UAE-based life coaching company 2blimitless specialises in improving the lives of individuals as well as working with corporate groups, and has added ‘child empowerment’ to its list of services geared to help kids get the most out of themselves and realise their true potential. Experienced leadership coaches Michael Todd and Philip Munro have been joined by ex-primary school teacher and psychology graduate Adam Zargar to produce a programme of empowerment coaching specifically designed for children and young adults, in order to help them gain more confidence and ultimately achieve greater independence and responsibility. A rather stark (and self-confident) equation of ‘child + 2blimitless = greater confidence and happiness + prospects of more friends and more money in future’ is subtly woven into the narrative on their website, and many could be forgiven for dismissing the thought of kids’ lessons in teamwork and ‘evaluating friendships’ as 21st century corporate mumbo-jumbo, worryingly filtering its way down into the minds of impressionable infants and their over-anxious parents.
However, the programme, developed over a period of nine months, has so far received fantastic feedback from both parents and the little guinea pigs themselves; so much so that the team is now having to look at taking on an extra coach. Australian-born Todd explained to us why he thinks the programme has done as well as it has, and told us a little more about how the sessions work. ‘Over here, you’ve largely got children whose parents invest a lot in learning – both time and money. But they’re not just prepared to spend: they really are interested in getting the very best out of their kids. It’s this positive reception that’s resulted in the organic growth of the programme that we’ve seen, rather than any sort of intense marketing strategy.’
Sessions with Adam last for 45 minutes each, and continue over a period of 10 weeks. These all focus on building children’s natural talents, cementing the belief of the 2blimitless trio that using people’s strengths as a foundation for improvement is the best way to help them excel. The relatively short duration of each session is also designed to get the most out of the children, as Michael explains to us, ‘learning is remembering’, and therefore little and often is what is key when looking for positive changes. ‘We look at what motivates kids, what moves them. On some levels, it’s very similar to working with adults, but on others, it’s very different. We look for small changes, because these all add up, and the most important bit isn’t actually the time we spend with the children: it’s the time that we spend apart. This is when we see improvements starting to take place, and we work just as closely with the parents to ensure work carries on during the week. We’re not childminders, and we’re certainly not in competition with parents; we’re in partnership with them, and often they’ll come back to us with new goals that they’ve drawn up from talking with the children themselves.’
It is clear the boys are committed to maximising the potential of each child they work with, and that most of what they do comes from the children themselves and not from pushy parents. ‘In the UAE, the kids are often very focused on what they want, and they haven’t felt under any pressure from the goals we’ve set with them. In fact, they’ve found it really rewarding to have a time each week that’s centred on them. We go in with no assumptions and focus entirely on the client as an individual. We give the children the tools to do things by themselves and they flourish when they go it alone. We like the science of success,’ he adds, and it sounds like they’re on to a winning formula.
Child Empowerment classes are arranged on a tailored basis at Dhs550 for each session or Dhs5000 for 10, www.2blimitless.com. Call Adam Zargar on 050 509 3212.
