Daiana Stoicescu is an executive leadership coach based in Romania. She’s a Master Certified Coach credentialed by the International Coaching Federation, a Master Certified Coaching Trainer by the Center for Executive Coaching, and a registered ICF Mentor Coach. Daiana was also the president of the ICF Romania chapter until 2019. As a Master Certified Coach Trainer with the Center for Executive Coaching, she’s certified to train other executives and managers to become certified executive coaches. Her work involves one on one and group coaching under the review and standards of the Center for Executive Coaching in Romania and Europe.
Recently, Michael Neuendorff connected with Daiana via ZOOM for an informative discussion about executive coach training in her part of the world.
Michael Neuendorff: Please tell me about your background a little bit more and what drew you to coaching and coach training.
Daiana Stoicescu: My background is in the communications field. I worked as a public relations specialist at a multinational company in Romania, but even while working there I was always asking myself: “what’s next?” That line of thinking led me to coaching. I started to coach individuals and then teams and then groups. Even though I was successful at that, I still kept asking myself: “what’s next?” So, I started to teach other coaches to become professional coaches. Soon I started teaching more people how to become professional coaches and that led to my becoming a certified mentor, coach, and eventually a coaching supervisor. I think of my career as an ongoing journey that’s still ongoing.
Michael Neuendorff: I love that approach and that attitude about “what’s next?”
Daiana Stoicescu: Thank you. Coaching started as a passion for me that in time became my profession. So, from passion, I moved to a profession. And now it’s something that I love doing as well as a field where I can earn a living. 
Michael Neuendorff: We’re very similar in that way. We have a passion for sharing our knowledge and a love for training as we discovered at the Center for Executive Coaching, where we are fellow faculty members. Now, I’m curious, what made you decide to start training and certifying other coaches? You could have remained a coach rather than dedicating a portion of your life to training and certifying other coaches.
Daiana Stoicescu: My very first job was a primary school teacher. Teaching comes naturally to me, and training, after all, is a form of teaching.
Michael Neuendorff: What’s the current view of executive coaching in your country and in Eastern Europe?
Daiana Stoicescu: In Eastern Europe it’s growing, although I think it’s still in the beginning stage. But we do have a group of certified coaches now. We have local chapters of the ICF: International Coach Federation, too. So, I think it’s an emerging and growing industry in Romania and Eastern Europe.
Michael Neuendorff: That’s good to know. I feel in the same way leadership coaching is growing in acceptance around the world. And we need to continue to train and certify coaches because the opportunity keeps growing.
Daiana Stoicescu: Absolutely. It’s exciting to see how our profession is evolving internationally and how many coaches are joining our profession.
Michael Neuendorff: You’ve trained and certified many coaches and helped them launch their practices. What do you think are some of the keys to successfully launching a new coaching practice?
Daiana Stoicescu: Well, I keep saying “practice, practice, practice.” If you stick to the process and you integrate the process, then the rest will follow: the confidence, the attitude, the posture, the clients. They will all follow. Practice and expose yourself to different situations with different kinds of clients. I think diversity is a good thing at the beginning of your practice, to see what you’re naturally good at. Explore your boundaries. Determine what your expectations are and ask yourself how well you fulfill them when you coach.
Michael Neuendorff: When you say “boundaries,” what do you mean?
Daiana Stoicescu: When I say boundaries, I mean what’s acceptable. For example, maybe I want to work with executives from just one industry, let’s say IT, or pharma, for example. I can say, “OK, that’s my boundary.” I don’t want to work in the fitness industry, or another industry. Boundaries are about finding your niche and where you bring maximum value and where you can best serve your clients.
Michael Neuendorff: I think that’s very good advice. On the other side of the equation, what do you think leaders are looking for in an executive coach?
Daiana Stoicescu: What I notice now in Europe, especially, is they’re looking for coaches who are certified by ICF. They seek coaches who follow a structure and follow a code of high ethical conduct. For a coach, it’s really important to obtain that ICF credential. It reassures clients that they’ll receive real value from working with you.
Michael Neuendorff: So, it’s good to be certified and have a credential because it shows that you’ve done the work to establish yourself. What else do you think a leader looks for in an executive coach?
Daiana Stoicescu: I think they’re looking for a thinking partner; a coach who can offer a safe space for them to open up and speak their mind, someone they can trust, someone they can rely on, and someone who can keep them accountable to achieve their goals.
Michael Neuendorff: What two or three areas of development where a coach can help are of greatest interest to executives? What are you seeing as the hot areas where executives want more coaching these days? 
Daiana Stoicescu: There are always time management issues. Questions of: “How can I adjust my agenda? How do I plan for my day?” There’s also a high demand for coaching in conflict resolution, team communication, and understanding what it means to achieve success as a leader. Team coaching is another area that’s growing rapidly now. Teams and their leaders are all seeing the huge value of working with a professional coach.
