Rania Abu Rabia

MCC CAPP CPLP

She works with senior leaders, coaches and facilitators, helping them adopt progressive mindsets & develop transformative skill sets that are simple, research-based, applicable and impactful. As a result, they are more productive, have higher self-awareness and responsibility, enjoy healthier relationships and have more influence in the way they live, work, love, parent & lead. Rania does this through conducting leadership programs and coach development programs, mentor coaching, executive leadership coaching, storytelling, blogging, vlogging & writing

Rania is the first certified Dare to Lead^TM facilitator from the MENA region. She is an International facilitator for ATD certified programs and for UN WFP leadership programs in the EMEA region

Her expertise in leadership is in progressive adaptive leadership, executive presence, systemic intelligence, leading by connection, as well as leader wellbeing and flourishing. She has over 25 years of executive experience, having worked in senior leadership positions in multinational organizations in Canada, UAE, and Egypt

Rania is President of the ICF Egypt Chapter. She is the first Arabic female MCC (Master Certified Coach, ICF) and a registered ICF MCC mentor coach. Rania designed the first ACTP program in Egypt, Life Coaching Certification Program (LCCP), and is a faculty member of the LCE Coaching Academy. She also designed and leads the Certified Positive Psychology Coaching program (CPPC) and the Team & Group Facilitation Program (TGFP)

Rania is a Certified Professional in Learning & Performance (CPLP) as well as the first Egyptian Certified Applied Psychology Practitioner (CAPP). In addition, she is a Professional in HR (PHR), a certified MBTI® practitioner and a LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® facilitator. Rania graduated from Canada with a BSc in Computer Science, specialized in Forensic Engineering

In 2016, Rania started the “Stories Worth Spreading” initiative, through which she shares inspiring stories of Egyptian leaders and in 2017, she was recognized as one of the top 50 most influential women in Egypt. Rania is currently working on her first book due to be published in 2020

Rania is passionate about many things in life, most of all her children, travelling, adventure and deep inspiring encounters!

Context

𝐒𝐢𝐱 𝐏𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐂𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠

A conversation revolved around changing behaviors, doings and actions are fruitful, yet more often than not, it only provides temporary relief. Masterful coaching involves practices that bring about deeper soul reflections, embodying a coaching mindset, and focusing on the inward transformation of the being that allows for the creation of a seismic shift, enabling mindset and perspective shifts and habit changes focused on sustainable growth.

Masterful coaching essentially involves a shift away from the structure, models, steps, and formulas; and towards the practices of presence and being in the moment to enable the conversation to ignite insights and learnings that transform action at the root. In the process of masterful coaching, a shift occurs from behavior modification to inward transformation.

In this one-hour webinar, we together, with Rania Abu Rabia, explored 6 practices – when we, as coaches, can practice consistently to shift our coaching “being and doing” towards masterful coaching.

Keynotes

The journey of becoming a coach

The journey of becoming a coach takes us into two domains:
1. Acquiring the competencies and the skills of coaching. Deep listening, powerful questioning, presence, connection, building trust, having a coaching mindset – in addition to the ones we acquire to challenge the client that brings out the best in them.
2. Acquiring accreditation.

Jack of all trades

At the beginning of this coaching journey, we all have an intent to help everybody and bring coaching to the world.
Eventually, we become a jack of all trades as we want to help anybody and everybody who comes our way until slowly, but surely, we figure out who exactly it is that we are the best fit to help.
We look at the niches we want to work in. And look for coaching that helps us become the best coaches we are and the kind of challenges we feel passionate about.
Along this journey, we discover ourselves, our strengths, weak points, and sometimes we face coaching encounters that trigger us.
We reach a point in this journey where we become the best version we could be. So, how can we then become more powerful as coaches?
That’s when we start looking at the next level of coaching – mastery which takes us to the deeper level of encounter with our clients.

Good to Great to Mastery – How can I transform my being as a coach.

The six practices of Masterful Coaching make us more masterful, powerful, connected coaches and better human beings.
These practices are not only relatable to coaching but also to our personal lives and work environment.
You can transform your being as a person and eventually also as a coach with these practices.

Four Levels of Presence in Any Encounter

- In a coaching session, we usually operate from four levels of presence:
  1. Vacationer
  2. Know-it All
  3. Visitor
  4. Explorer

Explorer brings us to masterful coaching.
The masterful coaches know that no matter how many experiences they have, even the same encounters with the same person, every encounter brings a different version of the client.
The six practices are the practices of an Explorer Presence.
All presence is necessary, but only Explorer Presence brings the masterful coaching.

First Practice: Setting Intentions

When it comes to mastery level, setting an intention is about “who am I going to be today as a coach” and not “what am I going to do.”
It’s an intention that reminds you it’s not about you – it reminds us that whatever happens in the coaching session, nobody transforms anybody else.
It actually has very little to do with the coach.
So, the first masterful practice is to make sure that before every session, we approach the session with a curious mindset of who we are going to be today, how we are going to be our best versions, and how it is about the client and not about ourselves.

