Coenraad Fourie: Forty years, one revelation

Coenraad Fourie has spent nearly 40 years as a civil and transportation engineer – someone paid to solve problems and deliver answers. When he encountered the Coach Approach, it landed like a revelation.

“That’s a big shift – moving from being the one who has to come up with the solution to helping build people and holding them capable of finding their own solutions,” he says.

Using the Coach Approach is Vision Coaching’s proprietary program designed to build leadership coaching skills that empower people, encourage accountability and strengthen organizational effectiveness.

Through Dillon Consulting’s partnership with Vision Coaching, Coenraad met CEO Dave Veale, who sensed his curiosity and invited him to take Using the Coach Approach. He didn’t hesitate.

During the workshop, Vision COO and coach Pete Stoddart had Coenraad thinking and saying things he would not have reached on his own.

“I remember it to this day. That’s where I thought – I want more of this.”

What changed wasn’t just how he leads, he says – it was how he moves through the world.

“It slowed me down. I run a hundred miles a minute – that’s how I thought I thrived. Coaching showed me there’s a whole other dimension I wasn’t accessing.”

The program inspired Coenraad to enrol in Royal Roads University’s Certified Executive Coach program, which he completed at the end of August. It reinforced a different discipline from the one that shaped his engineering career – resisting the urge to solve too quickly and creating space for others to find their way forward.

“Every time I have a coaching session and I see somebody have an aha moment, I almost have tears in my eyes. That is so awesome. I don’t think I would ever have been able to do that without Using the Coach Approach.”