Coaching

Last Friday, I had the final meeting with my "coach". A somewhat sad day for me - like the last day of a college class you really enjoyed or finishing a good book. I was surprised how much I benefited from the experience.

Prior to my return from living in Asia for eleven years, it was suggested that a "coach" could help me speed up re-entry to life in the US organization. When I got back to the US late last year, I was asked (again) if I was interested working with a coach. "Sounds like a good idea" was my response. Honestly, I was more curious about the whole "coaching" phenomena. I wanted to know what a coach actually does and if, for example, they gave you homework.

Before I left the US in early 2000,  it seemed only those destined for the top management suite or those likely to be shown the door due to behavioral issues had coaches. In short, coaching seemed either for accelerated mentoring or "anger management".

The coaching "industry" seemed to have gone mainstream while I was in Asia - like drinking bottled water or doing ergonomic evaluations of every employee's "work environment". Another of the many changes I have noticed since coming back.

Like everything else in this blog, what I say about coaching is "generalizing from a small sample" - my experience and my opinion. 

As far as the value for money of coaching - it is hard to say.  I never checked on the cost - my feeling is that my coach was relatively pricy especially based on the fact there is a large organizational umbrella (read company that needs to make a profit and pay overhead) in between my coach and my employer. Many coaches can be reached directly via their website but large company's tend to use a service to arrange coaching. Just as sure as I am that I benefitted from the time with my coach (a couple hours each week when I was in the country); I am also sure that I would never have been willing to pay out of my own pocket for coaching. A more likely scenario is that I would have read a couple of books by coaches and/or discussed my repatriations issues with a fellow ex-pat in an airport lounge or on a long haul flight. I might have just pored out my soul to Yuki - our  loyal dog and gotten feedback via how bored she looked while I talked. I say none of this to denigrate the value of coaching. I had the good fortune to work with an excellent coach but given the nature of the industry I think I was lucky. In general, coaching is more laissez faire than "financial planning".

Once it was decided that I would have a coach, I was given several candidates to consider - I selected two from the group to meet over lunch and then picked one.

Pondering what to do "next"

My coach did a great job of helping me sort out how I felt about returning and whether it made more sense for me to focus  on success in my current position or perhaps ultimately deciding that I was better off finding a new opportunity where the skills I developed in Japan and China would be better utilized and appreciated. It was a socratic process to get me to come to up with future plan on a step by step basis. I wasn't told what or how to think but I was supported through a process that enabled me to select my own "end game". Clearly "an end" is coming to the role with my current employer and the real question is: what path do I take with the skills I have developed?

In any case, the formal process has come to an end. I am thankful for the opportunity to work with someone who was skillful at getting me to work through a process to decide if I am better off on my own. The question is: with one daughter just out of college and another with three more years at one of the most expensive schools in the world; do I have the courage to "do the right thing"? Time will tell.

Thanks "coach"

The Office

After eight months back in the US, I am quite comfortable and settled. There is only one thing that I have yet to adapt to - spending more than a couple days a month in the US office. I am in the midst of three straight "office" weeks. I did this once before earlier in the year to prove to myself I could do it. This second run of three straight weeks was mostly for personal reasons - I didn't want to be away while my younger daughter was back from college so I had a very good reason to stay close to home.

My job is to make sure our worldwide customer base is buying product and satisfied with our service. The majority of our business is outside the US - so spending a lot of time in the office is, for the most part,  non productive. Of course, there is administrative work (planning, budgets, reviews, reports, face to face time key people, etc) but that doesn't take up more than 20% of my time. Most of the people who report to me live outside the US. Not much point to spending a lot of time in the North Carolina office.

For over a decade, I didn't have to worry too much about being bored in the office. Although I had completely different situations when I lived in Kobe, Japan and Shanghai, China - neither presented the "office" challenge that I have here.

I spent over five years in Japan but almost never went to the same office more than once a week. Due to the fact that I had responsibility for both my company's Asia Pacific business and two joint ventures with Japanese partners, my office situation was a little complicated. Of course much of the time I was out of the country so which office I would go to didn't come into play. Other times I was in the Tokyo area where most of our customers had their HQs.

For my company's non-JV business, I had a small space in a "serviced" office where although there was only one of me (and no employees), the serviced office created the impression that the company footprint was much larger than my small room. One of the serviced office receptionists greeted the occasional visitor and answered my phone. If I needed a big, impressive, conference room, I could rent it by the hour and have an "office lady" (an actual job title in Japan not me being politically incorrect) bring coffee and tea creating the impression that we had a staff in the Osaka office. As President of two joint ventures, I had the "power" desk at the back of a room with many other desks in front of me. I guess the logic is the guy in the back can see what everyone is doing. Our partner company didn't particularly want a "gaijin" in the office even if he was the JV President. My time in that office was limited and largely ceremonial. The time I spent with customers was the important part.

Often, I simply worked from home - our 19th floor apartment was on an island in Kobe Bay - I will never live in a place with a better view. My wife was not always thrilled when I announced that I was working from home. I enjoyed the diversity of work environments. My time in Japan was completely different from the experience I had when we moved to Shanghai.

Shanghai was a major change - upon arrival I was our division's first and only employee in China but my mandate was different. Instead of dealing with JV partners, I was to hire a local team, acquire land, form a local company and get a plant built while still spending a lot of time in Japan and traveling around Asia. I started with a serviced office office rented from the same international company I rented from in Japan. After that all similarity stopped.

As the China team grew, I began to get questions about "policies" - the lunch policy, the working time policy, the company trip policy. After working independently for so long; I had to get used to a constant stream of questions. In the end, delegation became my "policy" for all policy questions. I responded to all "what is the xxx policy questions" by asking "what do you think the policy should be?" and adding "since I am not Chinese I need your help". This system worked very well because I was lucky - I hired a great admin who enjoyed formulating policy. Time passed - we hired more people.

Sometimes we moved the Shanghai office outside

The next big hurdle was finding our own office space, getting it decorated and moving in. Serviced offices are great for one or two people but when you have several people, it usually is less expensive to get your own place. Being in the Shanghai office was never boring, we had a lot to do, a growing business and many customers from small cities in China that visited us because they wanted an excuse to visit Shanghai. Training the new team and more importantly learning from them kept me busy and I never had the feeling of ennui that I have in the US office. It also helped being the boss. In a Chinese office, the boss gets more respect than in a US office plus since salaries are lower and the culture of "full employment" exists, there was never a shortage of people trying to help me get things done or teach me the proper pronunciation for a Chinese word. I got spoiled in Shanghai and I am still going through withdrawal.