Fabrizio Beati : EEC Alumni Spotlight : April 2025

"My name is Fabrizio Beati, I am Italian, I live in Munich and I am a consulting engineer with leadership experience in transformation issues. I am also a coach, both executive and team coach, and I am very passionate about singing and cooking and food. And I'm in love with Spain, that's also something I want to make clear.

Fabrizio, tell us, what links you to the European School of Coaching?

Well, a training I did in team coaching in Spain and in individual coaching in Italy. I am linked to my great love for coaching, and also for doing it in Spanish and within this culture and philosophy. So, there are many things that link me to EEC.

If you had to give your own definition of what coaching is, what would you say? For me, coaching is accompanying someone on their journey of transformation towards the person they want to become, to live a life of fulfilment and authenticity.

Through coaching I learned... I don't know if you have already answered it or if you want to clarify something.

Ah, well, yes, I learned about a million things, but I think the most fundamental, and one of the things that pushed me to approach coaching, was learning to limit judgement of myself and judgement of others. That's the first thing that I'm learning and continue to learn, and that allows me to live life with much more joy, with much more opportunity and also to have a more powerful impact on the lives of others.You're commenting at the beginning when you introduced yourself that you're an engineer, you're a coach, you're passionate about music and you're passionate about singing. Which of these - or if there's a way that they all blend together - what is your passion? Yes... well... my passion... I don't know if it's the sum of all of these things. Surely my passion is to have a positive impact on the lives of others, of the people I have around me. And simultaneously also to live life in all its aspects, which is what also brings me closer to singing, to eating, to being an engineer, but also a coach. But what I am most passionate about is having a positive impact, having a positive influence on the lives of others.

If you had to describe yourself in one sentence, Fabrizio, what would it be?

Well, it is a phrase attributed to some, to some tribes, they attribute it to Saint Augustine, others to Sabina Ghio, which is: Pray as if everything depended on God and act as if everything depended on yourself.
That is, for me, to live life on the one hand in the acceptance of what happens, in the flow of life, and also to live it with full responsibility for your actions. So, with the same intensity: accepting and taking charge. That.

On this path, which I feel is a professional one, of technical training and then a much more skills-based training, what has been your biggest challenge?

My biggest challenge has been to change the way I lead, as I am trained as a consultant in top management strategy consulting. So, a very competitive, very macho field. And the biggest challenge for me has been to transform this way of leading, very top-down, very controlling, with a lot of judgement, into a way of leading that comes from trust, that comes from active listening, that comes from coaching. And this has been very, very difficult. It is still complicated, but now I have many more tools, also thanks to coaching, that allow me to lead from trust and to become the leader I want to be.

I hear that there is a kind of external, how the environment receives it. Does the environment find this kind of leadership difficult?

Well, I think that in the companies where I operate, which are conservative companies, they are a bit macho, very focused on masculinity... of course, a way of leading that is aligned with that way of being is still successful.
And then there is also an external aspect that pushes you, that makes it easier for you to develop that kind of leadership, and it is not an environment that facilitates more coaching leadership.
So, it's more complicated because of internal factors - how I was formed, how I was educated - and also because of external factors.

What impact does this new way of leading have on the environment?

Well, people are a bit surprised, aren't they? The fact that you can lead with trust, active listening and lack of judgement... it's something that really blows people's minds. And it has a very positive impact, certainly on the teams, who easily surrender to this way of leading because they understand that it is a positive way and a way in which they can also benefit a lot... In the higher hierarchies - I am clearly talking about my world, a little bit more conservative - they are not ready yet. With love, with healing, there is still a little bit of suspicion, that this way of leading can be linked or associated with a form of weakness. And it will take us a few more years to change this way of seeing leadership.

You said, Fabrizio, that this was the challenge. And what has been your greatest achievement?

Are we talking about the professional field or another field?

We are here to... to talk about whatever you want.

Well, I say two achievements. One that is aligned with the topic we are talking about and another one... maybe not, maybe yes. The first would be to see within myself and within the way I operate, and in the teams I lead, that it is possible to lead with effectiveness and enthusiasm through coaching. And that this has a positive impact on people.
For example, in my last team, two of the members chose to do coaching training and are now coaches themselves. And when that happened, it was wonderful for me to know that I had been able to inspire them to become coaches.
And then there is a personal achievement of mine that I am very fond of, which is to have travelled 1,300 km in 2010 from France to Santiago de Compostela and from Santiago de Compostela to Fatima, in two months. It was a wonderful experience. That's what I take away with me: 2,300 km travelled in two months. And nothing, I think it was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life.

I'm assuming they are walking tours....

Walking, walking, yes. Standing, standing, all standing. Eight hours a day.

What did you learn from that?

I learned that it doesn't take much to be happy. It doesn't take much. In this case it was walking. I walked eight hours a day and I was happy, because I shared that walk with other people who, like me, shared the enthusiasm to accompany each other, to walk together. And that was enough to make me feel an incredible happiness inside me. Such a simple thing as walking. Then I learned that happiness is much simpler than we think.

And where do you want to be in the future?

Well, number one: I want to be in Spain. I have, in the medium term, the goal of moving to Spain.
In the future I want to continue to lead teams in the corporate environment, having the biggest impact I can with the team, in my field, which is the product field, and I think one day I will probably dedicate myself only to coaching. This motivates me a lot. I imagine that in 10 years I could be doing exclusively coaching. But this is not yet decided. To continue to have a positive impact on teams: that is my first goal. And to move to Spain.

May I ask why, or what Spain is for?

Sure, you can. It's a very good question... and very difficult to answer. It's a bit like when you fall in love with someone and they ask you why you fell in love with that person. You don't know exactly, but you feel something. You feel a closeness, you feel that you want to be with that person. It's a bit like that. Surely there is a cultural, linguistic, historical, artistic issue... but in the end it's like this: it's happened, and I'm left with this love. And yes, it still hasn't gone.

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