Starting a new role, joining a new company, living life in the world of corporate business – it can all become overwhelming at times. At Oracle, we recognize this and so, always strive to create a nurturing, supportive environment for our employees.
That’s why Oracle Asia Pacific launched a Coaching Pod program one year ago to provide assistance when needed. The program allows employees from across the company access to a team of skilled coaches that will help them show up to work as their best selves. Connecting with others to form trusting work relationships and digging deeper within one’s self to understand how to reach full potential are just some of the outcomes coachees have experienced. In their own words, participants in the program want to share how coaching has changed their perspectives of the company and better yet, how it’s opened new opportunities for them to flourish.
Coaching Pod 101
At Oracle, we value evolution and continuous learning. Launching the Coaching Pod offered employees the chance to give back to one another and understand more about themselves than they ever thought possible.
Sales director Ramesh Palani, felt an urge to help others through sharing his own personal journey with self-discovery. He remembers, “There were indeed certain points in my career where I did feel the need to have an honest conversation with someone who has gone through such a situation.
“However, I learnt the hard way to overcome these situations. Given this, I had been always thinking that it is important for me to help others going through the same cycle.”
Similarly, ASEAN director of field operations Siti Nuriyah Manaf related to the hardships new employees feel sometimes and wanted to relieve some of that stress. Working with Oracle since 2007, she has personally benefitted from the company’s many learning and development opportunities in the 15 years she’s been here. Now, she wants to pay it forward through coaching other employees.
“Being in a large organization, it can sometimes be daunting when you are tasked with new responsibilities, a project work or a new activity to partake in,” Siti shares.
Rachna Sampayo, Group VP, Human Resources, APAC, explains how the company is approaching development and why there was a need for the Coaching Pod program in the first place.
“At Oracle, we have a comprehensive career development framework to support employees in their development planning and reskilling.
“This framework provides employees with resources to explore their career goals, and focus on the skills and experience they need for today and the future.”
Communication is key for more than just business
Getting to know yourself first in order to excel in your career is something coaching is helping our employees discover. Acknowledging strengths, weaknesses, and uncovering how to deal with stressful situations are all mechanism taught by the coaching team.
Violeta Perez was pleasantly surprised by the depth of self-awareness she walked away from her four coaching sessions.
She reveals, “It surprised me that the program isn’t just about giving you the methods. It’s also about learning about your inner self.”
“I want to bring my best and authentic self to any conversation I am having. It changed my mindset.”
Coach Ramesh, echoes this sentiment by explaining how the program can be a grounding experience during a time of unsettling change, “One insight is that most of the people approach the Coaching Pod when they go through disruption.”
“If an organization can notice and provide good support to individuals during disruptions or transitions, it would be of maximum benefit to the organization and its people.”
Career development through helping others
For both coaches and coachees, the program is designed to inspire self-discovery so that teams as a whole can operate in a more communicative and supportive environment. Despite working in a sector that is self-service, we never want anyone to be left out in the cold. Our employees work together to solve customer problems no matter what side of the world they are sitting on.
Siti explains how being a coach in the pod has helped her become a more personable director, “It allows me to stay relevant and relatable to colleagues that I’m coaching with challenges that we face.
“Professionally, I have had the opportunities to know and interact with colleagues in various lines of business and careers that I would never have the chance to interact with in my day-to-day work.”
Rachna shares why Oracle is so committed to expanding employee horizons, “Career development is the top focus for employees and a key piece of our employee value proposition. We want to give employees a personalized experience to support their development.”
For Violeta, having coaches who are also Oracle employees enabled her to leverage their extensive experience to navigate difficult internal conversations and form better internal relationships.
Her thoughts are that, “Being part of the sessions was a significant opportunity for me to experience Oracle’s culture of nurturing talent.”
“My perception of the company improved even more. The uniqueness of Oracle’s coaching program is that it leverages internal colleagues with coaching experience, so it is more suitable to support internal coachees in their challenges.”
Ramesh weighs in by gushing about how much Oracle’s internal mobility and developmental resources have given him more confidence in his day to day, “When there was an opportunity within the team, the organization allowed me to grow and assume a larger role, instead of looking for external candidates.”
“By giving higher responsibilities, Oracle as an organization placed trust on me. This propelled me on a rocket ship to enhance my career.”
Professional success through career coaching
Interested but sitting on the fence over whether career coaching can really be that influential? Allow those that have been through it push you over the edge towards a more positive career experience.
Violeta says, “The program helped me strengthen my communication skills and guided me to speak with great confidence. Aside from that, I can now inspire people and share what I learned in the process.”
“I was impressed at how accessible the coaching program is to all employees,” lauds Siti.
Ramesh wraps things up with, “I got to engage with a variety of people across various functions and different lines of business within Oracle. Though I got overwhelmed initially with different domains, the coaching experience gave me the confidence that fundamentals of managing a situation remains the same.”
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