In
Hong Kong, those born later than 1990 (the “post-90s”) have been
stereotyped as “lazy, promiscuous, confused, selfish and overall hopeless.”
As coaches, we believe these post-90s are our future leaders and they have
potential to create a better future. The crucial issue is how we can help them
to realize their potential and empower their sense of self-responsibility.
Coaching transforms people with higher self-awareness, multi-perspective and
self-convicted action. Sir John Whitmore says, "One of the definitions
of coaching is to make people think on their own." We would like to assist
post-90s students to think, to act and to feel positively on their own through
coaching approaches.
As part of the IAC, an international coaching organization, we feel it is our
mission to connect and nurture these Hong Kong students with a proactive personal
development approach and a global vision by involving them in an international
coaching culture platform.
HKIVE (Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education) is the first college we
approached in March 2012 as a way of connecting with the post-90s in a learning
environment. We collaborated with the institute to promote coaching on campus
and organize the Student Coaching Club. We did not really teach them the nine
IAC Coaching Masteries®. Instead we designed the flow to let them experience
what coaching is and how the coaching dynamic works for individuals and groups.
Here is what we did:
- We used IAC Coaching Masteries #4, #3 and #5 to design an experience learning
workshop named “PAUSE-LISTEN-QUESTION.” - The original group was made up of 18 students. We respected students’
wishes if they were not ready for the journey and chose to drop out. 12 students
completed three 3-hour coaching workshops and committed to the next step of
the learning journey. - In the next phase, each student received three 45-minute 1-on-1 coaching
sessions from an IAC coach on a personal growth topic chosen by them. Upon
completion, each student wrote a 400-word article about their coaching and
learning insights for the purposes of their own self-reflection. - Students also co-created a list of the benefits of coaching, based on their
personal experiences. - In this last phase, the students participated in a follow-up coaching workshop
designed to give them some basic coaching skills while they practiced with
their buddies.
The students found coaching to be a respectful self-discovery process, providing
them with a safe space for deep thinking. They become motivated for more possibilities
in their learning and personal lives. As a result:
- 11 students committed to organize the second round of the Student Coaching
Club to pay forward what they had learned, and successfully recruited 20 new
students. - 11 students enrolled as IAC Student Members in order to learn more about
coaching. - They are working on a dream to bring the Student Coaching Club to their
former high schools to benefit younger students.
Leanne Chan, Alic Koon and Bonnie Chan are the three coaches involved in this
voluntary project. We believe these students will be able to use coaching in
their future workplaces. As coaching is still very new to the education field
in Hong Kong, we have a dream to introduce coaching in universities, colleges
and schools in the following ways:
- HR to provide coaching for teachers’ and staff’s professional
development - Schools to hire full-time coaches for student development
- Schools to support students to organize student coaching clubs
Bonnie
Chan, MCC, is an executive coach at http://www.coachlite.com.
Bonnie believes that a coaching approach to conversation empowers creativity
and innovation.
I’m proud to be one of the project team member.
From my HR point of view, I’ll rate this fresh graduate differentiate from other graduates. And will ask below questions:
– How will you utilize your coaching skill into business world
– What’s value you think you can bring to our company, especially with this coaching knowledge and
experience.
First, my heartfelt thanks to Bonnie engaging me in the project team. I’m proud to be one of them and will intend to continue planting the coaching seeds into different local tertiary institutions and wish one day every college &/or institution will have one on-site campus coach. Of course, with the support of Bonnie and other coaches, the universe will help us moving forward.
To echo Angela’s curious, from my 14 year’s corporate HR point of view, I will see the differentiation of this fresh graduate from others. And will ask below questions:
– How will you utilize your coaching skill into business world?
– What’s value you think you can bring to our company, especially with this coaching knowledge and
experience?
Thanks Angela, you are always the best support system (Mastery #9) to our coaches in Hong Kong. I like to keep on my journey of coaching to connect and engage with people in a creative way. Your feedback is always my inspirations.
Hi Ed, thanks for helping me to envision the development of the student membership and student coaching projects. You have empowered me to think – What if these students coaches will become “Parent as Coach” and “Manager as Coach” in the later part of their lives and workplaces, how will the world become?
I am curious to know how a HR manager responses to a fresh graduate candidate who has knowledge and experience of coaching.
What a wonderful initiative. Congratulations to Bonnie and all the coaches and students.
Wow! Very, very cool. Reading this is such a great way to start my day!
Would it not be so great to see this kind of approach repeated in universities all over the world?!