Since 2002, I have been a personal coach for certain business executives in different industries in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The number of clients has gradually increased after my stepping down from the Chairman role of Carlsberg Greater China in 2014.

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The objective of my partnership with my clients is to maximize their personal potential to the highest possible level in both self-competence and daily leadership. The one-on-one coaching is mostly done through face-to-face plus online format while consulting services are mostly conducted via emails and mobile calls.

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Besides those life-coaching activities which mainly cover coachees who used to be my schoolmates, old business partners and subordinates, I categorize my coaching activities into the below said types:

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• Career coaching is usually arranged for my students and young people who I met in different occasions. It is normally on a short-term basis of which the partnership usually lasts for only a specific period of time. The objective is to help the clients to evaluate the career status and adjust the career plan with action directions. Emphasis will be put on the strengthening of competence, planning for a career transition and job advancement. For clients who are looking for changing of employment, job search strategy, resume preparation and job interviews preparation will be the core part of the partnership. In some of the cases, my clients would change into strategic or organizational coaching after settling down in the new organizations.

 

• Strategic coaching is the most important coaching activity that I have been offering to my clients. It covers mainly my clients’ corporate strategy setting & reviews, as well as the advices given on their daily business operation initiatives. It is more a close partnership with transparent sharing. After a certain period’s interaction, clients’ family matters would be covered. Strategic coaching, to me, does not have any time limit but the overall expectation is that the partnership between my clients and me would be tightened throughout the days of coaching which leads to the growth of mutual trust. From the reviews and problem solving along the ways, my clients usually treat me as their close family member from whom honest advices could be obtained without delay.

 

• Leadership coaching is also my major interest and I do on both irregular and long-term basis. The scope of coaching, with focus on people management, starts from self-evaluation & self-branding and end up with the commitment to grow the followers. When coming to the daily leadership of the coachees, the coachees are taken in various forms from face-to-face meetings to telephone discussions. While there are few clients choosing communication on a timely basis, most of the rest prefer cases reviews in an ad hoc manner. With the trust of some clients, I have got opportunity of working with their direct subordinates for strengthening the corporate culture and team spirit. Through the close communication and coaching, I aim at helping my clients to significantly reduce the staff turnover rate, improve overall productivity, enhance team spirit and generate stronger team work for forming powerful platform for the achievement of the corporate KPIs.

 

• Organizational coaching is focus on the reviewing on the company’s goals with periodic advices on improvements. Clients are mostly the senior executives of the organization. Through the partnership on setting framework for a sustainable growth of the values of the organization, my clients would gain the opportunity of strengthening the organizations’ competitive advantages which is always the most critical area of the continuous growth of the business.

 

• Consulting is on an irregular base in which my clients contact me for seeking advices on specific strategic issues or solving problems arising from the operations. Online communications are carried out in most of the time for the overseas clients but face-to-face discussions are always adopted for the clients in Hong Kong.

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GROW (Goal, Reality, Options, Wrap Up) model has been widely used for guiding the process of coaching, especially on the short-term basis. Disregard the type of coaching, I usually set a time-frame for each of the specified targets:

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• Phase I (normally for the first month) – SWOT analysis on own capacity and ability, identify the goal of the coaching, SWOT analysis on the current environment,

 

• Phase II (after clear objectives are set for the future) – Identifying the options to go and routes to success,

 

• Phase III (after options and routes are fixed) – continuous reviews on the setting in Phase II with gradual modifications.