By Lee Wai Lan, VP of Membership, HKICC
It was a valuable experience representing HKICC to attend the 2010 IAC Shanghai Coaching Conference on 19 March, 2010. As ambassador of HKICC, it was my honor and privilege to speak about the “Road Map on Becoming a Professional Coach” at the conference. Picking up from last month’s story about the conference, this article provides some insights and impressions gained through direct interaction with participants.
Highly Motivated Coaches
What stood out the most about all the coaches I met was their passion for coaching and their genuine wish to enhance people’s lives. This was the case for both Chinese coaches, as well as a number of expatriate coaches who work regularly in China and are very familiar with Chinese culture.
Receptiveness to Coaching
Coaching is a relatively new concept in China. At the same time, people in Shanghai are receptive, eager and open to learning about it. They are also willing to invest in coaching and are attracting many foreign coaches and local Chinese to establish their businesses there.
Some Burning Questions
How coaching, as a Western concept, could be applied to Chinese society?
Is there a Chinese model for Coaching?
How to deal with the short-term mindset when coaching is a long-term investment?
Their Passion Showing Through
One of the panel speakers observed that in reality it takes longer to establish a trusting relationship in the Chinese culture, and this is where coaching being a Western concept needs to somehow be adapted so that it can more effectively be applied to Chinese style of interaction.
Surprisingly, there was a lot of interest in parent coaching (which happens to be my specialty). One coach stated that “I would like to see parent coaching support parents and parent-to–be”, echoing the view of many other participants. Their interest was very strong as evident by the many parent-coaching related questions they approached me to ask about.
Coaches were keenly aspired to getting their coaching certification. They see it as a life-long learning process, and a vehicle for continuous personal and professional growth. One of the most frequently asked questions was – what is the difference between IAC and ICF?
Hong Kong Coaches at the conference
I see possibilities for coaches in Hong Kong to develop business by having contact with coaches in China
HKICC was a co-sponsor of the Shanghai Conference. This sowed the seed for attracting new members from Shanghai to join HKICC. When the benefits of joining HKICC were explained, some coaches showed very keen interest since some have frequent travels to HK or are stationed in HK. They especially appreciate HKICC as a support network to coaches and they long to have similar community in Shanghai.
Going forward, Professional Development meetings on IAC certification can be arranged to benefit members’ personal and professional development, if members are interested.
Reading this story is not the same as attending the conference. Therefore, I highly recommend coaches to attend similar conferences in future for the networking and business opportunities. Since the event, I have also learned that some coaches have formed their own interest groups and continued contact via email. As well, due to having attended the event, some experienced coaches from Hong Kong and Taiwan have committed to go for their IAC and ICF certification.
(adopted from HKICC Newsletter May 2010)
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