Robert Hargrove

The Masterful Jae Chang Jeong, Founder of M Coaching

Jae Chang Jeong, CEO (source) of PSI Consulting in Korea and the new joint venture with MC called M Coaching, is tall and slim. Compared with some of my customers from Big Oil, who strut like Texas Longhorn Beef, Jae Chang Jeong walks gracefully like an Asian tiger on cat feet. Jae’s whole way of being speaks of leadership agility. He can step in one direction, then when the situation changes, he becomes aware, shifts his weight to the opposite foot, and steps in another direction.

When pursuing an Impossible Future, like putting M Coaching on the map, he is incredibly strong-willed, yet humble about himself, reveling in the talent of others. Start with a dream, then recruit the best talent in the world. He is not just a leader and manager, but willing to get down in the trenches and roll up his sleeves and get the job done. When he is not getting intended results from staff members, he can be very tough and compassionate in giving feedback. Yet, when someone comes on aggressively with him, he does not let his ego take over, but bends like bamboo. The combination of these things makes Jae hard to figure out, inscrutable, and mysterious.

I have branded MC to be about “Winning at the Great Game of Business,” not just behavior change

I have worked very hard over the years to build the Masterful Coaching brand based on the idea that it had to say in eight words or less, a market position that represented doing what no one else could do. Our business is to inspire, empower and enable clients to Achieve an Impossible Future and Win in the Great Game of Business. I have also worked hard at developing the Masterful Coaching Method so as to be able to deliver on that promise. I have developed an approach to coaching that is “results-based” that set us apart from all the other “me-too” competitors who see coaching in terms of behavior change.

I was looking for world-class partners who could develop the business on a global basis

I have been looking for partners on a global basis who could create some kind of joint venture with us—partners that have the gravitas to do executive coaching, a strong network of client companies, and marketing and sales skills. When I received a letter from Jae Chang Jeong, President of PSI Consulting in South Korea, the 10th largest economy in the world, I immediately knew this was no kitchen table consultant. I often receive letters from people, but this one was different Jae Chang Jeong seemed like an ideal candidate for some kind of joint venture. Later I was to find out that Mr. Jeong possessed within himself the ability to match the powerful Masterful Coaching method, with an equally powerful business development model, in addition to fulfilling all the qualifications mentioned above.

President Jeong possessed leadership agility, inscrutability and mystery

Jae Chang Jeong is an ex-Samsung HR man. He left the “Big S” more than 15 years ago to start PSI, one of the most successful consulting firms in Korea, with a brain trust of top tier consultants and HRD trainers, as well as an impressive network of Global 1000 and local clients. In addition to that, Mr. Jeong possesses a quality that most CEO’s would die for.

In the normal course of events most CEO’s know how to create something from something—start with a big brand name, a hefty budget, lot of physical assets, armies of talented people, and perhaps hive off a new division based on a hot product or service. Mr. Jeong knows how to do the opposite: that is to say, create something out of nothing. He did it with PSI, and now he is doing it with M Coaching—to my delight and surprise.

Most CEOs know how to create something from something. President Jeong knows how to create something from nothing.

Want to realize an Impossible Future? Today there is a lot of talk about CEOs, from Bill Gates at Microsoft, to Steve Jobs of Apple, to Jeff Immelt of GE. Jae, I suspect, could out-recruit the best of them by holding out a game-changing vision and creating exciting, once-in-a-life-time opportunities for people and leading them to an experience of their own greatness, not just by throwing money and perks at them.

Sounds good, except that he is not only great at recruiting top talent, he is an organizing genius who knows how to also build a winning team with each person playing a powerful and unique role. He is a very pragmatic organizer and manager who lets very little fall through the cracks.

Jae holds the vision of creating the #1 coaching company in Korea

M Coaching started with a vision Jae had to create the #1 coaching company in Korea. His decision to enroll me and Masterful Coaching to be a player in the big game is indicative of his ability to attract people who can play a powerful catalytic role in transforming a mere possibility into a reality. First of all, his original letter to me and his visit to me in Boston in January 2005 prompted me to not only get excited about the whole idea, but to develop the Masterful Coaching Gold Model, a dynamic combination of executive coaching, team strategy session, and Masterful Coaching certification.

Jae then made a powerful request that I visit Korea in March 2006 to guide his team on their journey to becoming masterful coaches. I was impressed by the high quality of the coaching talent pool Jae had brought together, including the charismatic CEO, Jae Woo Kim, arguably one of Korea’s most famous CEOs with incredibly strong business development skills. The other HRD people involved were all handpicked and exuded intelligence and competence.

