An Exclusive Interview With Valentina Kordi – Top Mindset & High-Performance Businesspersons’ Coach
Valentina Kordi is a Certified Mindset & High-Performance Coach for Executives, Teams & Entrepreneurs, International Motivational Speaker, TEDx speaker, and author. She has 10 years of experience as an Executive & Business Coach having coached SME and multinational companies’ businesspersons and C-level executives worldwide from companies such as Microsoft, Novartis, Boehringer Ingelheim, Coca-Cola, Biomarin Pharmaceuticals, Nissan, AstraZeneca, Unilever and others to achieve their corporate and professional goals, build their leadership skills and manage effectively changes in individual and team level, by changing their mindset and behaviors, after having worked herself for 15 years as an Executive in multinational companies. Her book «Success is a mind game» has become a best-seller. In 2020, she was listed as one of Greece's Leading Women of Business and in 2021 she was awarded with the International Women of Courage 2021 Award from the International Human Rights Advisory Council, a member of the United Nations Global Compact , which is dedicated to Mother Teresa.
Who is Valentina?
I was born and raised in Greece. I grew up in a middle-class family, based in a small city, where I was mostly surrounded by people with broken wings and surrendered to their own fate of dreaming small and accepting things as they were. All I could see around me was misery, a blaming attitude, bitterness because of “not good enough” feelings, compromised choices, and a mindset focused on limitations, limited resources, and reasons why one couldn’t conquer bigger goals and achieve them. Going against the tide, I didn’t want to accept that this was a path I had to take for myself. I believed in the power of dreaming bigger and creating my own destiny by doing whatever was in my hand to make that happen. So, instead of asking myself each time I set an impossible, according to others’, goal: “Why this cannot be done?”, I would ask: “How this could be done?” searching for ways to realize it. This is how, I managed to study with my own money while working at the same time since a young age, which gave me the opportunity to create a successful career path reaching managerial positions in multinational companies, up to the point, 10 years ago, when I decided to make the biggest career shift, till then, quit the safety of my managerial job position and start my own coaching business, which was considered a crazy thing to do and impossible, back then, by everyone in my family and my social circle, taking into consideration that Greece was going through a severe financial crisis, during that time. As I see it and experience it, every single day, it was the best decision in my life!
Why did you make the decision to become a Mindset & High-Performance Executive and Business Coach?
In my 15-year experience working in organizations, what I realized about myself and people with whom I worked with, is that having career goals or the willingness to succeed is not enough. What gets us to experience success, in a way that makes us feel happy and fulfilled and it is sustainable is consciously decide who we want to be as human beings, first of all, and then as leaders or businesspersons, and create that set of behaviors and habits that will drive us every single day closer to achieving our professional goals, aligned with the corporate goals we work for, or our own business’s goals. And that might seem easy, but what acts as an obstacle of doing that is those sabotaging beliefs and fears that are deeply rooted within the mindset of each one of us that need to be changed, before anything else. Because, if we don’t change them, we will never be able to become confident leaders, who build high-performing teams, or see the growth we desire in our career, or even run a successful business, in which we are able to serve our clients in the best possible way. So, this is where I come and help my clients take those obstacles out of their way and unleash their authentic potential to achieve the goals they desire and deserve and being the best possible leaders, executives, and entrepreneurs, they could possibly become.
You also take on culture transformation projects. Would you like to tell us some words about that, too?
Of course! Motivation, job satisfaction, and high performance are never only one individual’s work. There must be a culture within the organization, and in every team or department, that will enable each team member to activate those three elements and contribute in the best possible way to reach the company’s goals. My job, in this case, is to help the decision-makers create that culture through building a way of thinking and doing in the workplace that their people will be happy to high-perform.
You’ve written a book called Success Is A Mind Game that became a best-seller. What is it about?
The book describes the 9 steps I followed when I decided to examine consciously what was that mindset state that helped me succeed in my career, even in challenging times, when the sabotaging negative mindset of my upbringing wasn’t taking over. With those nine steps, I’ve helped also many businesspersons around the globe overcome their one mindset, habitual and behavioral saboteurs and thrive in their career, but also help their teams do the same.
As we hope we’ll get back to normal soon, how do you feel about getting back to in-person keynote speaking at events?
If there’s anything I missed so much during this challenging for the whole humanity pandemic period is traveling around the globe, like I used to do, to speak at events about effective leadership, the mindset of success, organizational culture, and employee motivation and engagement. So, I can’t wait to get back on the stage again!
If there was one advice you could give to businesspersons what would that be?
I’ve worked with many businesspersons and high-level executives around the globe, as I provide mostly sessions online. The biggest obstacle in most of them in getting where they desire to be in their career is their fear of being inadequate, of not being enough. What I would say to them is to start believing more in themselves and never forget to acknowledge what they’ve achieved so far. They need to start believing more in themselves, so as to be able to trust more their people in their teams.
How can people find you and get in touch if they want to work with you?
The best way is to visit my website.
It was a pleasure and thank you for taking the time for us to get to know you better.
The pleasure was all mine!
Follow Valentina on her Facebook Page, Instagram, LinkedIn, or website for more info!
