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Charlie's first book on
The Groupness Factor
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Home > Resources > Articles on Coaching > Does a Coach Need a Coach? Does a Coach Need a Coach?
Coaching in Asia, whether life, business or executive coaching, is still in its infancy. However, it is growing at a fast pace with many new coaches being trained every year. I estimate that coaching in the more progressive Asian cities (Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul, Tokyo, etc.) will reach the maturity level of Western Europe within the next 5 years, and that of the US within the next 10 years. When I started my coaching business approximately 2 years ago, immediately after I had undergone training as a coach, I decided to engage a mentor coach for a number of reasons:
1. The Coaching Experience During my coach training with CoachHouse Asia (based in Singapore), I had the opportunity to be coached a number of times by our coach trainer and my fellow student coaches. This was certainly very valuable and I am glad I did not miss those experiences. At the same time, I wanted to experience coaching from another professional with a different focus to widen my scope of coaching styles. My mentor coach was able to confront me with a different coaching style. 2. Starting my Coaching Business The start-up of any business is a challenge in itself anybody who has ever started a business can confirm that. To start a business in an industry which is not (yet) established poses an additional challenge. When I started in Hong Kong in 2002, the number of coaches (those with formal coach training, at least) in this city was perhaps below 50, and I was able to know most of them personally. I came across very few coaches who did full-time coaching; most were also engaged in consulting, training, etc. Hence, there were very few role models in town to learn from. My mentor coach she herself started her coaching business approximately 2 years before I did was able to give me valuable insights on what and what did not work for her, and I figured that what she learned could help me in similar situations. This certainly saved me considerable cost in the cash-flow-critical start-up phase. 3. Reflections on Coaching Cases It is known that most therapists and counselors have some peers or mentors to reflect on critical cases to ensure that they don't overlook anything. I find it equally important for a professional coach to work with a mentor coach on difficult coaching cases. The mentor coach can reassure the coach about his/her approach or open up other possibilities of how to move forward. The mentor coach may also be helpful in highlighting signs in the coach-coachee relationship that coaching may not be the appropriate intervention anymore, i.e., that counseling or even therapy might be indicated. Even though I benefited greatly from the work with my mentor coach, I stopped working with her a few months ago because I wanted to expand my horizon even further by working with a different coach. Earlier this year, for the first time I took on the role as a mentor coach myself with a couple of coaches who were just about to finish their coach training. It is a very rewarding yet challenging work that I enjoy very much. I developed the Progress-U Mentor Coach Program using the following tools:
The participants benefit from this program by: + Jumpstarting their business rather than making unnecessary
and time-consuming mistakes For more information related to the Progress-U "Mentor Coach
Program" please contact
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