Strengths Coaching Certification Course Day 1

"This Strengths Coaching Certification Course was conducted for a group of 8 participants from different industries including Healthcare, Education, Professional Services and Finance. The certification course used Gallup's CliftonStrengths profiling tool alongside ontological coaching to help participants identify their dominant talent themes and deepen the learning on Strengths based coaching applications in an organizational context. Participants left day 1 with deeper self-awareness and a shared strengths language for increased coaching awareness. Interested in Strengths Coaching Certification Program for yourself? Explore Strengths Coaching Certification Program →"

Day 1/3 completed. 

Day 1 was delightful. We ease into the fundamentals of strengths based coaching and there was great energy in the room.

What stood out most for me was how impactful coaching can be when we choose to suspend our judgment and sustain a little more curiosity. 

“What makes you choose this and not that?”

“What other strengths might also be present?”

“What separates your dominant and supporting talents?”

Looking forward to more learning! 

CliftonStrengths Team Building Workshop - CPF Singapore

"This CliftonStrengths team workshop was conducted for a team of 15 from Central Provident Fund Singapore. The session used Gallup's CliftonStrengths profiling tool alongside ontological coaching to help team members identify their dominant talent themes and explore how to apply them in their day-to-day roles. Participants left with deeper self-awareness and a shared strengths language to strengthen team collaboration.Interested in a similar workshop for your team? Explore CliftonStrengths Workshops”

Had a wonderful time co-facilitating with fellow CliftonStrengths Coach Wen Wei.
We did a Team Building workshop for one of the teams in CPF and had a lovely time. It was a very tightly knitted group and had a lovely session with them.
The most enjoyable part was doing the team coaching when we split up by department and I had a more indepth conversation exploring the complementary partnerships and the team strengths.

CliftonStrengths Leadership Workshop for Senior Management - Pico Art

"This CliftonStrengths team workshop was conducted for the global senior leadership team from Pico Art International, held in Singapore. The session used Gallup's CliftonStrengths profiling tool alongside ontological coaching to help leaders identify their dominant talent themes and explore how to apply them in their strategic business roles. Participants left with deeper self-awareness and a shared strengths language to strengthen team collaboration among the global team.Interested in a similar workshop for your team? Explore CliftonStrengths Workshops →"

I was given a precise brief by the CEO.

Design and execute a 3 hours session for the senior leadership team. They are all very good at what they do, very experienced and come from three different regions. Each senior leader must walk away from the session knowing how their unique talents have contributed to their successes. Have the leaders validate and appreciate the varied talents among the team.

For me, that was certainly a big ask.

It took weeks of preparation - analyzing the strengths data, understanding the business context and designing the session.

Session went smoothly and thankful for the support of Kia Meng, Shayln Wong and Angela Chiang.

Feedback was fantastic and validated the energy I observed during the session.

What I took away:
- Small details matter when facilitating learning for senior leaders.
- Strengths data must marry with business and leadership context
- Show not tell. Demonstrate through evidence and insights from the data.

And I am personally most delighted in receiving a personal testimonial from the CEO.
If you want to create better teamwork, I highly recommend Victor and his team. I strongly believe that this will help with leadership transformation. Great Facilitation of workshop by Victor!
Jean Chia | Group CEO | Pico Art International

Emerging Leadership Program - Coaching and Talent Development

"This emerging leadership program held in Singapore was conducted for a group of 40 new managers and supervisors from different parts of Asia from a global Petrol Chemical organisation. The session includes experiential leadership activities and coaching role-plays to help the new leaders gain coaching skills and self-awareness through deliberate practices. Interested in a similar program for your team?” Connect with Victor

Last Dance 🥳🥹

1 Global leadershipdevelopment program - US, EMEA, APAC

APAC - 16 cohorts in 2 years, 500+ leaders

Our team was responsible for the last day of the 4 days leadership program.

The key deliverable on Day 4?
➡️WHAT - Embody the learnings!
➡️WHY - Live out the Expectationsof Leaders defined by the organization.
➡️HOW - Leadership labs, Coaching practices and Difficult conversations.

Finished the last cohort this week and there was both huge gratitude and a lot of sadness.

My Highlights 🙏
1. Being part of a global team from SmartfulWorks LLC and delivering the program outcomes consistently across US, EMEA and Asia Pacific. Thank you Jenn Giordano, M.A., Ed. M., ACC and Ryan Soares, ACC for your kindness and belief in the AP team.