Mr. Jeong became personally and methodically involved in making it happen, while still doing his day job

When I left Korea after my first visit, I was full of enthusiasm. As the guru of executive coaching, my darshan with the coaching team went extremely well. I was excited about the fact that the treasure chest I had put together of MC guiding ideas, tools, and methods could be imminently transferable to the right kind of practitioners on a global basis. Yet, I left with a question mark in my mind. Could Jae and his team market and sell this stuff? I did not hear much from Jae for several months, but we set up a second visit for me to come to Korea to train people in the MC Certification program for managers and using our Online Performance Coaching system.

Jae was, on one level, taking his vision of M Coaching and building a structure for fulfillment

My plane touched down at Incheon Airport, and the next day I met with Jae in the luxurious concierge floor of the Lotte Hotel in downtown Seoul. Lovely Korean hostesses served us beer, bowing respectfully at every turn. Jae then revealed he not only had a vision of being the number one coaching company in Korea, he had taken some giant steps in creating a structure for fulfillment for realizing it. He had a cleared view of what success would like and, against the background of this, had begun to personally and methodically put together all the key ingredients for making it happen.

On another level, he was helping me create a business development model for Masterful Coaching that could be used in other emerging markets

I will highlight the main points here to be both clear and brief. I cite this because it has become clear to me during my trip to Seoul that Jae was, in a canny way, developing a business model that could work not only in Korea, but in countries that had expressed interest in MC—Singapore, Taiwan, China, Malaysia, and the EUR.

• Masterful Coaching—the Korean version. Wow!!! To take a good idea and make its time come, you have to be able to put the idea out into your universe (in this case Korea). That evening Jae presented me with a Korean version of the Masterful Coaching book. The cover design was strikingly bold and the whole graphics and layout were world-class; much better than the original.

• Starting a new company, M Coaching, that is different from PSI’s training business. Jae incorporated a new company, called M Coaching, to avoid cannibalizing PSI’s HRD consulting and training business, which is not as much business result-oriented as it is skills- and capabilities-oriented. Also, by setting up the M Coaching company, he could avoid thorny legal issues with me like control of the Masterful Coaching brand name.

• Getting prominent CEOs in Korea to invest. Jae next got CEO Kim and others to take shares in M Coaching, knowing that these people’s names carried enormous credibility and that they were very well networked with other CEOs who were potential customers. Further, they could coach other execs. When CEO Kim spoke in terms of “our company” and his intention to put his energy into business development, I was delighted, but hid it a bit.

• Appointing a brilliant young president for M Coaching. Being CEO of PSI made Jae a very busy man. He appointed a young and able president, Dr. Jae Won Park, who has a burning desire to impact leaders at the top. Dr Park is brilliant consultant and expert in the "Blue Ocean" strategy. Jae knew, unlike a lot of CEOs who complain that they have no power, that Dr. Park was someone whose ego was healthy enough that he could work through him without the two of them getting involved in political conflicts.

• An address that would give M Coaching instant clout. To make sure the M Coaching company was seen as “already successful,” Jae rented an office space in the Posco building, one of the most prestigious addressed in Korea.

• Strengthening the M Coaching talent pool. With a view that M Coaching would be about helping corporations win at the great game of business, he expanded the coaching talent pool. The team now has three big-time Korean CEOs who are proven winners in terms of coming into businesses that are stuck in the no-growth morass and helping them to break through it.There are also strong players who have experienced working with foreign companies and HRD.

• Creating a Winning Game Plan. Jae felt that the first step for marketing M Coaching in Korea was to do executive coaching with an established CEO, which would create a lot of reference power. This would create the opening to do the Team Strategy Session and MC for High Performance. I asked, “I can train your coaches, but how can you be sure they will be able to deliver?” Jae’s answer was that he planned to use an experienced CEO, plus a consultant or HRD type that could transform people, and have them coordinate with me by phone. Brilliant!!!

• The Marketing Launch. Jae asked me to make a second visit to Korea to further train the coaches for going live and assist with the marketing launch. The day after I spoke with Jae at the Lotte, I walked into the Posco building and saw “Robert Hargrove, Executive Coaching Guru” splattered over a giant poster. I spoke to one group of decision makers, senior HR managers very highly placed in top companies. I also spoke to another group of about 100 mid-level HRD managers. The idea was to spread the word about Masterful Coaching, and perhaps bring a few fish in the boat, our first customers.

Jae’s intention and initiative was gaspworthy

I was so impressed by Jae’s ability to hold the vision of M Coaching being number one in Korea. There are very few people in the world who can stand in the place of “source” (being the originator of something) and generate enough power of intention and non stop initiative, to take an idea that is a mere possibility (M Coaching) and turn it into a live opportunity. Jae Chang Jeong is clearly one of these and his early efforts, right out of the box are nothing short of “gaspworthy.”