It’s about my being and not my doing

The biggest danger is – when it becomes a practice that we do unconsciously, it is often “I know my intentions.”
When we dig deeper, it’s an eye-opener to realize. It helps the client in some way but not at the deepest possible level.
Set a being intention that has nothing to do with believing that you can do anything for the client except showing up as the best version of yourself.

Second Masterful Practice: Agility

If something doesn’t work, just keep moving forward. That’s the essence of agility.
Agility is being with everything uncomfortable. Acknowledging when you’re stuck in a coaching session and finding a way to maneuver beyond it.
When we’re stuck, we stop for a moment and keep moving. This becomes a fluid moment of being stuck and getting unstuck.
Where do we need to be agile in coaching – it’s agility between the goal (with clear steps towards the goal) and flowing with whatever happens in between and in the moment.
A part of agility in mastery is to say, “this is what happened, this is what needs to happen, and co-design with the client.”

Types of Agility: Fluid, Seamless Process with Full Engagement & Zero Attachment

Goal and Flow
Empathy and Challenging
Perspective and Impact
Process and Mess
Learning and Progress
Breadth and Depth

Third Practice: Intuition

Masterful practice is the practice of intuition.
When you don’t know how you know. But you know you know!
As children, we have intuitions all the time. As we grow older, we are taught to let go of our intuitions.
Masterful coaching requires us to always practice and bring forward any intuition that we have.
The best way to connect to our intuition is to allow its space to manifest. Blurt it without being attached to intuition.
As a coach, your role is to dig deeper into your intuition. The biggest challenge with bringing out intuition into coaching sessions is trusting our own intuition. And to believe that coaching is, in essence, a messy process.

Focus

Honing these six things brings more intuition:
1. Systemic Lens
2. Client not Topic
3. Balcony not Dance
4. Connection
5. Trusting the Process

Fourth Practice: Silence

Practicing silence is often the most difficult practice for most of us.
An act of silence is where you allow enough space for the client to reflect for the like of the client to dig deeper without asking them another question.
Give the client the space to reflect.
Sometimes, we need to realize whether the question was unclear or whether the client is actually triggered and needs space to manifest whatever happened.
The biggest benefit clients get out of coaching is this place to be with themselves – to look at things in a space where they don’t need to perform. They get time for themselves to introspect.

Silence isn’t empty; it’s full of answers.

How comfortable am I with silent reflection?
What is my relationship with awkward silence?
Where do I need to stretch myself?

Fifth Practice: Psychological Safety

Psychological Safety is bringing a full safe space where the client can let down all their masks or guards and afford to be messy or make mistakes.

The Best Definition of Vulnerability

Vulnerability is the space where we are at the intersection of three feelings: Risk, Uncertainty, and Emotional Exposure.
Masterful coaching is to allow the clients to be themselves without guards or masks if the clients need it.

Sixth Practice: Empathy

Power of Empathy: Seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another, and feeling with the heart of another.
Empathy is a very humble space where you realize even if you know the person inside out, but in this particular moment, this person is going through something you don’t know.
Empathy sometimes require to

Push the client compassionately
Hold the space and be quiet
Acknowledge the mind

The ability to be empathetic requires a big level of “completely letting go of ourselves.” And being fully present with the client at that moment.

Your Best Version: Dunning-Kruger Effect

How we reach the masterful coaching
In the beginning, it’s about acquiring the skills.
Then comes a point where we feel we achieved everything.
Something happens at a point, and we start doubting ourselves as a coach.
It’s the wisdom to let go of everything that we believe to be true about the skills.

💎 Nuggets from Rania Abu Rabia

An explorer mindset needs to unlearn, needs to remain curious and humble to life, humans, changes, and situations.
Psychological safety is a space where humanity is encouraged.
Intuition is knowing without knowing.
Agility is bringing the power of polarity to the coaching session – the power of having everything and the opposite within the coaching session.
As coaches, our biggest power is helping clients help themselves. Our biggest power is in being ourselves fully in service of whatever wants to happen in the session.
One of the ways we reach a massive version of ourselves is to connect to every version of us, including our shadows.
Even if you’ve met yourselves a million times over the number of years you’ve lived, every single time, you’re meeting a new version of yourself.

🔥 We meet ourselves time and again in a thousand disguises on the path of life. – Carl Jung

🎥 If you missed or want to rewatch our webinar with Brent O’Bannon on “Let’s Talk Strengths”, catch up now: https://youtu.be/hXFIHR6CXlc

📣 A big shoutout to Rania Abu Rabia for sharing masterful coaching practices with us. ❤️

Don’t miss out on this one. Stay tuned for the next episode!

Guest Speaker