This is our second blog post with Farhan Farrukh, #InnoVoice and InnoEnergy Master’s student. In this post Farhan shares more about his experience studying with InnoEnergy and whilst doing the Game Changing Impact Programme.
Coaching for success
I have had a couple of coaching sessions, which provided an opportunity to talk through what I know about myself, The GC Index® profile, career interests and much more.
One of my coaches is a professional from Madrid, who works in one of incubators and focuses on helping entrepreneurs fulfill their dreams. It has been fantastic to tap into his expertise and explore whether I should follow a path as an entrepreneur or go into big corporate. He helped me realise I don’t need to make a final decision now but instead make some smart choices to ensure I gain the right experience for the workplace generally.
At the moment I am working with a group of other students on a project. It is providing a great opportunity to practice important workplace related skills, including leadership and negotiating skills, creating business plans and materialising an idea. This is enabling me to build evidence to demonstrate to future employers how I can work well in a team to drive innovation and make things happen.
The coaching sessions give me an opportunity to reflect on what I am doing. My coach asks interesting questions, which get me thinking about decisions I am making, and how I am working.
I also talked through my profile, delivered by The GC Index®. This has been incredibly helpful in exploring how I make my impact within a team and how we can improve how we work together. In fact, we are using The GC Index® framework to build the team – making sure we have a diverse group of people who can develop the idea and spring into action.
Initially I was a little cynical about how coach could help me but the sessions are proving really helpful and challenging me to think about the future.
Boosting Creativity and Innovation
InnoEnergy provide access to focused group sessions that prepare us with some of the softer skills required at work.
I recently took part in the InnoEnergy Creativity and Innovation Mastermind session, which brought a group of five students together to discuss innovative ideas we may have and challenges we face in realising them.
Focusing on problem solving with a diverse group of individuals who I hadn’t met before gave me the opportunity to hear differing opinions. It was a fantastic platform to learn how to challenge my own thinking, consider different points of view, communicate and develop a creative approach to problem solving.
I see the benefit of taking time to connect with other students now to challenge my own thinking, both in terms of my studies but also ideas for the future.
Making the most of opportunities
There are so many opportunities to get involved in InnoEnergy projects and I am really enjoying being able to put different skills to the test.
Recently I have been working with a small team to organise the InnoEnergy CommUnity flagship event, which is being held in October. It’s my role to ensure the speaker series is a success.
I also helped organise an event, which was held here in Leuven, Belgium. We involved a German startup that wanted to explore whether to launch a new customer offering involving household batteries. We designed an interactive session where students got to explore whether this was a viable offer. The event was a huge success and it has given me the opportunity to demonstrate a number of skills.
By getting involved in these projects and working closely with my coach I am learning so much. I believe I am gaining the skills and experience that will set me up for the future.