Eriona Gjinukaj on a Coachee’s Testament to the Value of Professional Coaching
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Our final guest for the main portion of season three brings an indispensible perspective to conversations about the state of professional coaching today: what value does a coachee get out of the experience? Eriona Gjinukaj, longtime COO of Dompé during its growth from Milan-based pharmaceutical to global biotech firm, has plenty to share with Kavitha on the topic. Eriona emphasizes the ways in which her coach—Cameron Smoak, featured in episode 2—engaged in both team coaching and one-on-one sessions at a time when the company was rapidly expanding its markets, revenues, and team size. For company leadership, having a coach in the boardroom led to improved cooperation and innovation. For Eriona personally, it meant transitioning from a problem-solving strategy consultant to a confident, effective manager of a 15-person team. She and Kavitha discuss the value of learning to prepare for difficult conversations with role-play, finding the right balance between listening and speaking, and why it is so critical that coaches lead with questions which allow their coachees to come to the realization that they already hold the answers they need within themselves.
Transcript
Links and Resources
Information on YGELP and Yale SOM Executive Education:
Resources Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
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Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI by Yuval Noah Harari
About Today’s Guest
Eriona Gjinukaj started her career as a consultant with Bain & Company in Rome, rising to the role of Principal Strategic Consultant over the course of ten years. Her areas of specialty included consumer goods, healthcare, and pharmaceuticals. In 2018 she took on the role of Chief Operating Officer for what was at the time a small, Milan-based pharmaceutical company called Dompe Farmaceutici. Over the next eight years, she and her team succeeded in growing this regional primary care company into a global biotech firm. During Eriona’s tenure as COO, she oversaw a sevenfold increase in revenues, grew the company to more than 1,000 employees, honed the company’s focus on targeting rare diseases, and expanded into US markets.