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Coaching Resources

A personal touch helps motivation, adaptation to change

By SUZANNE HARRISON
Reporter of THE SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

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Now. Touch the person's hand on your left, look them straight in the eye and say, "sorry". That's it. Now breathe deeply. Well ok. We're only joking. Executive life coaching can be widely misunderstood. Which is not funny, really, because it's serious stuff - now more so than ever.

In fact, even at times of severe financial malaise, big businesses are still prepared to pay for people like executive coach Angela Spaxman to provide support for men and women at the top end of corporations.

In fact, in the past two years, Ms Spaxman and her colleagues say, business has slowly but surely grown, thanks to raised awareness through promotion and the establishment of the Hong Kong Coaching Community, which meets regularly.

"Coaching is definitely growing," Ms Spaxman - trained by US-based coaching group Coach University - said last week. "The concept of coaching is becoming known so more and more people are getting interested and with all the challenges people are facing, they are seeking an increase in support. I have seen an increase in the number of clients coming in."

Ivy Ning, who runs executive coaching company PeoplePlus Training and Consulting, agrees. "If you're talking about the business environment, I've never been so busy as I have been in the last couple of months. It's really picked up," Ms Ning said.

"My perception is that we started doing a lot of promotion about two years ago and that was a build-up stage. Ever since then, we've been getting a lot more enquiries from corporate clients who are encouraging their executives to get private coaching."

Ms Ning charges a lucrative HK$2,000 per hour for corporate clients and HK$1,000 per hour for individuals paying out of their own pocket.

Both Ms Spaxman and Ms Ning say their clientele are half men and half women, with most people aged in their late 30s to 40s and the occasional person in their 50s.

"They can afford it and they can see the benefits of it. They are also more mature," Ms Ning said.

They are also generally ambitious and wanting more, whether in their personal or professional lives.

So executive coaching is popular. But what is it?

Many people may even be put off by the term, feeling they may be forced into making a decision that is not their own.

This, say the coaches, is a misconception and already businesses are starting to see that coaching is not about telling an executive what to do.

"What it [coaching] actually means is providing support for the real issues that people are facing and that is something that most training does not address, as training is designed for an audience, not a particular person," Ms Spaxman said.

"Coaching is private. People bring up things they wouldn't normally talk about in a training session. Coaching is either one-on-one, or a small group. It's much more individualised. The higher up the person is in a company, the more the company can benefit."

Sometimes, the client is a person who is valued within a company, but has personal issues that he or she cannot sort out on their own.

It is a little like counselling, except the coachee is setting their own agenda and there is not a lot of analysis.

Coaching is also very future-oriented, says Ms Ning.

The method is more about questioning techniques so people can find their own answers.

"Traditional training was very one-way," Ms Ning said. "It was like teaching without consulting the recipient.

"Coaching is like holding up a mirror. Sometimes, we don't really look at ourselves to get the answers."

Too true. But what sort of problems do these executives have, and what do they gain from coaching?

Ms Spaxman said she mainly worked with individuals who have their own businesses and want to change their career.

Ms Ning deals primarily with clients referred by big international corporations. People come to her with staff motivational problems (particularly now) as do those wanting to better adapt to change.

The upside is that, according to Ms Ning, clients get to know themselves a lot better.

"They have an increased level of awareness and they are more motivated when they have a clearer goal. They discover new resources when they feel supported and encouraged."