Yet as a coach, I began asking during one of the MC training sessions with the team three small coaching questions: “What’s happened?” “What’s missing that if provided could make a difference?” and “What’s next?” I told the team that perhaps what was missing to both stretch people and build confidence was to put the coaching skills they were learning into play by landing some live clients.

Once you have the dream and concrete plan, the next step is to create a scorecard

I also hinted to Jae that, what he needed in addition to his vision and structure for fulfillment, was a scorecard. Where do we want this company to be in three years? What are some of the major goals and milestones we need to achieve in one year? 90 days? Next month, etc? What kind of catalytic breakthrough projects need to be set up and how do we keep track of progress with these? What are some key metrics—like marketing, sales, new product development—and what new business processes need to be set up? Who is going to own these?

Not all smooth sailing

The idea of a partnership gives everyone involved leverage to reach goals that they would not otherwise have. At the same time, it can bring together people with strong personalities and opinions, and different emotional make-ups who can occasionally rub each other the wrong way.

I set a high standard at Masterful Coaching, which is why the company is a leader vs. a me-too competitor in the field of executive coaching. At the same time, even thought I love to creatively collaborate, I can be difficult, if I think my standards are not being upheld or if I see something, as they say in the Navy, “crossing into my sea lane” or when a lack of communication leads to misunderstandings.

I talk to Jae like a brother, not just a mere business partner. As such, we have had a few fights like brothers. It takes two to have an argument and, in most cases, Jae refuses to engage. Jae’s response to my irritations is like the sound of one hand clapping (not two hands bashing against each other). His focus is on creating a new company called M Coaching in Seoul and a new partnership with me. He does not allow any petty tiffs to get in the way and gladly subordinates his quite healthy ego accordingly. I have learned something from him through these tiffs that support my own growth and development.

Today I worked hard, but this evening I received a gift

One of the highlights of my trip was a celebratory dinner at a wonderful Chinese restaurant at the Intercontinental Hotel in Seoul’s business section. Jae had enrolled a CEO as an executive coach. The CEO was fascinated by the idea that M Coaching was about an Impossible Future and Winning at the Great Game of Business and he invited the distinguished Professor Suck-Chul Yoon to join our group (instant credibility).

I was told by Jae that Professor Suck-Chul Yoon, from Seoul National University, was not only admired and respected, but revered, drawing comparisons to the Peter Drucker of Korea. Jae said, “He is not just a management professor, he is a scholar, and he is not just a scholar, he is profound.”

Professor Suck-Chul Yoon was so charming, disarming, and so polite that I told him, “Professor you are surely a man of grace.” Sitting with his hands folded together neatly, he smiled and said, “Thank you.” No arrogance, no false modesty. I was told that in Korea, #1 is the king, # 2 is a great teacher, and #3 is your parents. Each of the consultants bowed their heads to the Professor as they introduced themselves. Jae sat there at the table with a boyish smile, hanging on the Professor’s every word.

Professor Suck-Chul Yoon spent many hours from the age of five on his knees in a zazen position in front of his grandfather, a Confucian scholar. They would study one character for an hour, and it would take five hours to make a sentence. He later received his PhD from U Penn, and since that time, has not only been a great teacher, but also a source of inspiration to many top Korean business leaders.

“Professor,” someone queried, “Tell us something that will help us succeed with M Coaching.” Exuding passion and peace, with his hands folded together, he captured the essence of what it is to be a masterful coach and teacher. He said, “The first level of education is for the teacher to teach knowledge. The second level is for the teacher to explain knowledge.”

“Professor,” another person said, “tell us more.” He said, “The third level of education is the level we must aspire to. It is to inspire people. Go forth and inspire people.”

The Professor’s comment might have been something someone else in the group might have said. Yet, as we say in Masterful Coaching, it was the combination of "who he was being" and the elegant brevity that caused people to deeply appreciate his words of wisdom.

Suddenly everyone in the room seemed to know by some sign, that I could not quite detect, that the dinner was over and it was time to go home. As people readied themselves to get up from the table, I looked around and marveled at the absolutely great group Jae had brought together around his M Coaching venture—famous CEOs, legendary professors, brilliant consultants, and coaching talent. Both the IQ level and equal EQ level of the group must have been off the charts, together with the wealth of background experience and competency.

I was inspired to make a final comment, as a result of my meeting with the professor and this great group that perhaps contained a touch of the sublime. I said gesturing to the Professor, “Today I worked very hard coaching and teaching this group, but this evening, I received a gift.” The group cheered and laughed. And the professor smiled at me a sublime smile and said, “Thank you.”