Mike Cruz

For close to thirty years, the corporate world was home — the last decade as a managing director and board member in global legal technology, including the Indian arm of RELX PLC. Then the pandemic reframed what mattered. Stepping away as part of what came to be called the great resignation, I gave myself five months to think about what should come next.

None of this was planned. At first, people who had worked with me asked to be coached; then the requests began coming from outside my network, and that was when I took it seriously — the need behind them had become impossible to ignore. That power was already familiar: my own coach, Brigit Egan, had shown me the quiet, transforming force of being coached. So I trained at Barefoot Coaching in the UK, and over the years have become an ICF Professional Certified Coach.

What I came to realise through coach training is that everyone has an infinite capacity to think. That capacity rarely needs advice — only another human who listens well, keeps the space safe, and leaves judgment at the door.

Held with compassion and unconditional positive regard, people begin to find their own way.

My part is to hold the frame steady — and, now and then, to raise a mirror, shine a light, or offer the challenge that brings clarity to their goals; then to partner with them in reaching those goals, removing what comes in the way and reclaiming the hidden strengths that help them succeed.

Why I built CoachYantra™

I have logged every one of my 1,600+ coaching hours by hand — sending the invoices and following them up, rescheduling the sessions, chasing the payments, and trying to keep my learnings and reflections somewhere I could find them again. Wanting that to be easier, I built the instrument I wished I had, with a buffer after every session — a lesson learnt the hard way.

“I built the instrument I wished I had.”