hadn’t noticed any of these things
when I was working. I realized
that I was going crazy—out of the
world, away from people’s pain
and suffering, in a cave where I
hide myself, called ‘science’ and
‘research.’ That was the moment
where I began to change.”
Elena embarked on a new
professional journey that included
studies in ontological coaching
and the completion of a licentiate
degree in psychology from John F.
Kennedy Argentine University.
Elena’s heart was in coaching,
but the late 1980s and early
1990s were a challenging time for
the burgeoning industry in Latin
America. “At that time, some
individuals in the psychology
profession started a conversation
likening coaching to witchcraft,
because of the changes that
people experienced as a result of
coaching,” she recalls. “However, I
took what was happening as the
opportunity for a breakthrough,”
she says of her decision to
partner with Jim Selman and
co-found what would be the
first coach-training program
acknowledged by Argentina’s
Department of Education,
Science and Technology. “Now
witch-coaches were legal in that
country!” she jokes.
Seeing with the Heart
A decade after she launched
her coaching business, Team
Work, in Argentina, Elena
took her coaching model to
Mexico and founded Team
Power. Team Power’s client
list includes high-powered
organizations from a variety
of sectors, such as American
Express, Bristol-Myers Squibb,
Coca-Cola, Novartis and Sony.
However, it’s one of Team Power’s
smallest clients that looms
largest in the minds and hearts
of Elena and her team. Founded
in 2006, Ojos Que Sienten
(OQS), or “Sight of Emotion,” is a
nonprofit that works to change
perceptions of individuals with
visual disabilities by focusing
on their skills; empowering
and including them in social,
vocational and educational
settings; and supporting them in
overcoming their barriers.
The organization’s name came
from its first initiative, launched
by photographer Gina Badenoch,
to teach photography to visually
impaired individuals. Although
the medium of photography
is visual, the act of capturing
a photograph calls the other
senses into play. OQS’ sensory
photography workshops lay the
foundation for participants to
begin a creative process, tell
stories through photography, and
build new skills and aptitudes
in service of personal and
professional development.
OQS branched from its
sensory photography program
to offer job-skills courses,
public awareness events and
inclusiveness training for
organizations. “OQS staff knew
about Team Power and our
experience inventing games
and doing team coaching in
companies,” Elena explains. “They
asked us for collaboration, and
we fell in love! We love what they
are doing and the way they do it.”
However, the process of
developing training programs for
OQS to deliver to organizations
brought about a realization for
Elena and her team. “They always
needed a coach working with
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BELOW: Slated to graduate in June 2014, the first 14 students in Team Power’s collaborative program with Ojos Que Sienten are completing a rigorous coachtraining course.
Coaching World 19