Why I Do This: Executive Coaching (Energy Management & Mindset)

For the prequel, see this article: My Personal Story of Burnout: How I got clarity on my purpose and the inspiration to spread positivity and energy management.

Many people have asked me why I’m doing coaching. I had worked in tech for over 20 years and loved it.

I could be doing anything, why this specific thing in particular?

There are a few reasons:

1. I would have hired me as a coach back in the day, but I didn’t know who or what could help me.
2. I strongly believe in diversity and the pivotal influence of seeing role models who look like you, and alternatively, seeing people in leadership roles who are different from you. And either way, it broadens your mind. I didn’t see any Asian or Asian-American coaches.
3. It’s my way of using my personal genius to help others live their best potential in their personal genius.

I would have hired me back in the day

I wish I had had the current version of me to coach the past version of me.

But I barely knew any executive coaches, and hadn’t heard of any using the paradigm of energy management in the tech world and Silicon Valley (though I assume some might exist).

So I decided to be the coach I wish I had!

I didn’t really see anyone else like me doing it, and I truly believe energy management is a top life tool.

The pivotal influence of diverse role models

As an Asian-American female, I didn’t see anyone who looks like me doing this type of coaching, or coaching in general. I didn’t see Asian coaches, or even very many coaches who were people of color. The America I know and love was much more diverse and full of variety, yet the role models available to me were not.

We still have a long way to go to improve diversity and inclusion in tech, but one upside is that some tech companies have a strong percentage of Asian representation in product and engineering.

Yet no Asian coaches and certainly not enough Asians in leadership and executive roles.

The more diversity we have in representation and leadership, the more we ALL gain! Different perspectives make for a stronger slate of generative ideas, which makes our innovation stronger, and thus our apps and products are inherently designed with the most creative solutions and the already-diverse customer market in mind. You have more divergent choices, both as a product developer and as a consumer.

For example, in some situations I like being able to see a female doctor or an Asian-American doctor. Other times, I just want any experienced doctor. I’ll take anyone who will save my life. And there are other times when I actually don’t necessarily want an Asian or Asian-American doctor’s advice, like if they give advice that doesn’t resonate because it’s from a traditional cultural point of view that doesn’t fit me (albeit from good intent).

Another example: I adamantly prefer a female doctor for OB-GYN visits because they have the lived experience and I’m more comfortable with a female doctor examining my lady parts. Yet when I did egg freezing and had to endure many vaginal ultrasounds (imagine a stick up your vagina that they press into your ovaries to see how many viable eggs you have), the MOST compassionate and gentle doctor was a male doctor. Much to my surprise. Bedside manner that was truly inspiring! He made me want to be a better doctor and I’m not even a doctor! It was a much better experience than the 3–4 female doctors that I also had ultrasounds with. These were all experienced, highly-regarded doctors at the top of their game.

Of course, people are not one-dimensional. We need to judge the person holistically, and interpersonal connection happens on so many levels.

Yet I call out and wholeheartedly celebrate the Asian-American part of me as a coach because sometimes you don’t even think about yourself being in certain spaces or trying these new things if you haven’t been exposed to it much, or you don’t see people who look like you doing it.

For example, before Winter Olympics 2022 ski champion Eileen Gu came along, I would never have imagined myself or any Chinese person being able to do all those crazy tricks in freestyle skiing, much less win gold medals in this field at the Olympics. We just didn’t see this type of thing in our culture and it wouldn’t be heralded. However if I were a young Chinese girl nowadays, I would at least try it! Kudos to Eileen for pushing forward with her vision!

Or if you’re not Asian, you might not imagine or think of Asians in a coach or CEO or leader role because you haven’t seen it either.

Hence I want to provide that different perspective that’s unique to me, and complements what other coaches and leaders bring to the table.

This is a big reason why I do this.

For the folks out there who don’t see any coaches they vibe with or feel can deeply relate to them — if they connect with my vibe and I can be someone with whom they can be their best and most open self with, I’m excited to be that coach and guide for them!

I’m here to bring the energy and hold that space where people feel seen and like they’re leveling up and expanding in new ways they didn’t before.

Helping people bring out their own best potential

Lastly, when I introspected on how I could best leverage my personal strengths to help the world, it became obvious to me in hindsight that the combination of my top strengths is a perfect mix for coaching and encouraging others in energy management.

My dominant theme from Clifton StrengthsFinder is “Influencing”:

Influencing: People with dominant Influencing themes take charge, speak up and make sure others are heard.

My personal top 5 strengths from Clifton StrengthsFinder:

1. Maximizer: You focus on strengths as a way to stimulate personal and group excellence. You seek to transform something strong into something superb.

2. Positivity: You have contagious enthusiasm. You are upbeat and can get others excited about what they are going to do.

3. Arranger: You can organize, but you also have a flexibility that complements this ability. You like to determine how all of the pieces and resources can be arranged for maximum productivity.

4. Activator: You can make things happen by turning thoughts into action. You want to do things now, rather than simply talk about them.

5. Strategic: You create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, you can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.

In a nutshell, this translates to:

• Influencing: Encouraging people to speak their truth and set boundaries for yourself and others. This is one of my key guiding principles for mindset for energy management, in order to manage energy effectively.
• Maximizer: When you work in the flow of your unique strengths and greatness, you have much more energy — and yes, every person has their own unique gifts to share with the world, but not everyone taps into it!
• Positivity: Coaching people to reframe productively and boost themselves and their teams, friends, and family with positive energy, especially in challenging times.
• Arranger: Brainstorming with clients and teams to test tweaks or different structure to how they’re operating, that are much higher-leverage use of their energy. Basically, maximizing and optimizing for smarter energy allocation.
• Activator: Getting sh*t done. Making it fun and providing accountability for people to shift the mindset and sustain habits!
• Strategic: Connecting the dots. Helping people reframe mind blocks or limiting beliefs in a productive light, surface mindset shifts, and quickly brainstorm ideas for better structure or tools to build new habits and achieve goals.

On top of that, due to these particular strengths, I most enjoy and thrive in dynamic team environments. That’s why I loved product management in tech and startups for so many years. The unique combination of my strengths naturally led me to use energy management and develop my principles and framework to cultivate high-performing team cultures where the team achieves big goals together, and have fun while doing it!

As I wrote in my prequel story, I’m a big believer in the power of energy management because I have lived it myself and I’ve seen the tremendous benefits.

Hence I want to be the coach I wish I had, and I’m using my personal genius to help others flourish in theirs. Our companies, work cultures, and products would all benefit if we were exposed to more different types of leaders in tech, and I hope to encourage others to be their authentic selves by visibly showing up in my own authentic leadership style.

Furthermore, I simply love it. I’m a big believer in following what you find fun and what energizes you in life. This is aligned with my purpose in life, it’s easy for me, and I love coaching people and teams on energy management and mindset.

I’ve seen how using my personal strengths to boost myself and others has improved our well-being and our performance, and I get great joy out of spreading this positive impact.

I went from health lows to living my best life on a daily basis, through life’s ups and downs. This can definitely happen for other people too—if they put their minds to it! And I’m excited to play a role in making this happen!

Founders, executives, and leaders: If you’re interested in executive coaching for yourself, or leadership coaching/consulting for your teams, direct message me on Instagram. You can read more here on My Framework for Energy Management and Mindset.

Find me on Instagram at christinawpan for the latest.

For testimonials, all my relevant links, or to join my community for weekly inspirations & latest offerings: https://linktr.ee/christinawpan