February Spotlight : Roxana Bacian

Roxana Bacian came to coaching after a career in human-centred design working with design studios across Glasgow and London. She supported the redesign of public services and worked with the likes of the Scottish Government and Stirling Council as a designer at Snook (now NEC Digital).

Her switch to coaching happened naturally and she continued to support teams to navigate significant shifts in their cultures and operations and leaders to thrive in new senior roles with She Leads Change, New Economy Organisers, Simply Coaching and Know You More.

Bringing a total of 13 years experience in design and coaching, Roxana’s coaching practice is also anchored in a deep commitment to personal development and psychological foundations as a client of psychotherapy for the last 8.5 years.

What do you love most about the work you do?

I love how coaching keeps me always learning. Every person I work with brings their own

knowledge and life experience to our sessions. They also bring their unique asks of coaching and of myself as a coach practitioner.

Finally, they ask me to accompany them as they step into the task of their work and life. It’s life-affirming to be there as people choose

growth.

What’s a lesson coaching has taught you about life?

One of my clients once said: ‘the road works never end’ and it captures the lessons perfectly.

In supporting leaders to work through challenges, I’ve learnt to make friends with the fact that whatever endeavor we choose in life, there will be struggle and the gift in that is that in meeting it we build our own character and elasticity. And also, how much we need others.

How do you build trust quickly with your clients?

When I start a new coaching relationship I seek to communicate as clearly as possible what

I’m offering, how I deliver the work and what I expect in return.

Once this foundation is established, I ask questions to understand the client’s expectations of coaching. And I invite the client to explore together how we might build a satisfying partnership around this work.

What transformation are you most proud of helping a client achieve?

Last year I worked with a team who was undergoing a complex governance shift. We built a strong partnership characterised by early and ongoing feedback.

The team were at a point in their culture and operations where they could withstand and sustain change. I’m proud of this work because it was a collaborative effort and I allowed myself to be challenged by them.

What’s a daily habit that keeps you grounded?

Recently I’ve found the power of pausing throughout the work day to check-in with my body. I have a tendency to accelerate tasks once I gain rhythm, but this sometimes leads me into

overdrive.

Pausing has become possible through building that habit in therapy sessions, where my therapist invites me to take a step back, breathe and then speak from there.

What advice would you give to leaders navigating uncertainty?

Everything you will do for your organisation will first need to go through your own metabolism. If your course of action starts from a place of contraction within you, it will travel through the organisation in a similar manner.

Start by accepting your relationship with uncertainty as it is now. And then involve your team in your process of responding to it.