Coach Aldem: Living life on a winning streak

Life’s a game, so they say. A complex maze of rights and wrongs, where there are so many options to consider in reaching different levels of various life fulfillments.

But no matter how straight or twisted these decisions are, that form part of one’s fate, all paths ultimately lead to one end. Let’s just put it this way: game over. The end puts everything into perspective, and now, making the most out of life is of primary importance.

Aldem Salvaña is an executive coach, or how some would easily label as life coach. And Breakthrough Coaching and Consulting Inc. (BCCI), or otherwise known as Brkthru, is a coaching and human resource training company that he runs with his wife, Vanessa.

“Brkthru is a more shortened form of the word which means to smash through all obstacles in order to achieve one’s goal in a sustainable way,” Aldem shares.

Simply put, we all need a little outside perspective at times, helping us truly assess our performance in this life.

Aldem, when it comes to these things, is a sure-fire professional. He is internationally certified under the Meta-Coaching (MC) system, a powerful coaching methodology that transcends traditional performance coaching, taking the coach and client to higher levels—to developmental and transformational coaching.

“That is why we call it ‘meta,’ meaning a higher level. At these levels, profound change occurs naturally and easily. The result is success and transformation.”

Before becoming a Meta-Coach, Aldem taught at the School of Humanities of the Ateneo de Manila University. Born in Cagayan de Oro City, he studied in Xavier University for his primary and secondary levels, then proceeding to Ateneo de Manila for college, post graduate, and the beginnings of PhD.

Aldem was in town recently for a one-day public workshop. The event, organized by Archus Training and Consulting—Brkthru’s partner in Cebu—invited Aldem to introduce the MC system to leaders in Cebu, helping them coach their people to higher levels of meaningful performance. The workshop was held the whole day, July 25 at the City Sports Club Cebu.

“I coach organizational leaders at the C-level (CEO, CFO, COO, VPs) all the way to supervisors. I also coach individuals who are ready to achieve their goals but can’t seem to pull it off for one reason or another,” explains Aldem. Examples of his latter statement range from people like, a high-performing manager who has been slipping in performance for the past nine months, to a professional who, after a successful career, resigned and cannot decide whether to take over the family business or get another job.

Using the MC system, Aldem basically asks his clients strategic questions almost 95 percent of the time, for them to figure out what is “getting in the way.” Once they understand the inner motivation and the issues better, then they can make better decisions and strategies that drive success.

“But unlike for example the counseling you hear on radio or see on TV, high level coaches never give advice nor tell people what to do, not even suggest, nor tell our story of how we solved it. Nor do we criticize or make judgments,” Aldem states. “We believe that people have their own internal resources to solve their own problems.”

Here’s more about Aldem: He received his international certification as a meta coach from Hong Kong after taking a total of 18 eight-hour days of workshops, and also became a neuro-semantic modular trainer after an equivalent of 21 eight-hour days of training in Hong Kong.

He is also the only certified Filipino from the Leading Bold Change Program of “change guru,” Dr. John Kotter, from Harvard University. Aldem got his certification as a psychometric facilitator for the DiSC Behavior Profile of Inscape in partnership with Organization Technologies Philippines. He is also a certified facilitator for Dr. John C. Maxwell’s Developing the Leaders Around You module. The man got international leadership training from the Haggai Institute together with leaders from 23 countries for 25 days in Singapore and personally trained under a top global company to expand a marketing business in Dubai. Aldem has trained and coached leaders from over 500 companies and organizations including Petron, Samsung, The Medical City, BPI, Globe, Dupont, Metrobank, San Miguel, Aboitiz, Microsoft, Supreme Court, GSIS, SSS, Citibank, Pfizer, Nestle, HP, Philamlife, etc.

“Bo Sanchez is just kind enough to share publicly that I have coached him and have trained many of his top leaders, so my thanks to him. More than that I look up to Bo as a limitless (or lidless) leader who just keeps on growing because he is one of the very few leaders who are incredibly teachable and coachable, and he constantly surrounds himself with the best mentors who just make him and his organization so much better,” Aldem shares about the popular inspirational speaker.

But of course, despite Aldem’s mastery of dealing with life and its lemons, Aldem is not exempted from, to emphatically put it, being mortal.

“Having no immediate answer to problems is a regular experience for me. But the most important thing I do when a problem comes is to smile and be thankful for the challenge, as it is given to stretch and grow us. I do not pray for problems but when they come I are grateful for the opportunity to grow. In fact, as consultant and coach I tend to gravitate towards problems because one thing I know, it is called a problem because it has a solution, and that is how I earn my living, by facilitating individuals and groups to find their own solutions where at first there seems to be no way out.

“But since like all humans I tend to self-sabotage (or take the easy way out), then I ask those whom I respect (usually fellow meta coaches) to share their ideas on how they see the problem and what solutions they might have already tried.”

Aldem now resides in Manila with his wife (who is Aldem’s boss, being the chief executive officer of BCCI) and are blessed with five children.

“BCCI has been a tremendous blessing for my marriage and family life. I coach my wife whenever she asks for it. What’s really cool is when I coach her and her problem turns out to be me! But in coaching we say it is never about the coach, so I just facilitate her finding her own solutions, and it’s a great and bonding experience for us.”

When you play by the rules and end up on the winning side, life is indeed good. The game gets better, and for this particular story, coach Aldem is on a winning streak.

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