Robert Hargrove

I spent the first part of July in Korea at the invitation of Dr. Edward Choi, Chairman of CMOE, the #1 Leadership Solutions company in that nation, the company that introduced coaching skills to thousands of managers in companies like Samsung, LG, Hyundai, and Posco.

Dr Choi is one of the people in the world who I truly admire and respect as a coach and mentor, and someone who has my complete listening. Dr. Choi and I had breakfast soon after I arrived and he asked me what I was up to with respect to Masterful Coaching.

I told him that I was thinking about doing some coaching programs that were more business applications oriented--to help companies establish a growth trajectory again after the economic crisis. I talked about things like a Blue Ocean Strategy, creating a Revenue Storm, creating a new product development pipeline

Dr. Choi is a gentle man of wisdom, so when his eyes briefly looked down toward the tabletop, I knew he was not fully onboard with what I was saying. “Dr. Hargrove,” he said, “you should be coaching Presidents of countries, not just leaders of business.” You are a world authority on leadership, a noted scholar on executive coaching with your books, and a vastly experienced executive coach.

They say that Masterful Coaching is being able to say the one thing that makes a difference to someone, and in this case, Dr. Choi said something with respect to presidential coaching that completely elevated my motivations and aspirations.

In essence he was telling me that at this stage of my career, I needed to be thinking in terms of playing a bigger game—coaching newly elected presidents of nations (particularly in Asia), like President Lee of Korea, President Kan of Japan, Prime Minister Lee of Singapore, and President Triet of Vietnam.

These leaders are in the position to make a difference in the lives of millions of people, not to mention the global economy. He was saying that coaching CEOs and business leaders was fine, but too small a game for me to focus exclusively on.

I was of course flattered by Dr Choi’s coaching, but I soon tried to change the subject, to give myself a chance to think about the question. “Can I really coach presidents of nations?” Fortunately, he wouldn’t let up on me and pursued the topic for the next 30 minutes or so. “Dr. Hargrove,” he said, “if you coach only one president a year, you will put yourself in the position to not only make history, but a great deal of money as well.” (Tell me more!)

He also mentioned that nation presidents, unlike CEOs of big companies, are in the public spotlight all the time, making it much easier to uncover information about the burning issues that are really on their minds, issues they may need coaching on.

“Further,” he said, “presidents have a lot at stake in keeping their jobs and they are always in a survival situation. There is always the next election, where they could be replaced, or mid-term election where there party could be voted out of office, thus crippling their efforts.”

Dr. Choi also suggested that I begin writing a book on Presidential Coaching, as well as begin writing letters to newly-elected presidents and told me not to be surprised if I get a welcomed response. I thanked him for his encouragement and promised to give it a shot. In truth, he had captured my imagination and I was ready to jump into action. More in next blog… discussion with presidential historian, James MacGregor Burns.