2. An amazing all 🌟 AP team with Damien O’Malley, Eya Pagdanganan, and Alice Chia. Our strengths complement each other.

3. Observing, listening and being in action is my key mode of learning. I have gained so much from the cross-cultural interactions, practicing my listening skills while interacting with participants from China, India, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines and Singapore.

My takeaways 💡after 16 runs:
1. Intellectual understanding appeals to those who prioritise cognitive intelligence. Body and emotional intelligence (learning through our body and emotions) are separate. The leadership labs clearly show the gap between conceptual self-awareness and embodied self-awareness.

2. Showing up as leaders has little correlation to where we are on the organizational chart or our leadership roles. It has more correlation with how we show up as humans.

3. Working across cultures amplify a core leadership skill - the ability to listen deeply beyond words. So much miscommunication happens when we listen to respond rather than listen to understand.

4. To navigate tensions or polarities is to first practice seeing the dynamics. That is increasingly a core leadership skill.

5. A Small door knob open a Big door. Transformation can happen when we consistently apply little tweaks to our habits.

Definitely a huge personal milestone and very thankful to God for this experience.

Looking forward to sharing these insights in the future.

CliftonStrengths Team Building Workshop - Pico Art (Design Team)

"This CliftonStrengths team workshop was conducted for a team of 12 from Pico Art International Singapore. The session used Gallup's CliftonStrengths profiling tool alongside ontological coaching to help team members identify their dominant talent themes and explore how to apply them in their day-to-day design and creative roles. Participants left with deeper self-awareness and a shared strengths language to strengthen team collaboration.Interested in a similar workshop for your team? Explore CliftonStrengths Workshops →"

Finished the fifth CliftonStrengths team workshop with Pico Group this year. This session was for a team of creatives who were mostly designers with a couple of writers. As I do the coaching work on helping people discover their unique talents, I love the learning that comes with it.

➡️What might be some talent themes among the 34 talents that enhance the creative work, particularly in visual arts and design work?

There are a number of talents I have observed commonly spotted in talented visual designers.

Many with Individualization have the “special” eye to see the unique features of people and objects while others see more generic features. Individualization see the “shades of blue” when others simply see blue. 

Individualization is the talent in “observing”, “noticing” and “seeing”, particularly in uniqueness, nuances and visual details. Generally, work tasks including photography and graphic design, which require a considerable amount of “visual talent” will provide opportunities for the #Individualization talent to shine. 

Depending on the other talent themes, this talent can be more pronounced in identifying unique features of humans or seeing unique features in objects. 

For those with Individualization, do pay attention to how your natural ability to “see unique features” set you apart!

StrengthsTransform #StrengthsFinder #leadershipdevelopment

Well-Being at Work: Strengths & Energy Management

"This Seminar was conducted for a group of 30 Hotel Managers, F&B Managers from Marriott International in Hanoi Vietnam. The session used a strengths profiling tool to help the leaders identify their cutting edge talents and explore how to apply them to well-being and self-care. Participants left with deeper self-awareness and specific personalized strategies of how to use their strengths. Interested in a similar seminar for your team? Explore Victor’s Seminars and Talks”

Managing our energy is a critical component of personal productivity. While each person has 24 hours, we each come to work with differing levels of energy, depending on how well we looked after ourselves. 

Last week, I was invited by Yuen Kwan Cheung to speak on the topic of hashtag#wellbeing and hashtag#selfcare as part of the APEC Events Management Workshop for Marriott International. I spoke on hashtag#energymanagement and about using our hashtag#strengths at work. The energy in the room increased significantly when the leaders from Marriott were able to share how they used their strengths to lead their teams and do their work.

Managing our energy is more than hashtag#physical energy. Often hashtag#emotional energy determines how well we respond to personal triggers, conflict situations, unexpected changes etc. In the event management space, energy management is often crucial for success.

And a huge part of maintaining a high level of emotional energy is the feeling of using our strengths at work. During the session, I emphasized that using our strengths greatly impact our level of energy and sense of purpose at work.

Wrapping up the topic of leadership well-being was a fireside chat with Douglas Kim, GM of JW Marriott Hanoi. He shared his own leadership journey in Marriott, personal disciplines as a leader and how he dealt with leadership challenges. I had quite a few personal take-aways from his sharing.

To top off the fantastic week, I grabbed the opportunity to bring along my eldest son and we had some quality 1-1 time together in Hanoi. The workshop was held in Sheraton Hotels & Resorts in Hanoi and we got to experience amazing hashtag#hospitality. 

It was an extremely energizing week of purposeful work and quality family time! And I'm very grateful. 🌟