Welcome to the world of COACHafiz

My professional coaching journey - the beginnings.

In 2001, true to my practice of reviewing my career plans every five years, I decided to leave my education and training social enterprise and joined an American technology MNC.

Five year later, I decided to extend my stay there after receiving a scholarship to do an external bachelor's business degree program in Business at the University of London. It was like a redemption of sorts because back in 1991 I couldn't qualify to study Business at the National University of Singapore, where I settled for a double major in Political Science and History.

By 2011, I was itching to switch back to my old trade but again decided to stay as I had the opportunities to do training and continuous improvement projects as part of the organisational transformation program. In the meantime, I took up many external consulting and training projects, including one for the World Bank in the Philippines. I occasionally took leave from work for such assignments that I seldom had any spare vacation leave balance every year. By then, I had already rejected three offers to become a teacher in the civil service.

I was quite hesitant to switch back to the training industry because it has already turned red (ref: Blue Ocean Strategy) - the market was highly competitive and saturated with many organisations relying mostly on government grants and contracts. That drove me to find out what was the Blue Ocean in the training and development industry.

While researching on the topic, I decided to  write a short paper entitled Growth and Opportunities in Coaching and Mentoring Fields - For Small Business & Not For Profit Sectors, where I arrived at the following conclusion:

...this paper has attempted to present a business case for coaching and mentoring as critical components in any human capital development strategy.  As a growing industry in Singapore and the region, it can tap the experience and resources of its American and European practices, while developing its own unique propositions and approaches where warranted, to the benefit of the consultancy and human development industry as a whole. Professional coaching governing bodies like the ICF actively oversee standards of practice, accreditation for coach training schools, and providing an industry-wide system for professional credentials, in the effort to improve its professionalism. The small business and not-for-profit sectors are identified in this paper where professional coaching and mentoring can be intensified. 

Convinced that Coaching was the Blue Ocean, I stepped out of the comfort zone and began my journey to become a professional coach...