A Reason, A Season, A Lifetime: Catching Up With Mitch Real and Why Connecting With A Coach is Important

A Reason, A Season, A Lifetime: Mitch Real, Catching-up with my ex-Boss and Mentor and Why Connecting With A Coach is Important.

People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. When you figure out which it is, you will know what to do.

Our time working together was short yet meaningful. When we parted ways, the above, unattributed quote, was what we liked to say. Thinking that we met for a reason and the reason was served.

Little did we know that it was only the beginning and that workplace is not a necessary bound to our friendship.

Below is my picture with Mitch (R) in BGC. We were together for four hours but what seemed only a few minutes. I think, if my husband didn’t call, we wouldn’t realize that it was already past 10!

Mitch was my boss some 4 years ago and now my friend, coach and mentor.

After we both left the Company, we continued to stay in touch.

Why?

Because as a boss, she developed a relationship with us, her team that goes beyond the call of duty – of coaching and feedback and the numbers.

She saw me through my first (and only) relationship (she played an instrumental role here which we thought was ‘the reason’ we met) my developments and adventures in HR and now in my new role as a mommy.

We talked about anything and everything under the sun, from past struggles, to family life to love-life to leadership. All topics were close to our hearts but I would want to share more with you about the latter.

Mitch On Leadership

Why are we where we are at the moment? Why do God allow good things to happen to bad people? (and if you are uncomfortable with this, feel free to flip the question *smiles*) What’s the measure of goodness and badness when it comes to leadership?

Do you have answers to these?

Well, we don’t know the answers, but as Mitch shared her own story, it was clear that as God’s miracles unfold, that’s the only time you can better understand why things happen in the exact way that they do, but you can always trust that everything happens for a reason. Strangely enough, that was one of the topics Ms. Veron (watch out for this name, article unfolding soon!) and I had only hours before my catch-up with Mitch.

• Inspite and despite it all, we agreed that

• The following are leadership essentials, someone who –

trusts

empowers

walked the path and built his/her own credibility through knowledge, skills and great attitude

is a great people developer, and

is authentic enough in the desire to help you develop as a professional and as a person

You will not always be blessed with a leader who embodies all that, it’s fine, everyone is a beautiful work-in-progress, afterall, we are not perfect employees ourselves; or perhaps there will be times when your boss is none of it. Breathe in. Beathe out. Even that person is in your life for a reason. Who knows, perhaps you serve a purpose for his/her, too.

This catch-up with Mitch was quenching to the soul. Sometimes, all you need is a good talk, someone you trust to listen and share valuable perspective that will remind you that everything happens for a reason, a season or a lifetime. And that if it ain’t good, it’s not in for a lifetime!

Whatever state you are in right now, I highly encourage you find time to connect or reconnect with an ex-boss, a mentor, a coach, a friend. Why?

• You trust this person (or group of people because you can have more than one, really).
• You can be totally open to them, thus you can unburden (but be careful not to pass the burden).
• They open you to nuggets of wisdom and perspectives that you haven’t considered before.

No matter how old (or young) you are, how high up (or down low) you are in the Corporate ladder, it’s still worth the time and effort.

Also Read:

VERONICA ESTRELLA: PAVING THE WAY TO AN AUTHENTIC, HUMANIZED AND GLOBALLY COMPETENT FILIPINO HR