Cathy Liska Carolina worked in Organizational Development before completing her coach training and becoming a coach. Carolina works to understand her clients and support their self-awareness. She works with the client based on who they are, the Being, to develop strategies and plans for their Doing, the what. She is hired both individually and by organizations.
When Carolina starts a new coaching engagement, she begins with an introductory session to explore coaching, different approaches, and how to best partner for moving the client forward. With some clients, Carolina helps address immediate concerns before exploring their big picture. Often she starts with exploring their big picture in all areas and then supports the client to prioritize what they want to focus on during subsequent coaching sessions. 
For the scenario with Carolina coaching Mario, imagine she is invited by his company to do an introductory coaching session to jointly determine if they are a good match; Carolina schedules it with Mario. They explore briefly what he wants, his ideal outcome, what might get in the way, and how he wants to move forward. Carolina then asks Mario what he wants from a coaching engagement and how he wants to measure success. Mario explains he wants to advance his career and he measures success by the coaching supporting his progress. Carolina asks him what else he wants from the coaching and Mario takes time to consider before sharing several personal goals. Carolina confirms Mario feels complete in his responses and then asks him about how he wants to work together. Mario asks about options.
Carolina explains several possible approaches including a big picture exploration of what Mario wants in all areas of his life, assessments, defining opportunities and requirements, evaluating skills, and either planning for all sessions in advance or choosing in the moment what he wants to discuss. Mario wants to learn more and then think about the choices. Carolina gives him links to explanations online and schedules a time to meet again.
When they meet again, Carolina asks Mario what he is thinking and feeling. Mario says he wants to start the coaching and shares he is leaning toward the big picture exploration plus wants the DISC Leadership assessment to understand himself, his priorities, influencing factors, and to discover any conflicts. Carolina explains how the DISC Leadership assessment works, schedules it, and coordinates the big picture exploration with Mario. During that session, Carolina asks Mario about what he wants in all areas of his life including his career, financial, relationship, personal, lifestyle, and health goals. She explores Mario’s ideal outcomes and what it means to him to achieve what he wants. Carolina also asks Mario how he wants to manage accountability and how he wants to celebrate progress and success. Carolina supports Mario in using his goals as a tool to maintain his focus and motivation.
For their next coaching session, Carolina asks Mario his thoughts on the assessment process. She also asks what he wants to gain from the results. Mario states he wants to better understand himself as a future leader, his weaknesses, and his strengths. Carolina asks Mario how he intends to take what he learns about himself and apply it moving forward. Carolina then shares the report results with Mario and asks him to share his thoughts as he reviews the information. Mario comments on things he expected and on what surprises him. He identifies the weaknesses he wants to address and the strengths he wants to utilize. Through exploration and reflection, Mario develops a strategy to be aware and he chooses several specific actions to move forward in his career.
When they meet again, Carolina asked Mario what updates he wants to share. Mario shares a few highlights of what he is noticing, experiencing, and doing. Carolina asks Mario what he is learning about himself. Mario shares how important his career is and that he is thinking about investing more time in work projects for the next six months to advance his opportunities. Carolina supports Mario in choosing his priorities. She asks him about his strategies for his career and how he wants to manage what that means for his self-care and his relationship with his girlfriend. Mario says he is going to talk with his girlfriend about his goals and ask her to help him figure out how to maintain their relationship while he is increasing his efforts at work. He then talks about little things he is going to incorporate in his workday to maintain his fitness including walking to meetings, stretch breaks, parking further away, and using the stairs instead of the elevator. She then asks him what he is learning about his situation. Mario says he realizes that in order to take the next step in his career he must demonstrate his skill in noticeable ways. He talks about how he is managing his priorities with a short-term increase in work time while maintaining his relationship and self-care.
In their next session, when Carolina invites an update; Mario shares that his girlfriend is being very supportive. His girlfriend decides to take advantage of the opportunity to take a class she is interested in personally. His girlfriend also suggests they incorporate fitness into their activities on weekends. Mario shares that in their open conversations they both talk about spirituality. Together they discuss options for exploring it further during their weekend time. Mario explains he is increasing his work hours and because he knows his timeline, he feels good focusing on the long-term gain.
