You probably do not need another person telling you what to do.
You already know how to work hard. You probably know how to learn, solve problems, take responsibility and get things done.
The harder question is often different:
Are you working on the right problem?
That is where coaching can become surprisingly powerful.
Good coaching is not about giving you better answers. It is about helping you see the assumptions, patterns and possibilities that are difficult to see when you are inside the problem.
That is the kind of coaching I practice.
And rather than explain it only myself, I asked people who have experienced it.
Sometimes The Problem Is Not The Problem
When something is not working, our first instinct is usually to fix the visible problem.
Procrastinating? Find a productivity system.
Stuck in your career? Make a plan.
Overwhelmed? Organize your tasks.
But sometimes the visible problem is only a symptom.
A client described my coaching this way:
“His questions were thoughtful, precise and impactful, helping me quickly connect with my inner thoughts and emotions.”
Santanu Mukherjee, Business Leader
He continued:
“What seemed like a simple conversation gradually unfolded into meaningful self-discovery as he skillfully brought out feelings and insights that I hadn’t fully acknowledged before.”
That distinction matters.
Sometimes you do not need another productivity technique. You need to understand what is actually driving your behaviour.
Another client described it more directly:
“Marcel’s powerful questioning gave me space to explore and helped me shift my mindset. I gained awareness about beliefs holding me back.”
Kamal Sharma
The goal is not to make you dependent on a coach to find answers.
The goal is to help you become better at finding your own.
Clarity Comes Before Optimization
There is a trap that ambitious people fall into surprisingly often.
We become very good at optimizing a system before asking whether the system itself makes sense.
We optimize our calendars.
Our workflows.
Our productivity.
Our careers.
Our goals.
And sometimes we become extremely efficient at moving in the wrong direction.
Coaching creates a pause in that process.
Not a passive pause. A thinking pause.
Katrina Yim, an executive coach and one of my clients, described our work as having:
“a balance of space to think and structure to push that thinking further.”
She also said:
“I leave every session with at least one helpful insight and one action item.”
That balance is important to me.
Reflection without action can become endless analysis.
Action without reflection can become endless activity.
The interesting space is between the two.
Think deeply enough to understand what matters.
Then move.
You May Not Need More Motivation
Another misconception about performance is that people who are stuck simply need more motivation.
Often, they do not.
They need to understand what is getting in the way.
One client came to coaching while struggling with procrastination around professional goals. Through our work, they began examining the beliefs underneath the behaviour rather than simply trying to force themselves to work harder.
Another client described a similar experience:
“He helped me untangle habits and patterns that were holding me back, while offering simple but powerful strategies that I could implement right away.”
Amaal Alani
She also described a practical result:
“Thanks to our work together, I now approach my time with more clarity and purpose.”
This is one of the things I find most interesting about coaching.
A behavioural problem can sometimes become much easier to change once you understand the pattern producing it.
You stop fighting yourself.
You start working with a better understanding of yourself.
I Will Challenge You
Feeling understood is important.
But coaching that only makes you feel comfortable is not necessarily useful.
Sometimes the most valuable question is the one you would rather avoid.
Tamuna Gochashvili described this part of our work particularly well:
“He asks the right questions, sometimes tough ones that make me stop, think, and finally see where the real problem is.”
She went on to say:
“And from there, it actually becomes possible to solve it.”
That is the kind of relationship I want with a client.
Not confrontation for the sake of confrontation.
Not telling you what you should do.
But enough honesty and challenge to prevent the coaching conversation from becoming another place where you explain why something cannot change.
Michele Munzel described my approach as:
“sensitive to emotional nuances and inquisitive as well as action-oriented and straightforward.”
She also described how exploration was translated into “manageable action steps.”
That combination is central to how I work:
depth, then movement.
And Sometimes The Results Are Concrete
Coaching is ultimately about the person, not the metric.
But that does not mean outcomes are irrelevant.
Sometimes changing the underlying pattern changes what becomes possible externally.
Liviness Chiusiwa gives one of the clearest examples.
She came away from our work with a very different relationship to responsibility and delegation:
“The unlock was learning to stop doing it all myself.”
She described moving toward:
“real delegation, clear boundaries, structured hand-offs, and a team with the room to step into leadership.”
And the results were tangible.
She earned a promotion to lead her Core program, submitted her Master's thesis ahead of schedule, and her department achieved the top repayment metric across One Acre Fund's countries.
That is a useful lesson far beyond coaching.
Sometimes high performance does not come from doing more.
It comes from removing the thing that requires you to do everything.
So, What Actually Happens In A Session?
There is no magic script.
We start with what is actually happening.
What are you trying to accomplish?
What feels difficult?
What have you already tried?
What keeps repeating?
What are you assuming?
What are you not saying?
What would change if the situation were different?
From there, we explore.
Sometimes the answer is practical.
Sometimes it is behavioural.
Sometimes it is emotional.
Sometimes the real issue is a belief that has been quietly shaping your decisions for years.
And sometimes you discover that the goal you arrived with is not actually the goal you want.
That is not failure.
That is clarity.
Marc Gómez described one of his sessions with me as:
“One of the best personal experiences I have had.”
He said that by questioning certain thoughts, he reached points of reflection that gave him “clarity and direction.”
Why You Should Definitely Work With Me
You should probably not work with me if you want someone to simply give you a checklist and tell you what to do.
But if you are capable, ambitious, reflective, and willing to look honestly at what is happening beneath the surface, we may have something interesting to work with.
My job is not to become the person who has all the answers.
It is to help you become more capable of seeing your own.
As Katrina put it:
“I would not hesitate to recommend Marcel's coaching to anyone who would appreciate more structure to support their thoughts.”
And perhaps the simplest description came from another client:
“He genuinely enjoys helping people, and you can feel that in every session.”
If you are looking for clarity, a deeper understanding of what is holding you back, and a way to turn that understanding into movement, let's talk.
You bring the problem. We will investigate the system producing it.
Let's have a chat, you would be surprised of the things that come out.
With care,
Marcel.
