We continue to meet our fellow coaches, get inspired and build coach community with our “Meet the Coach” features!
This month we meet Michael Kuan, Founder & CEO
Interview with Michael
About Michael
Lives In: Singapore
Company: Project Elev8
Type of Coach: Learning & Performance Coach
Describe your coaching business in one sentence: Project Elev8 aspires to be the Global Leader in Learning and Performance, to inspire and shape the lives of individuals worldwide.
Meet Michael
QUESTION 1. What one book should every coach read – and why?
Find Your Why by Simon Sinek. A coach needs to know his/her own “why” before aiding others to find theirs. Coaching is mainly helping people find directions to where they want to be. And understanding why they want to be there is key to sustaining them on their journey.
QUESTION 2. Which website do you visit the most?
LinkedIn.com
QUESTION 3. Whom do you admire most and why?
Singapore”s first Prime Minister Mr. Lee Kuan Yew. His intense focus, which some find intimidating (myself included), is what built Singapore into the first-world country it is today.
QUESTION 4. What’s your vision for your life? Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
My vision is to establish my company as a Global Leader in Learning and Performance by using its proprietary technology, developing systems through internal research and development teams. And gathering the best talents in the human capital development industry.
QUESTION 5. What is your “big project” at the moment? OR What are your Top 3 Goals at the moment?
Developing a learning management system with an extensive resource system, which will provide individuals with structured content and outcome-driven solutions, to foster their resilience & personal growth.
QUESTION 6. What has been your favourite coaching moment so far?
I have been coaching a fellow person with disabilities regularly for a year. In one of the sessions, she shared that she was promoted two levels up and believes the sessions made it possible.
I was excited to witness her tangible growth. As she came for session after session, acquiring many “aha” moments that turned into determination to act on almost every coaching outcome she desired.
She is one of the few rare coachees I have, who are fully engaged in the coaching process and will milk every ounce of benefit she can get from it. Coachees like her made me feel a high sense of job satisfaction, inspiring me to always give my 100% to aid every coachee I have to receive the benefits of every coaching session.
QUESTION 7. What are your Top 3 favourite coaching tools and/or resources?
1. Various coaching questions by The Coaching Tools Company. Reading them frequently gave me the “feel” of crafting questions during coaching sessions, at times I could even recall an exact question, word for word that suited the coaching goal of my coachee.
2. The Enneagram. It gives the coachee a good jumpstart when they do not have specific coaching goals that they strongly want to achieve.
3. Career Coaching Tools. Career coaching is something I am very weak in. The tools helped me to keep the coaching process moving, or I would find myself stuck frequently.
QUESTION 8. What do you love most about being a coach?
It lets me focus on others. Growing up as a person with disabilities, it was very easy for me to drop into the pit of self-pity, up until I was in my late teens. As I mature as an adult, I learnt that focusing on what I have, what I can learn (knowledge and skills) as well as others, can give the direction in life that I have been searching for.
Before I became a coach, I was an entrepreneur who was actively mentoring my staff. I realised I enjoy seeing people grow and being a part of it. It was then I decided to become a professional coach, selling my successful businesses just to do so.
Another thing I like about being a coach is that I am not a provider of solutions and answers to coachees. I am only a facilitator to help them find the solutions and answers they need, making the solutions and answers personal to them, increasing the odds of following through when compared to solutions and answers given to them by someone else.
QUESTION 9. Tell us a secret about you…
I am an avid collector (almost obsessive) of Transformers robot toys. I only collect those that are from the movies (no anime/cartoon versions). My collection exceeds 500 pieces and now is worth more than US$20,000.00. The most expensive piece I have is worth US$3,000.00.
QUESTION 10. If you could change one thing in our world, what would it be? And how would you go about it?
I would ensure that intellectually healthy persons with physical disabilities attend mainstream schools and never be placed in special education institutions.
My mother fought for me to be in mainstream school when the government wanted me to be with other Persons With Disabilities (PWD) in a special school. Studying in mainstream schools is key to me assimilating well with society in general. I see a lot of PWDs who attended special schools struggle to do so as they are mostly with other PWDs and not abled body children often.
I would set up a foundation for children with disabilities where I would provide resources and funding to mainstream schools to accept children with disabilities.