Becoming
This year, I renewed my Professional Coaching Certification (PCC) from the International Coaching Federation (ICF). The journey started back in 2013 while I was working in Bengaluru, India, as Head of Quality in a tech company. Our HR department had arranged a Leadership Development program, and I reluctantly signed up for it after Shubha, one of our HR managers, came to my office and shared the effort her team had put into arranging the program, including securing budget approval and bringing in the best facilitator from Franklin Covey, despite the lackluster response from all the directors. I promised to sign up and assured her that I would speak with others as well.
The workshop was three days long, and on the first day, the facilitator introduced himself and mentioned that he was a Professional Coach, PCC from ICF. We were all curious to learn more, and he promised that instead of talking about coaching, he would demonstrate it. At that time, I was in a dilemma about my personal life, professional journey, and how to move forward. On the last day, I volunteered to be coached. We had a session of about 30-35 minutes. It was brilliant, and I could feel a shift from a space of uncertainty, concern, and fear to clarity, confidence, and eagerness to take action.
Fast forward to 2024 – I earned my ACC and then PCC, and now I have renewed it this year. I moved from Bengaluru to London, attained financial freedom, and also designed and experimented with a course based on my journey called "WHAT NEXT" to help people figure out their own career paths.
I was reflecting on the source of my interest in coaching, and I remembered the reason I chose this path. Why did I choose to become a coach? I can trace back my journey to a beautiful story I read during my school days. The first time I came across this story, I was about 14-15 years old. In a way, this story helped me define my purpose in life, but it took a long time for me to realize it. The story is from Born to Win by Muriel James and Dorothy Jongeward (originally “The Parable of the Eagle” by James Aggrey).
The story is as follows:
Once upon a time, while walking through the forest, a certain man found a young eagle. He took it home and put it in his barnyard, where it soon learned to eat chicken feed and behave as chickens do. One day, a naturalist who was passing by inquired of the owner why it was that an eagle, the king of all birds, should be confined to living in the barnyard with the chickens.
“Since I have given it chicken feed and trained it to be a chicken, it has never learned to fly,” replied the owner. “It behaves as chickens do, so it is no longer an eagle.”
“Still,” insisted the naturalist, “it has the heart of an eagle and can surely be taught to fly.”
After discussing it, the two men agreed to find out whether this was possible. Gently, the naturalist took the eagle in his arms and said, “You belong to the sky and not to the earth. Stretch forth your wings and fly.”
The eagle, however, was confused; it did not know who it was, and, seeing the chickens eating their food, it jumped down to be with them again.
Undismayed, the naturalist took the eagle the following day to the roof of the house and urged him again, saying, “You are an eagle. Stretch forth your wings and fly.” But the eagle was afraid of his unknown self and world and jumped down once more for the chicken food.
On the third day, the naturalist rose early and took the eagle out of the barnyard to a high mountain. There, he held the king of birds high above him and encouraged him again, saying, “You are an eagle. You belong to the sky as well as to the earth. Stretch forth your wings now, and fly.”
The eagle looked around, back towards the barnyard, and up to the sky. Still, he did not fly. Then the naturalist lifted him straight towards the sun, and it happened that the eagle began to tremble. Slowly, he stretched his wings. At last, with a triumphant cry, he soared away into the heavens.
It may be that the eagle still remembers the chickens with nostalgia; it may even be that he occasionally revisits the barnyard. But as far as anyone knows, he has never returned to lead the life of a chicken. He was an eagle, though he had been kept and tamed as a chicken.
This story left a lasting impact on me as I was growing up. First, it inspired me to discover my own potential through learning and experimentation, and second, it motivated me to support people in discovering who they truly are. Like the eagle in this story, all of us have enormous natural potential, and we should unlock it.
Coaching has helped me explore my own potential, and I want to help others explore theirs through coaching. One of my missions is to support people and teams in finding their purpose. It is not easy, but it is not impossible if you go for it.
The first time I experienced coaching in action was at Landmark Education, where, with the help of coaches, I saw how I could go beyond constraints and create impactful results. Then, the Course Supervisor Program (CSP) helped me develop skills in deep listening, self-awareness, and empathy. I have also participated in various leadership and spiritual courses, ranging from yoga and meditation, Siddha Samadhi Yoga, Art of Living, Jeevan Vidya, Franklin Covey Leadership, The 7 Habits, Being a Leader by Werner Erhard, and more. The ICF courses further enhanced my abilities and gave me a solid foundation in processes, tools, and techniques. They also grounded me in the code of conduct and ethics of professional coaching. Finally, the real learning came from practice sessions with fellow coaches, as well as conducting actual coaching sessions.
In the last 6-7 years of being a professional coach, I have come to realize that it is a real honor and privilege to be a coach. One never becomes a coach with a certification alone; every coaching session is unique, and as a coach, I have to bring my whole “self” into the conversation. It is a continuous process of becoming.
Rgahavendra (Ragz) Mithare is Professional Certified Coach (PCC) from ICF. You can contact him at mithare@explorewhatnext.com