I have worked for a US subsidiary of a Japanese company for 5.5 years as an expatriate, and it has been 3 years since I took on a managerial position having local employees. I started to take coaching sessions as part of my company’s global leadership training program. I needed to have a tripartite meeting including my manager (an American), and I was recommended to speak in my native language to ensure accurate communication including nuances, so I decided to choose Masae-san, who can speak both English and Japanese.
During the 5-month coaching, we talked about various topics such as improving my own weaknesses identified in the 360-degree survey, my career planning, how to give effective negative feedback to my direct report who was older and more experienced than me, and what I can advise to my direct report who was struggling with working with her colleague experiencing burnout. By setting goals at the beginning of each coaching session (i.e., what I want to obtain at the end of each coaching), we were able to move toward the goals without ending up chatting, even when my thought was not organized well at the beginning. In addition, by making action plans at the end, I was able to take actual actions, rather than just “feeling refreshed”. Masae-san’s questioning helped me to gain different perspectives and become aware of the answers I had been unconsciously seeking within myself.
I am sure that coaching by Masae-san, who knows both the Japanese and U.S. environments, has broadened my perspective and brought me closer to becoming a global leader. In the future, I would like to remember Masae-san’s coaching method and apply it to my 1-on-1 with my direct reports as well as helping myself to solve my own problems through self-coaching.
Manager, Design Assurance, Medical Device Manufacturer