My story
I took my first NGO steps as a young educator, in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, almost 25 years ago. It was an awesome experience, and when I got back home to Poland, I wanted to keep working with civil society. By 2009, I was the executive director of Zagranica Group, the Polish platform for organizations working internationally on human rights, development cooperation and democratization. In that position, I got to know lots of NGOs.
I realized that while they worked really hard, a lot of them were really unclear whether their work has any impact.
That’s how I got involved in evaluations, as I really wanted to help those organizations understand their “So what?” and become more effective.
But then, in the course of many evaluations, I realized that many NGOs did not really know what they wanted to achieve. They did things (often great things and with small resources) for a number of reasons, but often without a clear purpose, strategic goal or a good answer to the question “What for?”.
That realization led me into coaching:
Helping leaders, teams and organizations discover their purpose and figure out how to work towards it.
Coaching, especially team coaching, is a great method for working on that: I can help my partners figure out their own answers, and build effective teams and strategies.
Over the years, I have worked with dozens of organizations and interacted with hundreds (connect on LinkedIn to see more about my experience). I’ve done projects, workshops and trainings from Berlin to Almaty and from Vilnius to Tirana, and everywhere in between.
I’ve done projects, workshops and trainings from Berlin to Almaty and from Vilnius to Tirana, and everywhere in between. I worked with new grassroot organizations and some of the most experienced ones in the region. Some with 3 people and others with 400. I even had a chance to mediate between NGO leaders from countries in conflict.
And I learned that behind any meaningful change, there is always a leader.
It can be a CEO of a major organization, or a small-town librarian with a passion for youth development, but it’s always a person. Some deal with violence or poverty, others with rights or education. Recently most have something to do with the consequences of the Russian war. All need support in strategizing, planning, developing team and resources. All need some focus on their wellbeing, because they are just too valuable to be lost to burnout. And that’s where I come in.
I feel so lucky that instead of being just one person, I have a chance to work with many amazing leaders and teams that change the world around them.