Olusola Lanre Coaching Academy Celebrates Outstanding Personalities at ‘The Coaching Icon awards’

The Coaching Icon awards held on Thursday 28th March 2019 at the Radisson Blu Anchorage Hotels, Victoria Island Lagos. The event which was powered by the Olusola Lanre Coaching Academy (OLCA), was created to recognize and celebrate coaches who have been outstanding over the years, for their impact and contribution to the coaching industry in Nigeria.

The event was hosted by renowned actor, singer, and author, Femi Jacobs. Award-winning recording artist, Nikky Laoye opened the event with a beautiful performance of the Nigerian anthem.

Chief Catalyst at the Olusola Lanre Coaching Academy, Lanre Olusola stated in his welcome address that the Coaching Icon Awards is also a medium to create awareness of the need to undergo appropriate training and certification to become a professional coach. In his words, “ Currently, there is a wave of quirk coaches, who have not been properly trained or certified and are wreaking havoc on the profession, the coaching industry can only grow by having well trained and equipped coaches providing standardized and professional coaching services that meet the needs of Nigerians and Africans.”

In his speech, Olusola also listed the criteria used in determining winners of the awards. Some of these include that coaches must be: Properly trained and certified as a coach; attended a standardized coaching academy; must be known to solve specific problems and must have completed a minimum of 400 paid coaching hours amongst other requirements. Award winners include Enahoro Okhae, Steve Harris, Omawumi Ogbe, Omilola Oshikoya, Tomilayo Aluko, Laila St Matthew-Daniel, Jimi Tewe, Remi Dairo and more. See the full list of winners here.

A highpoint of the awards was the panel discussion on the topic: “Individual and Professional benefits of Coaching” discussed by panelists, Chief Human Resource Officer at The Nigerian stock exchange (NSE), Pai Gamde; Executive chairman Àrgentil Capital Partners, Kunle Adedeji, and MD/CEO of Eterna Plc, Mahmud Tukur. The panel was moderated by Registrar/CEO, Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM), Ajibola Ponnle who was one of the recipients of the event’s highest award, “Master Coach”.

Some of the learning points made by the members of the panel session:

Coaching is needed and is important in the workplace.
Effective coaching changes how we relate with everyone around us.
Coaching employees is a needed investment because, without the people, the organization is just daydreaming.
As a society, we need to place more focus on men and their emotions in the workplace.

In attendance at the event were special guests, they include Executive Director and co-founder of Sahara Group, Tonye Cole; MD/CEO of EbonyLife TV, Mo Abudu; Head Marketing at UBA Group, Dupe Olusola; Principal brand consultant at ADSTRAT, Charles O’Tudor; CEO/Chairperson at Fine and Country West Africa, Udo Okonjo; Chief information officer at Chellarams Plc, Dr. Harbahjan Batth, CEO of ACT Foundation, Osayi Alile and Lead Strategist at Alpha Reach, Japheth Omojuwa.

The awards also led to the unveiling of Africa’s first digital coaching platform- the CoachME Online App, created by the Olusola Lanre Coaching Academy. Speaking about the app at the unveiling, Head of IT at the OLCA, Pelumi Mogbiele demonstrated the ease at which users can connect affordably with over 80 coaches from anywhere in the world on their mobile devices.

He went on to reveal that coaches on the CoachME platform are specialized in different areas of need; from finance to life coaching, wellness, relationship, business, sex and much more. The CoachME Online app is available at the Google Play store and at www.coach-meonline.com. According to Mogbiele, the app will be available on the Apple store soon.

Olusola revealed that The Coaching Icon Awards will hold annually to inspire coaches to do more as they improve the quality of living. Search #CoachingIconAwards on Twitter and Instagram to see live updates from the event.