Gallup Strengths Accelerated Coaching Program Day 3 / Catching Up #4

By the end of the training session today, I realized three days is the maximum number of days I can survive in training. I was so exhausted I call it my mid-training depression state. I suddenly felt I have had enough. I felt what the Cantonese kungfu movie calls "jau for yub mor" (give me a few days to double check with my Cantonese friends what this exactly or literally means).

As such, I could not remember much of what happened in the morning, but what stayed with me was the 45-min coaching session we had in pairs. I was paired with Ives-Pascal, and being a professional coach himself, I got myself a great deal being paired with him. I got both sides of the deal: (1) I got properly coached and (2) I got good feedback on my own coaching skills, which was found wanting. I gained so much from the session that when I was asked by others how our sessions went, I didn't know where to start. I can't even articulate it now. I still need time to chew and mull and think about it. And that I will do and most probably there will be a part two to this day's blog post.

On Catching Up #4 today, I had a great time with Chee Leng. We cannot remember the exact year we met, but I think it was probably in the year 2006, when she was my client when I was in KPMG. It has been 8 to 9 years since we've met. Wow...what's amazing about Chee Leng is that to her it seems like we have only met yesterday. It is her strength in her ability to relate even though we've have got almost a decade between since we last met, and what more, we have not really been talking much in between. And what's amazing was that we spent the last 4 hours like we were old friends and comrades.

I had so much fun talking to her about what I was learning in the Gallup training and hearing her tell her stories. She is quite convinced about the strengths I seem to see in her. She has decided to take the top-5 strengths assessment, and I have agreed to give her some coaching, pro-bono, both as to benefit her and as a practice for me. Win-win!

pearlie