Scholarship Feature – Melvin Lee

I am a strong advocate for lifelong learning because there will always be new knowledge to learn and new skills to acquire. When the opportunity to apply for the Lifeskills Institute 2021 scholarship came along, I did not hesitate to submit my application because it has always been my desire to share my experience with other people and bring about a positive change to the people whom I work directly with at my workplace.

During the Certified Career Coach course which I attended, I was introduced to an assortment of tools that could help me uncover the strengths and personality of a person while at the same time, understanding the motivations of a person. This would then give me the clarity that I need to bring a person from where they are to where they want to be.

After the course, I offered to coach pro bono and interestingly, I had a couple of people who sent me a text to express their interest in being coached by me. As time is precious and limited, I reviewed the pool of people who texted me and I selected one person to be coached by me. The reason why I chose this person was because he is a friend that I know from the Basic Military Training, and I know that he was doing well in his career. Hence, what got me intrigued was his motivation to change what I thought was a successful career for him.

When I was coaching, I have found every coaching session to be quite a personal one because during a coaching session, there will be very private and intimate details that will be shared, and clients may feel very vulnerable. As a coach, it is our responsibility to maintain confidentiality while at the same time, giving clients the time and space they need to open up. To help clients reach their intended goal, transparency and openness is crucial. In the coaching that I have done recently, I have found that the coachee himself does have a solution to his problem and what he was looking for was an easy way out of his problem.

Recently, I was introduced to a smart artificial intelligence (AI) coach that claims to deliver personalised coaching programmes based on an individual’s working style. This led me to ponder over many questions such as, “Can an AI coach truly replace human coaches? How can human coaches leverage on technology for coaching? Is information shared with an AI coach truly secure and private? What level of responsibility does an AI coach have to deliver results for its clients?” Though it is still early to tell if AI coaching will truly take off, I have personally enrolled myself into two of such programmes to see if they are truly effective. So far, the results of the AI weight loss coaching programme that I have enrolled in seems promising, but that itself requires a lot of self-discipline.

As I continue to hone and refine my coaching skill, I am mindful that technology can play a part in the coaching process. Hence, I hope to eventually be able to implement some tools that will best optimise the time that I spend with my clients.

Melvin Lee

Operations Manager