Michael Neuendorff: We have this situation here called the “great resignation,” where many people during the pandemic rethought their careers and their jobs and then quit in larger numbers than usual. Since many people are leaving companies, we find that it’s important for companies to really think about how they can best retain their people by offering training and development programs along with coaching for leaders and even mid-level managers. Taking this approach should help with retention and recruiting. So, that’s an area that we’re focusing on a lot over here, this idea of having a more engaged post-pandemic workforce.
Let me ask you about finding a niche as a coach. How important do you think it is for a coach to establish a clear niche?
Daiana Stoicescu: I think it’s important, first of all, for the coach to have confidence that they know who they serve and they know what they can do best for their clients. And that knowledge is also advantageous to the coach’s income, because when you’re specialized, leaders will come to you for a specific situation, something that they’re often willing to pay more for. So, I think it’s crucial to find your niche.
Michael Neuendorff: When I train new coaches, they often struggle with the question of “What is my niche? How do I find it?” What do you say to a new coach when they say, “I don’t know what my niche is.” What advice do you offer?
Daiana Stoicescu: Well, and I hope this makes sense, I tell them that the niche will find you. The niche is always there. And all you have to do is to open your eyes and see it. If this is hard to understand then look at what brings you joy. What do you do effortlessly, with whom do you meet effortlessly? Start from those things that come easily to you and then expand from there.
And if you’re looking for a specific niche, look at your background. For example, I started as a communication manager, and my first niche in coaching was helping other communicators to communicate better. So, I started as a personal branding coach. And then I moved to executive coaching and I expanded my repertoire to include other areas. So, I started with my background and transformed that into my own niche. I tell my coachees that your niche will show up in time. It’s already there. You just have to open your eyes to see it. That’s my theory, anyway.
Michael Neuendorff: Well, I think it’s a good theory. And it reminds me of the idea that when a coach stresses too much about what’s the next question to ask in a coaching session, that’s an indication of the wrong approach. The right approach is the next question will present itself right in the conversation. You don’t have to find it. The next question will just appear when you’re in the dance of coaching with the client. Do you see a connection there?
Daiana Stoicescu: Yes, I see it. It all comes down to careful listening. If you do that, the next question will just present itself to you.
Michael Neuendorff : Right. And what are the areas that you’re specializing in these days? Where has your first niche led you to now?
Daiana Stoicescu: I really like to work with the owners of large companies to help them achieve their highest goals. They’re purpose driven and they’re very open minded. And it’s a pleasure to work with them. So that’s become one of my niches. I also work with teams. I like to support them in moving to their next level and communicating better.
Michael Neuendorff: And that leads me into my next question to you about team coaching, which is a growing area of coaching around the world. My understanding is that team coaching is different from one-on-one coaching because of the interpersonal relationships among the team members, as well as your role as a coach working with a team. Can you talk about some of the differences between team coaching versus one-on-one coaching?
Daiana Stoicescu: I consider the processes to be essentially similar but with some differences. The ICF is also considering different core competencies for team coaching because they discovered some differences as well.
When you work with the dynamic of the team there are so many things to pay attention to because things are happening “in between spaces.” These include the processes, the dynamic, the various personalities in play. You establish the goal, the purpose of the team, and then you work within the dynamic of the team to achieve that purpose, to support them and to help them achieve their goals. In team coaching, the first step is to find the purpose, then it’s to guide the team. When you have a clearer purpose, you can arrange and find the right team chemistry to achieve that purpose.
Michael Neuendorff: And how long would you typically meet with a team as a team coach?
Daiana Stoicescu: I usually work in a nine month to one year engagement. I work with the leaders individually and then I meet with the whole team. And there are several meetings that we’re organizing. It’s a very personalized process. So I usually work with a team for about one year. We establish, we assess, we see what point the team’s at the beginning and where they want to be in 9 months or 1 year’s time. Then we start working in different settings. We’ll find out what’s working for that team so that by the end of the year, the team is very independent and they can organize themselves without me being there to support them. That’s my goal: to support them until they become independent and they won’t become dependent on me. 
Michael Neuendorff: And to me, that’s the goal of all coaching, that we don’t want to create a dependency on the coach so that the coachee will eventually move on from the coaching relationship. Tell me Daiana, how can people learn more about your coach training and certification program and how to work with you?
Daiana Stoicescu: Well, I can share with you my website, if it helps you or your viewers and readers to contact me. I follow the Center for Executive Coaching Tools and Frameworks. And what’s different is that I work in Romanian and with me you can practice coaching in Romanian, Italian or Spanish or even another language. I fully respect the ICF code of ethics and everything that’s in the Center for Executive Coaching training and certification program.
Michael Neuendorff: I imagine that later this year you’ll have new coaching programs available for enrollment.
Daiana Stoicescu Yes. There will be a new program by the end of the year.
Michael Neuendorff: Excellent. Well, Daiana, it’s been a real pleasure meeting with you today and learning about the services that you offer and your perspective on coaching and the growth of coaching in Eastern Europe. Thank you.
Daiana Stoicescu: Thank you. I really appreciate having had this opportunity to talk with you too.
You can view the original video interview by clicking this link.
You can learn more about Daiana Stoicescu and her business here.
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