Meet our Coach Members
Julie Parkinson
Director of the Institute of Executive Coaching,
IEC Accredited Coach.
What led you into coaching?
I lived in Hong Kong from 1985 until 2002 before moving to Australia. Towards the end of that period, the South China Morning Post carried a regular column written by a Hong Kong coach. I remember reading the column week after week and thinking "I could do that". When I relocated to Sydney, I took a couple of months to get the family settled and then began my coach training.
Who do you typically coach?
My role in the Institute is Director of client services. I am responsible for working with our clients to understand the business outcomes they seek from coaching and to match the most appropriate coach or team of coaches to meet these needs and address the performance gaps. In some cases the client wants to build a coaching culture across the organisation so I then work with them and our Director of Training to design the most effective coaching intervention. I primarily work with heads of HR, Learning and Development or executives about to be coached.
Tell us something unique about your coaching style.
My coaching style is at the mentoring end of the spectrum. I have built and run businesses for many years and tend to find appropriate ways of sharing my experience with my clients. I am told that I am very direct and outcomes focused.
Describe your favourite tool/technique/psychometric assessment.
I love the conversations triangle, developed by the IEC's Director, of Training, Dr. Hilary Armstrong. It helps to identify the appropriate conversations that we need to have and helps me to recognize that 90% of our conversations need to be setting clear expectations, and offering support (coaching). We so often dive straight into the "difficult conversation". I use this model all the time and clients love it.
What is one quality that you think is essential as a coach?
Take yourself and your own ego out of the equation. It's not about you, it's about the client.
What motivated you to join HKICC?
Although I left Hong Kong six years ago, my heart is still there. My children were born there. I built my first business there; my closest friends in the world still live there. I am still on the board of Mother's Choice. The IEC has a growing number of clients in Hong Kong and we are training and getting to know local coaches. What better organization to become a part of?
How does coaching in Hong Kong compare with other places where you've coached?
While life coaching is well accepted, executive coaching in Hong Kong seems to be less understood and less developed than in Australia. When I started coaching in Australia six years ago, coaching was regarded by many companies as "remedial". They would send an executive to "be fixed". This is now rarely the case and coaching in Australia is most often used to retain and engage high potentials, for example "talent pools". When I visit clients in Hong Kong, they are still less clear on the benefits of executive coaching, and in many cases still see it as "remedial".
The IEC works entirely in the field of executive coaching, as opposed to life coaching, and I believe in Australia the difference between these two forms of coaching is more clearly understood. It's just a matter of timing; Hong Kong has some great coaches who are committed to growing the profession.
What is your greatest accomplishment?
My greatest business accomplishment is building my events company in Hong Kong and selling it in 1997 to a US company when I wanted to spend more time with my kids and on my charity work. The timing was perfect.
What do you do for fun and relaxation?
I hang out with my family - my husband of 25 years and my two teenage sons. I do yoga twice a week, I drink red wine and I love to cook. I laugh a lot.
What gets you up in the morning?
My Hong Kong dog -Lucky - if I try and lie in he comes and takes the blankets off of me!
Contact Julie
Tel: +61 2 8270 0642
E-mail: juliep@iecoaching.com
Website: www.iecoaching.com
