP (The Institute of Localisation Professionals) in 2007 and 2008, authoring some of the modules.
  • Senior Analyst and Advisor for the Localization Institute from 2001 until 2008 speaking and training across Europe.
  • With ProZ.com Tom delivered eight live Localisation PM webinars in 2010 and was a panellist at their World Translator’s Day that year.
  • PM workshop at the ELIA conference in Vienna in 2010.

These days, while continuing to deliver training and run interesting projects, Tom is focusing mostly on Career and Life Coaching. He works with clients who are “stuck” in their lives and careers, helping them to take back control and achieve their true potential. Tom has an Engineering degree and an MBA from the National University of Ireland (Galway and Cork); certifications in Train the Trainer and Coaching Models of Practice from QQI, is a certified Project Management Practioner with PMI, and in 2019 was accepted as a member of the Association for Coaching ®. In his early career with Apple Tom was fortunate to be selected for Project Management training in MCE Brussels and a Management Programme in INSEAD, France.

May 12, 2020 at 15:32 by admin Discussion Group
Looking to Become a Member of ELIA?

Subscribe to our newsletter!