Carla Verhagen

Background

I have coached many technically higher-educated employees and managers regarding their work and in the path to more meaningful work or new positions. For young professionals this is often about steering their self-development in their work or on how to relate more effectively to themselves and to situations. I work with older employees to help them take stock, given the constant changes in work or work environment, or because they themselves may have changed.

I am experienced in working with people in various positions - researchers, project leaders and/or specialists in various technical fields, including ICT and executive staff.
I have worked in many different industries. For large companies (such as Philips, ECT, ProRail and DSM), for smaller, specialised companies and for non-profits such as TU Delft, TU Eindhoven and various government technical departments.

As a coach I am a certified member of the OOA and bound by a code of confidentiality.

Career coaching: rethinking and making choices

At any moment you may want to stop and ask yourself how you want to shape your future.

• You may be looking for new challenges in your work. You may want to develop yourself and discover what inspires you - in your work and in others.
• You may be looking for a new balance between energy and work, you may want to avoid dropping out, or your pleasure in your work is diminishing.
• You are looking for guidance in finding another job or another work environment.
• As someone over fifty, you may want to take stock, you may be ready for a rethink, or for a fresh view of your future.
• You may want to seize opportunities in your current job, or make the most of your talents.
• You may have noticed that you are not sufficiently expressing your potential, not coming into your own.

Coaching helps you to ask the right questions. To discover what you have to offer and what you have developed along the way. To identify your requirements for meaningful work and how to get pleasure from your work - and how you can steer towards this. You will also learn how to deal better with difficult situations and with reactions that you may frequently encounter. You learn to use the potential offered by your current position to take steps towards and prepare yourself for a new future.

My way of working

We will together develop the content and form of the process. I work on the basis of individual responsibility. You are responsible for your choices and for directing the process, and I for facilitating your search and discovery process. Peace, attention and feedback create space for questions, doubts, creating meaning and finding creative answers.

I take a practical approach. I provide methods that allow you to work actively towards getting answers to questions such as:

• Who am I, what are my personal resources?
• What can I do, what makes me successful, and what gives me energy?
• What do I really want and what are my drivers?
• What do I need in order to come into my own and flourish?
• How can I perhaps cooperate in this with my manager?
• How do I take control, make the most of opportunities and address the reality of my situation?

The coaching process engages our mind, feelings, intuition and imagination. We practice actions that suit the person and which will also work in practice. I am your sparring partner, mirror and I challenge you to investigate, learn, choose and do.

The result enables you to take the steps that suit you, as a person, and that fit with your talents, potential and opportunities. You will also discover what you cannot do, what won’t be successful for you, and how to deal with this in a healthy way.

My mission and inspiration

Accompanying people in their development in their work. Working together and going on a voyage of discovery. Finding out what is your strength, what gives you energy, what do you really want to do? With every change I stimulate the balance between self-management and self-care. This creates a meaningful perspective. What someone really wants can then be linked to actions, which work in practice and fit the person.