Cécile Guinnebault - SYSTEMIC Coach

Academic studies are the great trauma of my life. As a child, I was a brilliant pupil, always at the top of my class. To such an extent that my parents thought that I could do my year 11 (sophomore in the US) by correspondence, without any educational supervision. I followed my family for a year to the US, where my father had been appointed. Over there, I learned English and a lot of other things any teenager would find valuable. Back in France the following year, I found myself last in my class, unable to catch up. I fell into a terrible depression and my academic career was over before it even started.

After a mediocre graduation, I studied law by default. I absolutely hated it! Unsurprisingly, I gave up before achieving my bachelor's degree. I then took on a series of badly considered, low-paying jobs. It was highly educational! At the same time, I learnt how to play Go: this ancient strategy game taught me how to think.

Precisely because I was a Go player! One day in 1992, a consultant showed up in an adult initiation to the game I was hosting. One thing leading to another, he explained to me that his consulting firm used Go to add some glamour to executive offsites.

Having quickly realised that he would not become a Go instructor in 3 days, he preferred to partner with me to bring value to his clients. This collaboration resulted in a book in 1994. Above all, I was hired as a junior trainer at Bossard Consultants, a French consulting firm that was almost entirely populated by graduates from the French equivalent of OxBridge or Ivy League! I felt terrible not having attended college. That said, it was during those years at Bossard that I really studied, on the job. I thoroughly loved it.

I followed hundreds of hours of continuous training in public speaking, andragogy, leadership, organisational sociology... Then, in the 2000s, I completed this skillset with a series of coaching tools, as I learned to coach: NLP, Transactional Analysis, MBTI, etc. I became a well-equipped craftswoman. Unfortunately, an academic diploma remains a must in France. When the coaching market became competitive, I lost ground to certified coaches.

In 2019, I enrolled at the Academy of Executive Coaching. Unlike French schools, this British coaching academy considered my 15 years of professional experience. I took a test for direct admission to the Advanced cycle. In May 2020, I finally received my Advanced Practitioner Diploma with Merit and Distinction!

This is what really shaped my coaching model. In 2016, I took an initiation module at the Gregory Bateson Institute, and it felt like a homecoming. This approach matched exactly the way the game of Go had taught me to think! That is:

• Interactional: it focuses on relationships more than individuals.
• Contextual: the relevance of an action or a strategy always relates to the context. This requires constant reassessing of a situation’s strategic potential.
• Pragmatic: it is the result of your action that tells you if you played well or not.
• Humanistic: it is impossible not to make mistakes, but it is possible to leverage them strategically.
• Paradoxical: it is often by going in the opposite direction to one's initial goal that one obtains the best results.

I felt home, at last!

To support my coaches in retrieving the resources they have set aside, often by social and professional formatting. Indeed, prestigious universities and large corporations are extremely prescriptive when it comes to behaviour. This leads to psychological and managerial beliefs - most of them counterproductive - to which managers and leaders try to conform no matter what. Helping them get rid of these beliefs and reconnect to their deep resources, is in my opinion, the main contributions of systemic leadership coaching.

The relational challenges for which my clients tell me: “I have tried everything”. I would say that the 3 main topics my coaches ask for help about are:

• Navigating difficult relationships.
• Energy management,
• Self-confidence development,

Not having an agenda for my coachees. If a company asks me to have an agenda on their behalf, I turn down the assignment. It is an ethical matter.

Take the test that I put together for you! Depending on your situation, the resources at your disposal and your personal preferences, coaching can be beneficial… or not!

Coaching is not a panacea. It only works well when the coachee succeeds in bringing out their coaching request. Sometimes, this request pre-exists the meeting; sometimes it emerges during the first sessions. If it doesn’t emerge, it might well be that taking on coaching is not the best thing for you. And it’s OK!

Not exactly. I rather suffered from the “self-taught complex”. On the one hand, I’m confident in my intellectual abilities. On the other hand, I totally lack the social self-confidence acquired in higher education by mingling with the right people. You know, that self-confidence that makes you feel like you belong everywhere.

“I hadn’t seen it this way! “

Both! The helping relationship is a constant back and forth movement between support and challenge. The balance between the two must constantly be adjusted to the relationship, to the moment, to what’s happening... It is an art that needs to be practiced by both the coach and coachee, not a posture that a coach can choose like an outfit!

I remember that it was mainly adults who dreamed of jobs for me: archaeologist, parliamentary assistant… To be honest, I would have liked to be a fairy. I would have solved all the misfortunes in the world with magic potions. Professional dreamer would have been a good option too !

To see them moving towards a resolution of the challenge they came to coaching with… Whether that answer is part of their initial coaching goals or not. I am always amazed to measure the gap between the objectives set at the start of a coaching programme and the way my coachees actually overcome their challenges.

Just like the rest of my professional life, coaching came to me. In the absence of having followed a traditional academic path, I developed an exceptional ability to seize opportunities… Even if it means seizing too many and failing! But I so much prefer a painful lesson to the regret of not having tried…

It is essential, for 3 reasons.

Each coaching, personal or professional, individual or collective, raises questions and learning on both sides. Integrating this learning into supervision or training is necessary, to be able to use self-awareness as a coaching tool.

The second reason is that it is a demanding job, which constantly takes us to our learning edge. Every limit I encounter makes me want to go beyond it.

The third reason is that continuing education is mandatory for accreditation renewal.

The uberisation of the coaching market. This trend is two-fold:

• the race for low prices, the same that led to low-cost training and consulting;
• digitisation, via platforms that connect coachees and coaches, and manage the coaching contract. It is no longer HR that offers 1, 2 or 3 coaches to the coachees, it is an algorithm.

This new intermediation greatly facilitates the life of coaching buyers, who save time and money.

My guess is that there will always be room for tailor-made leadership development, to help leaders get their heads out of the water and above all, to break their loneliness. You don't break your loneliness with an algorithm.

Over the years, I have built up a network of wonderful partners. We collaborate to create and lead group coaching and team coaching programs. A graphic facilitator, a comedian, a yoga teacher, an equine coach, a Go champion and a game creator help me offer my clients unforgettable emotional experiences.

In the most heterogeneous way possible. Crossing sources of inspiration helps me find metaphors that will help my coachees shift their worldview, reframe their challenges, and ultimately, unearth the resources they need to succeed.

To help women succeed, whatever their definition of success, their line of business, their background, their colour or their age.

Neapolitan rap.

Serendipity. Allowing yourself to find something you weren’t looking for is so delightful!

A husband, and fluctuating numbers of cats and hens. Can I call it a big family ?