It has been about a year since our last exclusive interview with Dr. Diego Ingrassia, an expert in emotional-behavioural analysis, Master Coach accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and CEO of I&G Management, a consultancy and management training company founded in Milan in 1988. After all this time, we decided to meet him again to understand how important Coaching really is today, also in relation to the particular historical moment we are living, as a training modality for the development of certain managerial skills and to increase the competitiveness of companies in the market of reference.
by Roberta ImbimboDoctor Ingrassia, it has been a year since our first meeting, how is your activity going, also with reference to the particular historical moment we are living through? .
Soon the second year of our Emotive Behavioural Coaching School will start. The ever-increasing interest in emotional aspects on the part of our corporate clients, who are increasingly requesting training courses dedicated to this topic, makes us realise that we have made the right and important choice. The current situation we are experiencing is there for all to see; the so-called restart, on which many had pinned great hopes, is undoubtedly underway, but it is still moving within a framework of great uncertainties. The choices companies are making are different, and in some cases I seem to notice a certain anxiety to somehow re-establish, as soon as possible, the situation we left behind two years ago. The term ‘new normal‘, quoted by many sources, basically reveals this, and makes us aware of what people are experiencing now. In coaching right now, it is very important to try to help people regain their emotional balance, the technical aspects of the work come later.
I would like to better understand how your approach to coaching succeeds in helping people in this respect.
The essence of a coaching process is change, and we are all involved in some kind of major change at the moment, it is normal that many people experience this as discomfort. Clearly, the extent of this discomfort varies from person to person, but these situations should not be underestimated. The phenomenon of ‘Great Resignation‘ – people who spontaneously decide to quit their jobs, first reported in the United States – is beginning to take on significant proportions in our country as well. This scenario requires great attention when we find ourselves following a manager on a coaching course. Never has it become more important than today to be able to push our listening beyond words. Attention to everything that happens in the emotional world of the coachee, observable through behavioural reactions, is the distinctive element of our Coaching School. Emotion uses the body as theatre and a trained coach can help to hear, and give voice to, this representation, because nothing can generate the process of change better than emotions.
Is a person attending your course able to acquire these skills? .
Of course, we attach great importance to this. It is fundamental, however, to remember that all this only becomes feasible by accepting to start from theawareness of one’s own emotional world, an element that in our opinion is indispensable in the competences of a coach and a determining aspect of the training course we propose. Going back to what we said at the beginning, the great interest that has been created around emotions is certainly a great opportunity to give prominence and consistency to emotional skills, and to create situations of greater wellbeing in companies, as we have seen there is a great need for this. But all this must be followed with a serious approach, characterised by commitment, responsibility and always referring to a solid scientific basis.
Is a person attending your course able to acquire these skills? .
Of course, we attach great importance to this. It is fundamental, however, to remember that all this only becomes feasible by accepting to start from theawareness of one’s own emotional world, an element that in our opinion is indispensable in the competences of a coach and a determining aspect of the training course we propose. Going back to what we said at the beginning, the great interest that has been created around emotions is certainly a great opportunity to give prominence and consistency to emotional skills, and to create situations of greater wellbeing in companies, as we have seen there is a great need for this. But all this must be followed with a serious approach, characterised by commitment, responsibility and always referring to a solid scientific basis. 
