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My Approach to Career Coaching
I came into the field of Career Coaching almost by accident, when I was being coached myself after retiring from the Hong Kong Police Force and looking for a way to translate and transfer my various skills from the Disciplined Services to the Corporate world. My Coach was a Master of his art and a leader in the field and after few soul-searching and tougher-than-I-expected sessions, I began to discern a ‘method to the madness‘, a pattern of development which I could then build upon.
As things eventually turned out, my identified skill sets, abilities and overall experience suited the area of Career Coaching very well, and I was asked to join a career coaching company to develop what appeared to be a very interesting and rewarding way forward. I was soon dealing with clients and coaching them under a well-established, effective and internationally recognised programme and found my new ‘job-fit’ to be spot-on.
I also later privately gained qualifications under the auspices of the Institute of Executive Coaching and Leadership in Hong Kong and found myself being engaged for a variety of sessions of advice and assistance in the field of assessment, development and coaching, largely in my own time and without compensation.
I also recognised that the coaching programme in which I was trained and the approaches it entailed could be better adapted to the particular circumstances of Hong Kong. I set about modifying my course content to suit what I believed was a more appropriate fit for the local professional and graduate environment. Whilst the Course basics were undoubtedly sound, the approach I began to develop drew heavily on the training and experience I had gained in over 30 years with the Police Force dealing with a variety of individuals and situations. My previous service had included many years of Officer Training and Development in addition to the exposure and variety of operational command and management. I had learned to break things down into component parts, gather all the relevant information and reassemble it all to suit the situation or to make the point - and that is the approach I take to Coaching.
I eventually decided to establish my own coaching company, Coaching Asia, to provide a practical and personal approach to the common complications faced by many in the career development cul-de-sac - whether graduates and young professionals just starting out or established executives recognising the benefits of an independent, impartial and perhaps, unconventional, approach.
Having ‘been there, done that’ myself, I am aware of the difficulties facing those starting out in their professional life and those making changes along the way, as well as the struggles many individuals experience in generally presenting themselves in their best light There is a myriad of advice and information, with varying degrees of usefulness, to be had on the best way to approach various situations, how best to write-up your necessary documentation and how to deliver an effective presentation - and it can all get very confusing. It needn’t be and all that it takes is an objective view of “who you are and where do you want to go / what do you want to do?” Nothing beats a solid foundation and an understanding of what drives us, what needs to be highlighted and how best to develop and present our strengths, or your subject, effectively - and some realistic and practical options of how to go about it.
" The key to it all is the understanding of the processes - once these are mastered, the skills stay with you for life."