By James Santagata
Executive Director, Asia-Pacific Coaching Alliance; Principal Consultant, SiliconEdge

We'll folks, we're already almost half way through February and it's just amazing to consider how fast this year is moving.

There are so many challenges and opportunities within the dynamic Asia-Pacific and greater Asian region that it's hard to keep up!

This becomes more complex and nuanced when we consider that the region is comprised of highly developed, newly developed, developing and newly developing economies, each with its own strengths, weaknesses, obstacles, opportunities and challenges.

For instance, while China is fighting a devastating pollution and environmental problem as the US, Japan, Britain and others have before her, she also has been busy moving forward on other fronts.

For instance, consider that China has now become the world’s third-largest research article producer behind only the European Union bloc & the United States.

In fact, China spent a greater share of global R&D, based on total dollars invested, than that of the United States.

Further, it's hard to imagine that the economies of China & other Asian countries together had more than one-third of the world's total US$1.435-trillion spending on R&D in 2011.

http://www.nature.com/news/china-becomes-world-s-third-largest-producer-of-research-articles-1.14684

As the developing regions of Asia become newly developed, new leadership skills will be critical. We are seeing this with the fantastic success of Korea on the world stage now.

Overcoming leadership challenges through coaching (Korea)
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2014/01/331_134702.html

Meanwhile, certain highly developed countries in the Asian region, such as Japan, have become brittle and ossified, making leadership again critical if they are to successfully re-invigorate, rejuvenate and reboot their economy.

Lastly, it should be obvious to all, that better leadership development is critical to the Asian region's long-term growth and we at the Asia-Pacific Coaching Alliance (APCA) have made it our mission to do our part. 

Won't you join us?

HOW TO BECOME A COACH

I. Your Inner Voice
To be a professional coach you have to embrace thinking from the inside.

You have to ask yourself: “Do I  really have the self-generated passion to listen to and make sense of another person’s confusion, uncertainty or doubt, even though that may well drag me down in the process, too?”

That is the million-dollar question and it will greatly determine whether coaching is for you.

Being a coach requires a strong commitment as well because you will be asking your clients to carefully listen to their inner voices and then asking them to brainstorm with you to figure out possible solutions which will best enable them to achieve their goals.

However, if you don’t, can't or won't listen to and confirm your inner voice ─ PASSION ─ how can you possibly expect your clients to follow your instructions when you ask them to listen to their inner voice?

II. Mindset and Expertise
Secondly, after you confirm your passion the next question will be “Other than passion and empathy, do I have enough knowledge to coach my clients?”

If you think about it, being a coach is a very sacred responsibility. Someone has entrusted their well-being to you.

Whether you recognize it or not, your words, thoughts and actions will mildly to greatly influence your clients. You must, therefore, ensure that you possess a positive mindset, up-to-date and time-proven knowledge as well as have developed the habit of continuous life-long learning.

This will ensure that your client is taken care of professionally and just as importantly well cared for.

To ensure that you have the most up-to-date knowledge and coaching processes be sure to enroll in a trustworthy, ethical and most of all results-driven coaching organization, such as HICA, to earn your coaching certification. After earning your coaching certification, be sure to regularly participate in industry seminars and networking events.

III. Between You and Your Clients
Lastly, your ability to build mutual trust and commitment with your client is as if not more important than the earlier issues we discussed.

And as discussed before, mutual trust is the foundation of successful coaching.

So you must learn how to connect with your client through your initial interactions whether they are by email, phone, skype or in person.

Once solid and mutual trust has been established, you must know how to motivate and convince him/her to fully commit themselves to the accomplishment of each task as they strive for their ultimate goal.

Although both are not directly related to your coaching knowledge they are equally important as your passion and expertise.

IV. Real Coaching
After your clients have made substantial progress, gains and finally achieved their desired results based on your coaching, then and only then can you truly and honestly say that you’re a qualified and real coach because those actual results along with satisfied, empowered clients, speak the loudest.

We hope to see you in our community soon!

Whenever we've asked coaches and prospective coaches about the greatest difficulties they encountered in either developing and running a full-time coaching practice or simple breaking into the field, we've noticed the same themes appear again and again. 

1. For Prospective Coaches Considering The Field

• What does a coach do?
  
• How do I become a coach?
  
• What are the first steps I should take to become a coach?
  
• What should I expect and do immediately upon becoming a coach?
  

2. For Newly Minted Coaches or Part-time Coaches Transitioning To A Full-time Coaching Career

• How do I shift from being a part-time or weekend coach to making this a full-time career? 
  
• What are the obstacles and opportunities I will face?
  
• What are the principal threats and risks I will face?
  
• How do I maximize my upside while mitigating or eliminating the downside risk?
  

3. For Coaches (Established or Newly Minted) Looking To More Efficiently & Effectively Sign Clients

• Given the very competitive market for coaches how do I quickly and effectively sign new clients?
  
• How do I differentiate my services?
  
• How do I improve my marketing efforts and results (on a small or non-existent budget)?
  
• How can I drive more business from inbound marketing efforts?
  
• How can I retain exist clients longer?
  
• How can I leverage existing or former clients for referrals?
  
• How can I re-market to or reactivate former clients? 
  

4. For Coaches Who Understand The Critical Importance of Staying Skilled-up & Relevant

• Clients are expecting a new level of coaching expertise and experience, how can I deliver?
  
• The coaching field is getting crowded, what skills can I develop to differentiate myself?
  
• How can I meet and manage client expectations?
• How do I best keep my skills sharp, up to date and utilize them as a competitive advantage?

As we move forward, our High-Impact Training & Certification programs will address all of these common themes and issues.  Throughout the training our objective remains the same:

To help you become a more effective and productive coach, not only in terms of the results you produce with clients but also the ease with which you attract and bring in new clients while retaining your current clients.

We would like to welcome John Taylor to our Advisory board.

John serves as the Asia-Pacific Coaching Alliance's online marketing and advertising advisor charged with promoting the organization and website while building web traffic and share of mind. John is a seasoned sales executive and consultant with experience in the US, Japan and Australia. He's an expert in online media and traffic analysis and previously worked as a senior manager at a major online market intelligence and insight software firm where he developed partnerships with some of the most heavily trafficked sites including MegaUpLoad, online gaming sites and well as dozens of other high profile and highly trafficked sites.

He currently works for a major Silicon Valley enterprise software company and is the founder of the Wider Sales Funnel, the premier platform for accelerating your business performance.

John is a native speaker of English as well as a native speaker of Spanish and currently resides in Sydney, Australia and previously resided in the US (California, Boston and Florida) and Tokyo, Japan.