BIO

Anabela is a certified coach by New Ventures West, and an Associated Accredited Coach (ACC) by ICF. She was Executive Director of The Lisbon MBA - the joint-venture from Católica-Lisbon and Nova SBE in collaboration with MIT Sloan - from 2013 to 2018, and has an extensive Corporate Experience working in Leadership positions in several sectors (Healthcare-CUF, Oil & Gas-BP, and Retail-Jerónimo Martins), several countries (UK, Mexico, Spain, and Portugal), and different companies sizes (from startups to big multinationals).

During her activity as a coach, and besides her training in that area, Anabela leverages her international experience, where she had the opportunity to lead growth and change management projects, which allowed her to understand the importance of competencies such as empathy, communication, and creativity. In those roles, she was also exposed to different cultures, and visions that contributed for her to develop a broader view of the world. While Executive Director of The Lisbon MBA she developed the soft skills programs for the MBA students (Full Time, and Executive MBA), and had the opportunity to develop her coaching.

As a coach, Anabela works with Executives and senior MBA students, as well as alumni from diverse cultures. 

Coaches offline and online, in English, Portuguese, and Spanish.

APPROACH

Anabela has an integral approach to coaching, working with each of its clients in a comprehensive, participatory and unique way. Comprehensive, because she considers the different dimensions of a person's life. Participatory, because she works in partnership with the client, helping her/him to develop skills, increase satisfaction and build capabilities to face challenges and opportunities. Unique, because Anabela works each case individually, taking into account the specifics of each person.

Anabela motivates people to reach their maximum potential, through the creation of personalized development plans, in order to help them understand their way of being in the world, as well as the benefits that can result from changing perspective.

Her approach is guided by a deep understanding of the individual aspirations, based on a studied and structured methodology. During the coaching process, clients are challenged to think and act differently, fostering the possibility of achieving different results.

Based on the principle that change is not easy, Anabela works closely with the coachee, motivating her/him to understand that, despite the challenges of personal transformation, change is possible if we bring our best self to it, 

INTEGRAL COACHING

This method lies in the fact that, regardless of the roles we play in each moment we cannot dissociate from the fact that we are a unique person. What happens in a specific dimension - professional, personal, etc - has an impact on the other dimensions of our lives and is influenced by those events.

The method also takes into consideration the individuality of each one, as well as the social and physical context in which the person is immersed. The personal context includes thoughts, beliefs, emotions and intentions, as well as everything that is happening at the physiological level. The social context includes the culture in which we are inserted, personally and professionally, the language we speak and the relationships we establish. The physical context includes nature, human artifacts, access to technology and the systems we live with.

Simply stated, integral coaching helps clients to face challenges and opportunities, by developing the following skills:

LONG TERM EXCELLENCE

This philosophy is based on providing the coachee with skills to respond to the different challenges that occur throughout life, in addition to ensuring that the skills she/he developed in the coaching process persist over time.

SELF-CORRECTION

The coaching process challenges the clients to look at their blind spots and understand how they impact their thoughts and behaviors. This awareness also helps them to be able to act whenever they detect any thoughts or behaviors they want to correct.

SELF-GENERATION

A successful coaching process allows the person to find the resources inside or outside her/him to overcome new challenges. Development becomes an ongoing process, and not a goal with an end.

CLIENTS

Integral Coaching is a methodology that can be used with different people and situations. The basic premise is for people to be prepared to be challenged and embark on a transformation process.

Since the method is highly participatory, it requires people to be involved in the process both inside and outside the sessions. Clients need to be prepared to be available to do exercises that will help them in the process of self-reflection and change.

EXECUTIVES, STUDENTS AND MBA ALUMNI

Corporate world has become highly demanding, and very challenging for those who have leadership positions. Executives feel the increased pressure, and the need to address the different challenges.

At the same time, they are dealing with change of paradigms such as different generations in the workplace, the increased boost of information and the lack of capacity to process it, and the emergence of new technologies.

All these combined requires leaders to develop new skills, and exercise leadership in a different way. To help them in this process, coaching emerges as fundamental, by giving Executives the tools and space to embark on a deep reflection process, inviting them to change and experience a new way of being in the world.

Anabela’s 26 years of experience in the corporate world, her experience with MBA students and alumni, and her involvement in the design of The Lisbon MBA Católica|Nova’s soft skills development program during 6 years, allows her to understand the challenges Executives face, the doubts they have and how the organizational culture can prevent the processes of personal change.

Executives and MBAs working with Anabela, will find the experience, the rigor and the support, which will allow them to get involved in a truly transformational coaching process.

YOUTH

Adolescence is defined by challenges, doubts and anxieties. To make it harder, young people are asked to take decisions that will have a huge impact on their lives, at a very young age.

Anabela started working with young people by the request of friends, who had teenagers at home. Most of the requests were related with the field of study, and the degree they would get at University.

Many of the parents felt unable to help their teenagers, either because they were far from academia, or because their children were unwilling to listen to them. Others also felt they could influence their children to pursue a career based on their own experience and not on their teenagers’ vocation. 

Having started in an unstructured way, the coaching of youth became one of the areas of Anabela’s expertise. This expertise was built on the knowledge of the job market, the academia, and the importance of developing personal skills.

Currently Anabela works with young people, helping them not only to understand their vocation, but also developing personal skills such as self-confidence, resilience, focus, among others, that will help them to succeed in life.

WOMEN

Although women have been able to acquire many rights, there is still a long way to go. Not only from a corporate point of view, in which we are 170 years away from reaching gender parity, but above all due the psychological characteristics and the pressure to perform at their best in all the roles they play. In this context is important to notice that even women with successful careers have a guilt complex and put the company and family interests above their ones. 

It is also known that women are more conservative when it comes to proposing a promotion or a raise. The statistics prove that women only apply for a job when they have 100% of the requirements, while men do it when meeting 60%. At the same time, they do less networking, and do not invest in informal networks, which would certainly allow them to have greater visibility within the organization. At the same time, as Executive Director of The Lisbon MBA, Anabela realized the low application rate for women, with a maximum of 40% of the students being female, with the average standing at 25%.

Taking all this into consideration, she has been actively working on the dissemination of these aspects, being also part of PWN, in order to create greater awareness within the female public of the characteristics that they must develop in order to be successful in the organizational world.

At the same time, she has coached several women, helping them in career transition processes and developing a greater balance between the different areas of their lives.

Contact ANABELA POSSIDÓNIO

Book a 30 minute session , free of charge, to explore if coaching is adequate for you or your organisation

Our Office

Lisboa
Portugal