Coaching Case Study By Tong Chge Michael Lee
(Career Coach, SINGAPORE)
The Client
I have a client by the name Glenn (not the real name). He has been a working for more than 20 years and for the last 16 years, he has been specialising in Procurement in the Government and Private sector.
Since 2007, he has joined a friend to set up a trading company, his role, not only doing procurement but also running the company daily operation, Admin/Account and flying to overseas to inspect cargo. Subsequent, he set up another trading company and a Bistrol. Things were going well for him and he was very happy.
However, things do not last long, within 8 – 9 years, he lost all his businesses and his partners parted away. He also lost his car, saving and own bank money. He suddenly feels empty in all areas and has to start from zero at the age of 44. His moral was very low and he has lost his direction. He has approach us, hoping to we can help him to get back to life.
Start of my Coaching session
In my coaching session, I understand what he has got through during these 4-5 years before I set the Coaching objective. I started to ask power question and give him my active listening.
During the active listen, my coachee pours his worries of his future and uncertainty of not sure when he will get another job in procurement. Despite of keep sending C.V. for the last 3-4 years but there are only 2 interviews and less than hand of calls from job agency. The response from them was that Glenn was either over qualify in experience, if not his home location is too far to the employer’s office. Glenn also felt that age maybe also one of the factors. Lastly, he also questions the job portal and the emails that he had sent out, may not have reach the agency or the employer email box.
The mental stress and fear as time go longer and longer that he may not ultimately that he may not get a job. He ever mention he was at one spot attend suicide but hold back from jumping out the window, when he saw his 6 years old son crying in front of him. So he decided to look for helps and while waiting to get a job, he started driving taxi to pull through the period with some income.
After hearing from my coachee, I told him that Thank God Your Are A Life. And I continue by saying, there are alternative and choices in life, that you need to explore and open up yourself to accept it.
My Challenge and Concern
I realised my biggest challenge was my coachee mental strength. Gave time has weaker his thought. Therefore, I need to get him accurate by engaging him to do some works.
In my coaching session
I told him I will walk with him to help him to focus to find his life back, focus on where he is now, where he will be next and how he gets there.
I told him in order to address to what he has told, I need him to work with me to identify areas that will help him and get into where he want to go. After talking and sharing by my coachee, we have identified these areas:
- Work on his C.V. as his C.V. has not been looked into by the expert for the last 10 years or more.
- The job portal that he keep sending out C.V. but no reply. Look into other alternative and innovative way to reach out to employer instead of the traditional way of just sending email and wait for reply.
- Get him in touch with the up to date workshops, seminars and job fairs, so that he has better understand of the job available in the market.
- Send him for upgrading courses, relevant to his industry or his interest if you choose to swift industry, so to increase his chances, as he has not been for courses for the last 10 years.
- Go through with him the statistic of the labour market. Which market is sunset industry, and which market is sun raise industry, so that he may want to consider swift industry, and instead of keep to one industry where jobs may not be available.
- Another area we will be looking at will be his Strength. We will be doing the Gallup Strength Finder to look into his strength, so that he has better understand himself and work toward his Strength.
- Lastly, I mention that if the employment market is not available to him due to unforeseen reasons, like market is bad. He needs to identify a backup plan. He need to think about if he is unable to get a job, what is his next alternative interest or what he interest and the industry he wish to swift. We can work toward plan B too and not reframe from just getting a job (Plan A).
After going through the above action plan with my coachee, his respond was positive and willing to work toward it. He will also think about the alternative plan if job not available anymore. During the session, he also realise the tradition way of job seeking is a challenge at his age, the idea way at his age is to get refer of jobs by friends, therefore, he know the important of expanding his networking. In order to do that, he see the important of attending courses, workshop, seminar and exhibition with help him to get to know more people, in additional his taxi driving can also expend his networking by engaging with passengers.
After the a few session of coaching, my coachee is more open to ideas; he is willing to explore other alternative and not just looking for procurement jobs. He sees more opportunity than he used to. He also engages and occupies himself with course to upgrade his silks, attend seminars and workshop, where he has increased the friend’s base in his chat group.
After doing his Strength Finder, he has a better idea of knowing his top 5 Strengths. I hope to make use of it to get into where he wants to go next.
5 Months After
I did another follow up with my coachee and found him to be happier. He has identified his next direction. He mention through the coaching, where I thought him how to write down his what he want to do next (his plan). Through the coaching and the Strength Finder, he has come to learn of his another interest, which is talking to people and hope to help people with similar to his experience. Therefore, he is working and taking up courses in coaching, so as he can embark a new career change.
He is happy that at least after 5 months, he got a new direction and has set it as his Plan A, he also learn not to have only one plan, and he has also set a Plan B.
His relationship with family is better than before and he mention he was happy to have spare time to walk through his son PSLE exam. With that, as a result his son achieved better result than what the family has set.
Summary
As a coach, I saw my coachee has come out of his lowest point in life, he gave himself a chance to let other help him (via coaching). He had opened his mindset to accept what was past, accepted and looked forward to future and knowing what was the past and no longer will be for the future (example jobs). He has got through the process and transition; upgrade himself to be ready for the future. Lastly, he has identified his next destination of what interest him and focus to achieve it. I guess that is what all coaches wish to see.
