My daughter and I found Magdalena Bak Meier’s work through her TEDx St Andrews. We found her short presentation both delightful and informative. She shared her own story of how learning who we really are, and what motivates us, helps us reach our goals made us laugh. Her neuroscience research, informed by positive psychology and Carl Rogers, also cheered us up immediately. Six months later, I started to take her workshops, in this order: ‘Goal Getter’, ’14-day Habit Bootcamp’ and ‘Introduction to The Grid’, all of which I employed to help me recover from a chronic health condition while also completing an MLitt in Creative Writing. Though I received a distinction for my work, recovering my health proved much more complicated and so learning how to support myself while the external mechanisms slowly put a medical diagnostic picture together proved been essential. An indirect benefit in supporting my daughter also became apparent as time went on: she was in Sixth Form and choosing her next steps for study and career. Using the Goal-getter model, in particular, allowed me to give her complete freedom to do things in her own way yet offer guidance, in the light of what I was learning, if and when she asked for help. She graduated with straight A’s and is now studying architecture. Trusting the implicit process seeking to unfold within ourselves, and others, is easier when we have a model.
“Magdalena has really helped me focus my pitch, and on how to really explain well to a wider audience the bigger picture of my research vision. It was really useful and targeted support.”
She is just the sort of coach staff find helpful – she is approachable, enthusiastic and full of good ideas that go with the grain of the application. With her heartfelt and intelligent heart & mind approach she nurtures talent and builds confidence so people demonstrate that they can be leaders and winners. Her work has a bottom line too. She has helped my staff attract over £6M pounds in funding.
I succesfully applied for a £2M research fellowship with Magdalena´s help at the interview stage. Magdalena came highly recommended by several colleagues who had been successful in obtaining the same grant after being coached by her. Magdalena critically helped me to shape my vision and pitch (slides, delivery, etc). She really helped me to aim high and not be afraid to do so. My presentations, the way I prepare and deliver them, were massively changed forever
“I have had the privilege of being coached by Magdalena for over five years and she has been an excellent sounding board and instrumental to my professional development. Her strategies for team productivity have helped me and my team to really make time count. She has certainly helped me to convert ideas into meaningful strategies that deliver the required results.”
Tim Ruthven, Head of Marketing, Imperial College Business School
“It is hard to express in one or two sentences how good Magdalena is – however, I will say the following: Magdalena is not your average ‘presentation guru’ – she is a world leader in her field. Consequently, working with Magdalena makes a REAL and CONSIDERABLE difference. My time spent working with Magdalena was characterised by a succession of ‘wow’ moments – where her insightful to-the-point suggestions would raise a presentation slide, or a verbal response, to a completely new level. I would recommend Magdalena in the strongest possible terms, and I look forward to working with her again in the near future.”
Magdalena has been a truly honest leadership coach who by observing, listening and challenging me, guided me to discover and act on all that I had to offer as Gina and as the leader of my organisation Ojos que Sienten A.C. The process hasn’t been easy, but thanks to Magdalena’s experience, I made it. I feel stronger, happier and clearer about what I want. Gracias, thank you Magdalena for supporting me and showing me the importance of believing in what I have build and how more people can make it grow it without having to rely on me, so it has a life of its own. Today I consider Magdalena more than my coach, a great friend I can trust.
She challenged, disturbed and yanked me out of my long winter of complacency and procrastination. I have achieved so much and faced many demons along the way. I don’t think anyone else would be able to tell me the honest truth the way she did. It meant I was able to work on things that mattered most. I have since been promoted, have more productive relationships with my colleagues and feel more certain about where I am going. Thank you!
Magdalena was sensitive, patient and gave me immediate sense of trust. We not only worked through my work issues that were draining me but also examined my overall well-being. I am now more balanced and I have learned powerful lessons from our work together. I am definitely more effective and more aware of my own needs. I have greater self-belief and feel positive.
Magdalena is an excellent executive coach. Her knowledge, ideas and enthusiasm meant that I always had confidence in her insight and I learned a great deal from the experience. Magdalena uses a variety of innovative techniques to view situations from different perspectives and think outside of the norm. She really stretched me to dig deep, to think about and then explain what was really behind my initial thoughts. This really helped me to find out what was impeding me from overcoming specific obstacles in the workplace. I would strongly recommend Magdalena as an executive coach.
