Gifts with meaning and purpose

Most countries now have plenty of professional coaches. The International Coaching Federation (ICF) and the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) have lists of accredited coaches in their website. Contact some!

You can also send me an email here :) and learn more about my special Christmas packages offers. Give your friends, family, employees, colleagues, and yourself(!) a journey towards personal and professional growth!

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As the Holiday Season approaches, the rush to the high streets and online shops increases significantly. And we stress even more than usual to find the perfect gift on time. With a long list of friends and family, you often end up struggling with at least a few, if not many. I know I do! How can you find something on a shop that can actually say how much you care for them?

This year I have decided to tell my family that I will not be buying any gift for any of them. Sure this is partially related to my new career and lack of stable income so far. But I have been struggling with the hyper-consumerist concept of Christmas for many years now. It's hard to wrap love and meaning inside a box! Hence, this year I have decided to use my coaching skills to create some activities and experiences that my family can do together and hopefully remember for years to come (and maybe become an annual ritual).

Companies and organisations often go through a similar struggle. They consider Christmas baskets, the traditional card, a bonus, some extra free time, or a company lunch or fun activity. What can they do/organise to show their employees they care?(At least once a year...)

Employee satisfaction is critical to ensure performance and employee retention. It is even more important for high-potential employees, who are much harder to substitute. Opening a vacancy, going through a selection process, and training a new employee is a lengthy and costly procedure for any organisation. Material (and financial) gifts can take you some way along the road to ensure employee engagement, especially for new employees. But, as time goes by, existing employees will be longing for something more authentic and meaningful: a real show of how much they are appreciated for their professionalism and dedication to the organisation. If this expectation is persistently not matched, the outcome is inevitable: sooner or later, s/he will leave, and look for meaning and purpose elsewhere.

So here is a suggestion: this Holiday Season, instead of focusing on purely material gits, offer your friends and employees some coaching sessions! Increased performance is linked to continuous learning and enjoyment. Coaching focuses on going through a journey of personal development to unlock our full potential (reaching new goals, learning new skills, overcoming barriers), which does increase employee enjoyment and performance. Offering coaching sessions says you understand how essential each employee is to your organisation, that you care about their happiness, and want to contribute for developing their potential.

The only way for organisations to survive in today's constantly changing world and get ahead of their competition is to have a high-performing workforce, to care as much about people (and planet) as much as they do about profit. Leaders have to develop a strong set of emotional skills, as well as equip their employees with the sense of purpose and meaning that they are growingly expecting from the workplace (and Millennials are now expecting it much sooner in their career). Take your organisation to the next level!

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(First published: 08 November 2018)