My Journey
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Back in my high school years, I remember listening to many of my friends and helping them solve their problems. I was fortunate to discover my life purpose, even before college. It was to: “Help people to help themselves.” This revelation led me to study Guidance and Psychological Counseling as a college degree.
College Years
During my college years, I learned about Human Resources (HR). I was inspired to work in a business environment with talent, impacting business results. I also wanted to have an international career and travel around the world. That was why I decided to work for a multinational company in Turkey.
Early Career
I started my career at the 3M Company. I was so fortunate to work with two very prominent HR leaders who had established substantial HR practices, which became best practices for many companies and within the region at 3M. As a generalist, I learned all the components of HR in a short period of my early career. Many regional HR subsidiary leaders were visiting Turkey to get onboarded. As a part of my job, I started to share the best practices since I loved developing others and mainly working in a diverse, multicultural environment.
Getting Out of the Comfort Zone
After a while, I wanted to leave my comfort zone and stretch myself. Although it was not the popular choice, I wanted to get out of ‘the country role’ and move to ‘the regional role.’ So, before turning 30, I took my first regional role to establish the COE (Center of expertise for HR) structure in the Central East Europe Area.
Many colleagues from Turkey were telling me: “Are you crazy? “Why are you leaving such a great role in Turkey and moving to a regional role?”. My response was: “Why should I be crazy? The only reason I wanted to work for a multinational company is to work across cultures and not be limited only to my home country”.
Broadening The Horizon
I honestly found what I was looking for.
I continued to broaden my horizon and extend myself. Within 1,5 years, my responsibilities expanded to cover Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). In less than three years, I led the HR Function for the Central East Europe Area.
This journey was beyond my imagination since I hoped to take on such a role as my last job, maybe just before retirement.
And there I was, early in my 30s, I was the first woman appointed to the Area HR Leader role in Central East Europe. I was the youngest and the second woman in the area management operating committee. This move had unlocked a new horizon that I had never thought of before.
Afterward, the opinion to stay in a country’s role changed. Contrary to when I took my first regional position, many people now wanted to move to area roles, and it became the preferred career path. This outcome felt like; I was able to change the rule of the game.
After four years, I found myself fluently managing the HR Function for 38 countries, including 5000 employees. Opinion Survey Results for HR were moved from worst to best in 4 years. Central East Europe HR Team started to introduce many best practices within the company worldwide.
Relocation to a New Country
In a few years, another opportunity presented itself. The company CHRO asked me to relocate to 3M headquarters in the US and take a global role. At the time, I was fortunate to work with an executive coach who helped me to think about it thoroughly for this big move.
I accepted and relocated to the US at the age of 37. I took global responsibility for the Executive/Leadership development. Together with the team, we launched three new programs targeting different experience levels from the top executive to senior managers within a year. The programs resulted in a big success and had a significant impact. Our CEO presented the new leadership development programs as a game-changer, and a competitive asset at the earnings call in 2016.
The next step was to integrate ‘building coaching culture’ into the company, identifying and training ten internal coaches globally in different countries and areas.
I was thinking that I was starting to warm up. But then, I had moved to lead the most prominent business HR Function in 2.5 years. This role was global. I traveled around the world with a team of top executives with diverse functions, and I visited countries and met with talent. More than a dream had come true.
Reflections
As I reflect, I was at a place that I could not have imagined or dreamed of.
I was fortunate to work with many valuable executive coaches throughout all these transitions. This work accelerated my development, moved through the changes more fluently, and amplified my skills and confidence to take bolder steps.
Within my 20 years career, I was also fortunate to work with 20 leaders from 10 different nationalities. I learned a lot from every one of them.
I was fortunate to have a family who empowered me from the beginning of my childhood. But then, I was lucky to find my love – life friend –my husband, who supported me throughout the wild and fast-paced journey that was one of the ‘critical X’ for my success.
Then, I started to think, “what is next for me?”. I remember myself struggling to answer this question honestly. I was in my 40’s, and for the first time, I did not know.
Choices we make
There are always choices. I could stay with the company or move to another company. I could quickly move to the next levels; this was the safe harbor. I could leave my comfort zone and sail towards new horizons.
There is always something new to learn, yet intuitively, I knew I was not stretching myself enough. I needed to go beyond the safe walls of the company that I grew up with.
I was again fortunate to work with an executive coach. This coach helped me uncover what my heart was saying to me. He supported me in navigating this courageous decision and helped me move forward.
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The reason that I chose HR was to ‘help people to help themselves.’ Throughout my 20 years of career, interacting with people, helping people find their dreams, and helping them unleash their potential through mentoring, coaching, or designing development programs fulfilled me the most.
After experiencing a fast-paced ride and a fascinating career in a corporate environment for 20 years, I wanted to reach out to more people more broadly in the next chapter in my life.
The Sailboat
This purpose reminds me of a sailboat sailing to new horizons to continue to explore. While my sailboat travels towards new horizons, I also perceive sailing as similar to the coaching journey. It may represent a new beginning, exploring new adventures, new learnings, and it all starts with getting out of one’s comfort zone – ‘the safe harbor’- and setting a goal – ‘a destination to go.’ However, we also need the true North – ‘the compass,’ representing our values to navigate our journey.
The waves of the ocean and the wind are the obstacles – ‘limiting beliefs,’ ‘mindsets,’ ‘things that are holding us’- that slow us in achieving our goals. Yet, we can sail with more harmony and smoothly through such rough seas through adjustment, shift, and change. It all starts with setting a destination, willing to explore, learn, change, and take action.
Over the years, many executive coaches and leaders helped me reach out for my dreams.
And now, as an executive coach, a consultant, and a leader, I want to help many other executives, leaders, people, and corporations reach out toward their dreams and help them go through their journeys. I want to help people and organizations achieve their goals faster, create positive change in their lives, and make a positive change in the world.
The Coaching Business and Life Purpose
Coaching is a process of creating awareness. It creates an environment for shifts and changes to lead to the desired goal. The process helps people unleash their full potential to positively impact themselves and others and their team and business.
It is fascinating to ride the journey with every unique individual to help them remember their big dream and, step by step, help them get to their goals.
– This journey is also a way for me to fully embrace my life purpose: “Help people to help themselves.”
