CPCC In The Spotlight

As we continue our year-long celebration of the 20-year anniversary of PARW/CC, I would like to heighten the awareness of the accomplishments of some of our members. This month I introduce Eileen Laskar of Intellect Consulting Ltd, based in Nairobi, Kenya.

A Pioneer

Eileen is a rather pioneering woman, as she is the first Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC) and the first Certified Professional Résumé Writer (CPRW) to open a career coaching practice in Kenya. Her business partner holds the Certified Employment Interview Professional (CPRW) Credential making the team at Intellect Career Centre quite comprehensive.

Eileen is setting the stage, positioning herself as career coaching specialist in the Eastern Africa, professionalizing the whole career development landscape in the region which so far has been characterized by emergence of recruiting firms. She reckons that the later are easy to start, operate and make quick returns; career coaching is more complex to start, requires long-term commitment, accountability and also rigorous credentialing, meaning not everyone can become a coach.

Eileen is introducing the "concept" of executive career coaching, providing a broad menu of unique services including coaching for excellence, executive résumé writing, coaching for interviews, job search strategies and working with organizations to adopt career coaching as a best practice in organizational development (OD)

As social-economist, Eileen has worked in various capacities, mainly as a business development advisor across Eastern African region. She has worked for a renowned regional microfinance institution, international development organizations (NGOS), export promotion and SME development amongst others. All these engagements built her capacity and empowered her to become a versatile career coach.

Walking the uncharted Path...

At age 28, during one of her reflection moments, she found herself deeply engaged in thoughts about her career and what she wanted to achieve in life. She wished that she had a sounding board to help her focus and answer some difficult questions she had regarding the steps she needed to take to pursue her career dreams, and the best path to take given that she was faced with various options

She interviewed many different people including HR consultants/recruiters, and whereas they all agreed that what she was seeking for was noble, none seemed to have a solution. Eileen then resolved to seek for a solution to her seemingly unique problem, and read a couple dozen books on careers, most of which she had to import from UK. By applying her newly acquired knowledge, she was able to focus her career search and clinch deals that left all those who knew her amazed. She earned promotion, recognition and her salary grew astronomically. Based on her career success, she started advising her friends on basic career issues, revised their résumés, coached them on how to handle interviews, organizational politics etc. It was not long before she realized that indeed she had become a coach, and that she was passionate about coaching more than her very high profiled job. At this point, Eileen decided to follow her passion and enrolled with PARW/CC to pursue her career coaching credentials. By 2006, she launched her own career coaching business - the first one of its kind in the region.

"By pursuing the full career coaching credential (CPCC), I have positioned myself as a specialist in the Eastern Africa Region. I desire to add genuine value and become an instrument of change (for my clients), when I live and after I leave... and this is my commitment. I remain my clients' all time secret weapon and unseen force behind their career success," stated Eileen.

Client Testimonial

One of her clients said this about Eileen's services: ..."Having worked for a church-based NGO for almost 10 years, I felt that I needed a change. I had it in my mind to go into consulting and contacted Intellect Career Centre to facilitate my transition. Eileen took me through a very rigorous evaluation process and it was clear that I needed international exposure before embarking into consulting. We jointly repackaged my portfolio and within two months I secured an international job to work as an expatriate. The remuneration grew by over 200% but above all, I am on the path towards international consulting. My coach has been both my accountability and strategy partner" Humphrey K.

Her Target market

Eileen targets specific type of clientele; those already in mid-top level management. Having been one of them, she is able to connect with them professionally and contextually. She focuses on personal branding, enhancing personal visibility, finding the right job and working environment, developing their leadership, innovation and performance management amongst others. In doing this, she applies her unique STAR executive Career Coaching model. She has also developed corporate programs dubbed C4E (Coaching for Excellence) which targets mid and senior management aimed at enhancing their capacity to manage the talent of their employees. Eileen identifies with the overall organizational development process and has positioned herself strategically to help managers to be a strong force in leadership and talent management.

Her business development experience is a great benefit to her career coaching clients. Eileen now has over 100 clients since 2006. Her short term goals include developing strategic alliances and partnerships and rolling out corporate programs; long term goals include an EA presence and establishing a Coach Institute for the East Africa Region.

Her Core message

Eileen tells her clients that it is possible to find a job and a career that they love, enjoy, and that provides a great sense of fulfillment. However, it does require thorough planning and commitment since. "Successful careers do not just evolve; they are designed,"

About the CPCC Program

Eileen said that the CPCC program aided her in building her practice by placing it in the right perspective, creating enhanced credibility, and building personal confidence. Eileen describes the CPCC Program as detailed, comprehensive, and practical. As a coach, she applied the concepts of coaching competencies, networking, developing a marketing portfolio for her clients; and as an entrepreneur, she learned goal setting and business planning process from a coaching enterprise perspective, and marketing for a new coaching practice. "Diane, the main CPCC facilitator has been instrumental in building my confidence; the moment I watched her coaching DVDs, I was confident that I will make it, despite the fact that I had no local benchmarks.

Wrap up

After speaking to Eileen, I wondered if she ever sleeps; she told me she is often in the office until past dinner time. And, even as this article goes to print, she got a call just this week from the media - business daily ( www.bdafrica.com ) she has been nominated as one of the "Top 40 Under 40 Women to Watch" in Kenyan business circles, and with potential to influence leadership in the country.

You may contact Eileen at eileen.laskar@intellectconsult.com or info@intellectconsult.com. Her website is www.intellectconsult.com.