Coaching Stories

Sujana's Coaching Story

I wanted to become a medical doctor when I was a teenager influenced by family as my father was a Physician. I also quickly realised that the medical profession may not necessarily suit to me as I cannot handle needles or medication. My Bachelors degree was in agriculture and I also completed a Masters in agriculture. Academically, my Masters research work in agriculture attracted wider attention and secured me high distinction and three university medals in India. I have also secured a government job in the state (Tamilnadu) agricultural extension department in India. However, I preferred not to take up this job offer as this would have meant to stay away from my family. I decided to enrol into MBA as I found interest in working with people. I completed my major in MBA in marketing and minor in HR. I had my first career break whilst pursuing MBA studies in India. Then, we moved to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and I enrolled into a PhD program in Multimedia University and completed first six months of course work and we had to move to Armidale. I took my second career break but, enrolled into a PhD program at UNE in the Business School.

I was not too sure during the first year of my PhD studies, whether or not I really wanted to become an academic. The casual academic experience during the second year of my PhD studies helped me to fine tune my career interests and set career goals. I really enjoyed teaching, interacting with students and also equally enjoyed working collaboratively with colleagues on various research projects. The first question that I asked myself was – do I have adequate KSAs (knowledge, skills and abilities) to pursue an academic job? I went through personal career mapping process. It was evident that I have subject knowledge and abilities and some skills. I questioned myself – what are the gaps and how can I close the identified gaps?

Personal reflection also indicated to me the differences between scientific research and social science research. I have learnt new software and data analysis programmes to understand data in social sciences and attended courses that helped me unpack the results obtained from data analysis. I enjoyed mixed methods research both talking to people (qualitative data) and analysis of numbers (quantitative data). I kept abreast of different data analysis techniques that also allowed me to understand the value of being coached. Having the research skills alone is not enough in the academic career. Therefore, I have attended several teaching related workshops and tried different innovations in my own teaching practice. Several educators as experts and coaches shared great tips that helped to improvise the quality of my teaching on a continued basis. Coaches also take a methodical developmental approach to understand gaps and to enhance skills and capabilities. Coaches take us to level zero and work with us in order to close the gaps.

A slightly different story to careers is the personal development. I started to go to SportUNE group fitness classes in late 2006. My goal was to reduce postnatal weight. The very first class that I accessed was weights class and I did not know how to use bar and weights. Simon was the fitness instructor who went out of his way to help me understand the value of fitness. Simon’s coaching style was performance-oriented. I could see that transformation in the first two years as I was able to complete level 4 high intensity cardio step classes. Simon now is a high school Maths teacher and a fitness instructor who works in Griffith and moreover a good friend.

In my view, openness to upskill, unlearn, reskill and retrain (U²R²) helped me achieve a national teaching award in 2016 and also progress in my career. Lesson learnt is – never be shy to equip with necessary skills that will help immensely in the career progression. This may mean that we need to be prepared to unlearn everything and start as a fresher. Coaching helps to develop KSAs.