Why I chose coaching

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I have spent much of my professional life doing work I genuinely cared about.

I led teams across Latin America, the US, Europe, the UK and the Middle East, working in publishing, cultural relations and education. I took on challenges that mattered to me, broke professional barriers and was described as a trailblazer.

But leadership, for me, was never only about delivering results. Some of the most rewarding parts of my career came from helping other people grow. I invested deeply in becoming a better leader, mentored and coached colleagues for many years, and became particularly committed to supporting women as they developed their careers, confidence and leadership.

Over time, I realised that this was more than something I did as part of my role. It was work that felt deeply aligned with my values and with the kind of contribution I wanted to make.

At the same time, I was living many of the tensions I now recognise in other professional women:

I was a wife, a mother and a daughter, trying to remain present for the people I loved while carrying the demands of senior leadership.

I also experienced many of the transitions that can reshape a woman’s sense of identity: redundancy, relocation, care giving, the empty nest and the approach to retirement.

Over time, the pace and the way I was working began to affect my health, my relationships and my sense of who I was. Eventually, one thing became clear: I still wanted to do meaningful work, but I no longer wanted to keep doing it in the same way.

The question became: How do I continue contributing without losing myself in the process?

Coaching helped me see that I had choices. It gave me space to question patterns I had taken for granted, reconnect with what mattered to me and begin putting myself back at the centre of my own decisions.

My later training with One of Many® gave me a deeper framework and practical tools for understanding that journey, particularly through its approach to women’s leadership and Soft Power.

Becoming a coach did not feel like leaving my professional life behind. It felt like bringing together the part of leadership I had always cared about most — helping people grow — with everything I had learned through my own experience as a professional woman.

Today, I coach women who are asking some of the questions I once had to ask myself.

Women who want to keep contributing, growing and doing meaningful work, but doing  in a way that feels more aligned with who they are, what they value and the life they want to create.

 Aida Salamanca
Women’s Coach
Trained with One of Many® | Women’s Coach Certification in progress