“Because Life Is Wonderful”
82 ǀ POSITIV WOMAN
“Because Life Is Wonderful”
About the Courage to Pause
and Start Living Mindfully
Just a few years ago, Petra Crhák was leading transformaon projects in corporaons. Today, she
helps people change the world around them as a coach, mentor and supervisor. She sees coaching
as a connected, living approach to everyday life and believes that growth doesn’t have to hurt,
that change can be natural, and that even in chaos, you can live with ease. In this interview,
she also talks about what being a ‘happy mum’ means to her and how she seeks balance
between her profession and family.
Could you tell us more about your journey and what
led you to coaching, mentoring and supervision?
Even back at university, I was drawn to improving
processes – for instance, my favourite project was based
on Queueing Theory, where I designed a proposal
to improve the lunch distribution system in the student
canteen (laughs). I’ve always been fascinated by how
things work and how they could work better. That gift
– or perhaps curse – has stayed with me to this day.
Wherever I go, even if it’s just a waiting room, my mind
instantly starts thinking about how to reduce waiting
times or improve the service – or at least the feeling of it.
In 2008, I became an approved consultant for
CzechInvest, which took me to various companies,
including manufacturing firms in Vítkovice. As a young
woman in a blazer with a handbag, I suddenly found
myself standing among welders who said: “Ma’am,
don’t step there, it might be hot.” And I thought: What
am I doing here giving advice to people who’ve been
doing this for thirty or forty years?
That’s when I realised my role wasn’t to give advice but to
ask questions that spark new ways of thinking. Around
that time, I came across a book on coaching and thought:
Aha, so coaching is about asking questions. That’s
simple – anyone can do that, right? That turned out to be
my biggest misconception, because coaching isn’t just
about asking questions. It’s about listening, trust, creating
space, and working deeply with a person.
The key turning points came gradually. One of them was
during my time managing a team at Tieto, where I signed
up for a coaching training programme as a manager.
I left it with the realisation that the biggest change had
happened within me. I became aware of how caught
up I’d been – doing everything myself, organising, taking
notes, taking over tasks no one else wanted. I was, quite
literally, “all over the place.” Thanks to the self-experiential
nature of the training, I finally stopped and began
changing things within myself. I tried new approaches –
and guess what? They worked!
That’s when I said to myself: If this helped me, it can help
others too. And that’s how I decided to embark on the
path of coaching – and later, supervision and mentoring.
Have you experienced a time in your life when things
weren’t easy, and how did you overcome it?
Absolutely – and it wasn’t just one situation.
Challenging moments have come in different stages
of both my professional and personal life. One of the
most significant was when I was leading a large-
scale transformation programme in an international
company. It was a project intended to change the way
an organisation of more than 20,000 people operated.
It reached deep into the company structure, redefining
roles – some positions disappeared, others were newly
created.
I led a team of nine independent project streams,
Petra Crhák began as a consultant accredited
by CzechInvest and later she led internaonal
projects and large-scale transformaon programmes
in corporaons across Scandinavia. Today, she works
as a coach, mentor and supervisor, guiding coaches,
leaders and managers on their paths of personal
and professional growth. She is the Director of the
Associaon of Integrave Coaches (AIK) and the
founder of the online plaorm Excellent Coach, where
she supports the conscious development of coaches
and the culvaon of a healthy coaching environment.
Above all, I had to allow myself
not to get everything done. To accept that
the day isn’t a race, but a series of waves.