Influencer Ivan Kuster
Core group member of Share2Uplift, Ivan Kuster
As a Life Coach Ivan is helping his coachees to balance their life and work hours. Mastery of the balance in one’s life could be very challenging, especially in a world full of increasing pressure on the personal level or at work.
Over time Ivan has evolved more and more into gaining an ever-increasing mastery on asking the right self-reflective questions to his coachees. With their explicit permission, Ivan also gives suggestions, but he mainly focuses on asking questions. Ivan: “I also share with them book summaries I make, inspirational quotes and YouTube videos, to trigger their self development. I also work explicitly in increasing coachees their positivity ratio. I always suggest them to find a silver line in whatever is happening in their lives. Why? Because, “By taken actions, you either succeed or learn a lesson”. Look at what Ivonne Zegveld, Director Owner of I-Design has to say on the effect this has had on her perspective towards life: “…I have grown in my personal development and perception on life. I am grateful for what “is” and I am more positive and more focused in achieving my personal goals. Each morning, Ivan sends me some inspirational quotes via WhatsApp. It helps to trigger a positive mindset necessary to see opportunities and to achieve my goals. It is as if…the sun shines more frequently…”.
Ivan founded Uplifting BV in January 2015, because he wanted to change his focus drastically and away from Finance. Ivan is an economist by profession and he worked as manager most of his life in the Ministries of Finance (Former Island Government of Curaçao and of late in the Ministry of Finance of Curaçao).
Nowadays he is exclusively focusing on how to enable people to grow personally and is diligently studying Leadership development, Self Help, Mindset changes and more in general the development of human beings. Ivan: “I’ve come to the conclusion, that the approaches to problems we have in government and on an individual level for financial challenges, don’t usually solve things structurally and in the end, “when push come to shove”, it is all about human relations and their humanity”.
“What drives me is, that via coaching, I can enable people on an individual level, to transform into a better, more balanced version of themselves, by changing their mindsets. This person can then influence their circle of influence in their families, at their work and as volunteers as part of their social responsibility activities. If we connect and align the leadership from all walks of life on Curaçao in the near future, this as part of an alignment of all coaches on the island, we can change Curaçao and be much better prepared for the challenges of the 21st century”. Arthur Con, Managing Director of FKP says: “…Mr. Ivan Kuster has been my personal leadership coach since December 2016. Besides his daily useful inspirational apps and weekly coaching sessions presenting many renowned and effective leadership methods, it’s a blessings having such a disciplined and highly positive world class coach around with the eagerness to acquire and share knowledge to contribute to one’s managerial skills…”.
The most important principles Ivan applies are:
• teaching a coachee to accept 100 % responsibility of their lives and
• emphasize the belief that they have an almost infinite potential within themselves, being insufficiently tapped.
By accepting this, they can become aware that they are the masters of their own faith.
As a coach he helps them through self reflective questions to discover:
• their purpose in life, their core values and where they want to be 5 or 10 years from now;
• their strengths and opportunities in their life and
• what is holding them back, to live a more fulfilled live. He, at times with their permission, give suggestions. The most important principle being, daily journaling of the beginning and the end of their day and accountability partnering with a person they trust on a weekly basis. This is to create a habit of reviewing, tracking the progress of their pre-determined goals, to enable more self-reflectiveness and to create accountability. This increases the coachee self-awareness and the possibility to self correct.
The greatest satisfaction according to Ivan comes, when a coachee expresses their gratitude for the changes, that they have experienced in their lives. Ivan: “That makes me very happy, although I always tell coachees, that they are the ones, that chose to make the changes. If the coachee has a leadership position in an organization or their family, it also helps enabling gradual transformational changes in those settings and that also makes me feel happy and grateful. I have learned, that asking the right questions is what enables the biggest sustainable changes in a coachee, so this has now become my greatest strength”.
Gladys Cuales CEO and Owner of Precision says: “In the past year I’ve redefined my life by making a conscious and committed effort to change the way I do things. Ivan of UPLIFTING B.V. has giving me key fundamental tools and best practices that I have been able to easily integrate in all aspects of my life starting with my personal development and by extension my social and professional life. I’ve regained belief in myself, in the power of the mind and in what I can achieve. It is a liberating feeling to be able to acknowledge the infinite possibilities that are there for you. In the midst of challenges and difficulty, coaching is a journey that I decided to make because I believe that personal and professional progress is essential to anyone who wants to get more out of their life by rediscovering and redefining their potential”!
Ivan’s past experiences while working with politicians, civil servants and other stakeholders over 30 years in government, has helped him gain a deep understanding on what doesn’t work. He can easily come up with questions to create awareness in his coachees on what is holding them back and on what is their untapped potential, this combined with some relevant assessment tools.
Furthermore, Ivan is an avid reader of self help, leadership books and listener of podcasts. He continuously follows courses either live or on-line and this has helped him to improve continuously and helps him to ask better and deeper questions. He loves to work with the leadership of organizations, be it for profit or not for profit, because leaders are usually the persons with the most influence in their respective circle of influences. If they choose to change, they positively influence lots of other people. By asking self-reflective questions, he triggers a coachee to start a self discovery journey and become aware of their blind spots in their thinking and thus their behaviors.
He strongly believes that via deliberate personal growth, growth can be limitless. Each human being, basically has limitless potential for growth, but most of us, are using only a very limited part of our real potential. Ivan also offers clients group coaching in organizations where he coaches an Influencer or Manager, One-on-One. This really enables transformative changes in their organizations. In One-On-One coaching, the retention of what is learned and the new habits and behavior have the highest chance to stick because of the frequency of the coaching sessions one a week or once every 2 weeks. Especially if the coachee is highly motivated and accepts 100 % responsibility. The frequency of the group coaching usually varies depending on the needs of the group.
Mistica Fraay who is a Manager of care at Sint Elisabeth Hospital underwrites this: “His coaching sessions have taught me to deal with life and my daily task as a manager very positively.
By now, I’m better at making crucial conversations with my staff and colleagues. I’m able now to give coaching sessions to many colleagues at work with great results. Getting to know Ivan Kuster was the best thing that could happen to me as a manager. His vision and the way he wants to change people positively has inspired me to join the Share2Uplift movement”.
Ivan: “My firm belief is, that if all coaches on Curaçao would connect and align, we can enable breakthrough changes in Curaçao. As the founder of the Share2Uplift movement with my other fellow Share2Uplift core group members and with all those willing to connect and align efforts, we are aiming to by the end of 2018 have enabled 250 ethical leaders from all walks of life with 21st century mindsets, collaborating to make themselves, their families, their organizations and ultimately Curaçao a happier, balanced and productive island”.
To get into contact with Ivan, email him: Ivan@upliftingcuracao.com. Check out this link or Linkedin.com/Ivan Kuster or call him on his phone +5999-6986437. If you are interested, Ivan will offer by phone a half hour of free coaching. Look at what Gladys Cuales advices: “Sometimes you search for something and then all of a sudden the right people come along your path to help you along in a specific direction, and that is the best thing ever. I hope that you too can go on a journey like this with UPLIFTING and find the amazing”.