I was recently asked to contribute to a book on executive coaching by Dr Susie Linder-Pelz who wanted me to share my perspectives on Executive Coaching in Singapore and Asia. To get the full scoop you will have to buy the book but here are a few things that might interest HR professionals or those looking to engage an executive coach.

Executive Coaching for expats who work for multi-national clients is no different from coaching in the USA, Australia or Europe. They face all the usual challenges of leadership such as how to get the best our of their team/s and how to manage their own time and get some balance particularly if they are travelling a lot. They may have some issues around navigating different cultures particularly  if they are new to Asia.

In my experience executive coaching for the Singapore and Asian manager falls into two categories, those who have been educated and worked overseas and those that haven’t. The former category are usually much more comfortable separating themselves from their actions and can receive feedback as a tool to improve. The latter category often struggle with this, as the concept of ‘Face’ is all important to them. Feedback is often perceived as criticism and they can become defensive. Obviously this is a generalisation but if you look at the resistance of Asian companies to tools such as 360 degree online feedback you will see where I am coming from.

How we overcome this at Self Leadership is to pace the client’s current reality and establish a deep level of trust and rapport. Our executive coaches are trained to help their client’s to step back from the day to day tactical demands and take a strategic look ate themselves and how they lead.

In this time of ‘readjustment’, taking time out to really think about how we think and act is not only smart but essential.

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