Robert Hargrove

I am sitting in my room at on the 18th floor of the Seoul Plaza Hotel in South Korea around 10 pm watching about 3000 Koreans stage a protest rally in front of City Hall below with shouts to impeach Korea’s President Lee.

Seoul reverberats with antigovernment slogans. While people march by candlelight, loudspeakers blare the songs South Koreans sang during their struggle against the military dictators of the 1970s and 1980s.

One of the reasons? President Lee lifted a ban on importing USA beef which people in Korea believe is rank with Mad Cow disease. The fact that this Mad Cow epidemic is such a red hot issue in Korea and virtually unknown in the USA fascinates and intrigues me to no end, especially as the chanting from the street floor prevents me from sleeping.

I had been invited to Korea by Dr. Edward Choi of CMOE, the largest executive coaching firm in the world. Dr. Choi had arranged several speeches, press conferences and newspaper interviews to spread the word about me and Masterful Coaching.

Before coming to Korea, I read up on Korean politics and particularly about President Lee, former Mayor of Seoul. He was elected by a huge landslide in November based on his election promise of raising all Koreans to all round middle class prosperity of $50,000 a year. To me this was a good example of an Impossible Future, a cause worth signing up for.

Unfortunately today, Mr. Lee’s approval rating is around 20% due to getting out of synch with the public will. Protesters here say that Mr. Lee is out of touch with the common people and “tone deaf” to popular sentiment.

It didn’t help that Mr. Lee is seen as having put cronies in charge of his cabinet who in the past had demonstrated greater commitment to self-interest than servant leadership. As a result of this and other mistakes, people do not trust what Mr. Lee says or does.

For example, in an attempt to reinvigorate the sagging growth of the Korean economy, President Lee sought to bring about a Free Trade Agreement with the USA by lifting the ban on beef imports, but the catch 22 is that he unwittingly ignited the fear of also importing Mad Cow disease. Many feel that President Lee is being too soft when it comes to standing up to America and too hard-line on his policies toward North Korea.

He is also in trouble with the environmentalists for wanting to build a canal that would connect rivers and span the length of South Korea. Then there is an issue of selling off state owned companies, in part to foreign investors.

Everything I read about Mr. Lee (who before undertaking a political career was Chairman of Hyundai) tells me the man is a decision maker used to having his hands on the levers and controls of power and having everyone line up behind him unquestionably.

I shared during a speech I made at Yonsei University when asked about Mr. Lee that I had observed that while the winning strategy Mr. Lee used to get him here (to the presidency) probably would not get him there (to his vision)

He has been nicknamed “the bulldozer” by those who oppose him, a name frequently chanted in the protests outside my window. The key for Mr. Lee is recognizing that mastering the political chessboard is essential for getting anything done in government, much more so than in business.

I told a reporter at my press conference when asked about the President that, if Mr. Lee was to succeed with his vision, he had to learn to broaden his base of support. This starts with putting less attention on bulldozing one’s programs and more on building broad based coalitions amongst many different special interests groups.

When asked what Mr. Lee could do to get his administration back on track, I said the one thing that could make a difference was the “speed of trust.” He has to do something dramatic to re-establish trust and fast, perhaps through a cabinet shake up.

The next day the biggest daily newspaper in Seoul ran a big article on me saying that I had suggested the possibility of coaching Mr. Lee. Why not? As most leaders at the top tend to only get advice from powerful “insiders” with their own political agenda (Bush/ Cheney), a coach that is an “outsider” without a political agenda might be just what the doctor ordered.

I mentioned in my newspaper interviews that, while President Lee had done some good things on the macro-economic level to transform the economic relationship with the USA and China (Lee was visiting China during my visit), something had to be done to transform the Korean corporations…something with his business background Lee has earned the right to talk about.

Most Americans don’t know it, but Korea is the 10th largest economy in the world. The economy got to where it is today from the Korean War years with a combination of sheer leadership drive (hard work) and doing things better, faster, and cheaper.

With its GDP and labor costs closer to that of western countries than eastern ones, Korea has to find its next act and develop a high-growth, innovation-driven economy. And therein lies the rub.

Companies like Samsung, Hyundai, LG, and others tend to have very hierarchal cultures where bowing respectfully to the boss and the need for people to fit their job descriptions tends to enforce conformity rather than creativity and innovation.

In an era where growth depends on “creative intellectual capital added,” this presents Korea with a real issue, one that will require transformational leadership (not mere transactional leadership) and, to be sure, Masterful Coaching and Mentoring.

According to Dr. Choi, the issue starts right in the Korean school system which is also hierarchal, highly regimented, and curriculum driven. Dr. Choi and I are starting a new joint venture based on the concept of “Study Coaching.” The aim is to connect students to their Impossible Dreams, talents and interests, and then use that to create a pull for life-long learning.