Christine Khor wears a number of hats including CEO and Founder of Peeplcoach, Managing Director Chorus Executive, Board Director The Hunger Project, Advisory Committee Member Future Pathways Council, mother, wife, aunty, friend and daughter. All these roles have one thing in common – supporting, enabling and empowering others to be the best they can be in life, work and business and to fulfill the dream they have for themselves.
CREATING PEEPLCOACH
What is Peeplcoach‘s purpose?
After working over 25 years partnering individuals and organisation to build successful businesses and careers I saw the significant impact executive coaching made in improving business and both, personal and professional performance. Unfortunately, the traditional cost models made coaching only available to the most senior individuals in organisations and inaccessible for most employees. This lack of equity ad lack of resources is not only unfair for individuals but it is bad for business.
We have all lived the experience, and read the research, that organisations with better leadership and diverse employees are more profitable and successful. Current training, development and coaching programs were able to fast-track leadership competency. The problem we set out to solve was “how can we make coaching accessible to all to build leaders and drive business outcomes?” At Peeplcoach we have a very clear mission: to ensure that every person has access to an experienced coach to accelerate personal, professional and business impact and every day we move closer to achieving our goal. Our programs start from $99 per person per month which means that every person and business can access a coach when they need one.
SELF DETERMINATION
What impact can coaching have on your career?
Research shows that organisations and individuals who invest in coaching see 33% improvement in business deliverables, 35% increase in leadership performance, 18% higher profit and 67% improved work life balance. (2016 ICF Global Coaching Study) because of a number of reasons:
- Investing in a coach creates the time and commitment to reflect on what you are doing well, what you are not and where you are heading
- Coaches are independent and objective and their role is to help leaders to explore options and see blind spots
- Coaches are professionals and are trained to help you identify obstacles, brainstorm solutions and then help individuals to stay accountability to those actions
- Finally, they will help individuals to see another perspective and options that may never have considered previously.
However, no matter how good the coach is, success will only be achieved with hard work and commitment.
GROWING DURING COVID
Tell us about building a HR Tech start up in your 50’s?
We have all seen the numbers,
- overall women start more businesses although less so in technology and
- less than 3% of investment capital goes to female founders.
- Investment increases for mixed team founders but only if the man is in charge!
- The average age of a successful tech founder is 34.
So, I have a few things against me! The other interesting anecdotal observation I have made is that the investments that I have seen have been to support women’s physical issues. I met with a VC in 2019 and I presented the idea of Peeplcoach. He asked me many questions about my point of difference, he highlighted the concerns with remote coaching and he “respectfully declined.” I then asked him about other female founded businesses he has invested in and he proudly mentioned a “female led diet and exercise company.”
In another example I was runner up to a pretty amazing technology that helped women with period pains. I am in awe of the women that have started these businesses and I support efforts to minimise the impact of period pain and the need to exercise and stay healthy but it really did confound me that significant investment is being on making women look good and feel good rather than in helping them build sustainable and successful careers and financial independence.
To say it has been an interesting, and at times a difficult, journey is an understatement but I believe my success comes from – having a clear purpose, a clear vision, a great team, hard work and a little bit of opportunistic luck. Whilst no-one would have wished for a global pandemic, COVID has shown the world that working from home and virtual meetings can be effective, especially when our programs can be delivered at between 10 – 20% of the cost of most coaching programs. The change and uncertainty that COVID has brought has also highlighted the real cost and impact of poor leadership, resulting in a greater need and investment in programs for Emerging and Developing Leaders.
I have never let difficulty stop me and over the last 2 years I have raised over $2.M in funding by connecting with purpose driven, strategic investors who are looking for investments that will be successful financially and for the world.
TAMING IMPOSTER SYNDROME
How have you overcome perceived disadvantages to your career success?
We all feel like imposters at times, don’t we? Not smart enough, not quick enough, not funny enough or we make too many mistakes. Feeling like an imposter can sometimes be a good thing. Feeling like we don’t know quite enough can make us read and learn more, practice more, check our work again or ask for help and advice. These are all positive impacts of imposter syndrome as long as we remember that feeling like we don’t know enough is very different from believing that we are not good enough.
Imposter syndrome is damaging when it stops us stretching and believing in ourselves, trying new things especially, that new role or promotion.
When I coach individuals, and also when I coach myself, I look for the evidence. What is the evidence that I am an imposter, will fail, am not good enough or don’t have the skills? Alternatively, what is the evidence that I will work it out, that I have the resources to find the answer, that I have the tenacity to keep going until I get it right?
There are still days when I question my ability and feel like an “imposter” but these are the days when I focus on solving the problem of the day through hard work, asking for help and never giving up rather than focussing on what I can’t or haven’t done.
ABOUT FEMECONOMY
You are the female economy. Whether you are a female consumer, business owner or a woman in the workforce, you can create gender equality by choosing female led brands.
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