President of the Asia Pacific Alliance of Coaches, Anne Dolly Kuzhimadathil uses her experience in the academic and business arenas, her training in Western thought, and Indian philosophy, to provide insightful change in her clients. Liz Hall reports
For Mumbai-based Anne Dolly Kuzhimadathil, marrying Western thinking with Eastern wisdom is at the heart of her work as a coach, HR professional, psychologist and president of the Asia Pacific Alliance of Coaches (APAC). And she believes the region’s teachings and wisdom are just what we need right now.
“The Asia Pacific region’s teachings and philosophies, with emphasis on social responsibility and world view of unity and mutual inter-relation of all things, are the needs of the hour. These insights are valuable for humankind and priceless for a coach and we’d like to play our role at APAC in making them easily available,” says Dr Anne.
At APAC, the leading organisation of professional coaches in the Asia Pacific region, she “leads and holds together a highly accomplished team of influencers from different nationalities redefining the future of coaching and writing a narrative that values the timeless wisdom of the Asia Pacific.
“I seek to straddle Eastern wisdom and Western thought seamlessly, inspiring change that’s contemporary, profound and long-lasting, providing thought leadership and collaborating with business leaders, encouraging them to reinvent themselves and their businesses.
“Trained in Western thinking, I marry this with my Indian orientation. My experience indicates there are many truths and many paths to them. I’m influenced by Indian philosophy as much as by Western thought. My work is informed by Sigmund Freud, Carl Rogers, Carl Jung and many other psychologists,” says Dr Anne.
“According to ancient Indian books, the atman or self, is divine, pure and the essence of a person. The books also suggest that when self-understanding is reached, humans can achieve liberation (moksha) while living. Rogers posits that humans strive for self-actualisation, some with more success than others. Depth psychology fascinates me and I’ve found the exploration of dreams, complexes and archetypes, strength-affirming.
“Individuation as a process is powerful, securing a bridge between an individual and the unconscious as well as the individual and his/her wider community. I’m able to appreciate the patterns formed by various threads and their amazing potency. I’m eclectic in my approach. The entire spectrum of human needs, desires, greed, anxiety, history, cultural nuances, socio-economic factors, even the time and era of birth is amazing and has created to SALT [the consultancy she set up] as I can straddle and explore all worlds unabashedly.”
SALT offers coaching, consultancy and training. Its mission is to be “a catalyst towards leadership in everyday business and life”.
“The fact that I can now contribute from the boardroom, deciding who the next CEO is, to marital issues to just listening, exhilarates me because of the sheer breadth and depth of work. It’s possible because of my decision to leave the corporate world and set up SALT – synergizing, actualizing, leveraging, transforming – individuals, teams and organisations.”
Dr Anne Dolly Kuzhimadathil has more than 20 years’ experience in multicultural environments, working globally, including in Fortune 500 companies. She’s worked in senior roles in organisations, including the HSBC Group, 3 Global Services (a Hutchison Whampoa Company), Tata Capital, AIMIA and the Aditya Birla Group, and in countries including the UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Multiculturism
On working with diversity and multicultural environments, she says, “I think the seeds were sown even before I was born. My dad was a Hindu and my mum a Christian Catholic, so I was born into a multicultural environment. At a very young age I learnt that ‘different’ was natural and that there can be more truths than one. Taboos in one context may be strengths in another.
“My experience has reiterated the fact that no matter what the colour of the skin, it hurts when it bleeds and that needs, expectations, insecurities, fears are all similar beneath. This is true, man or woman, celebrity or not. If we can go below the visible differences, there is a palpable unity, a sameness binding us all. As stated in the [ancient scriptures of Hinduism] Vedas, all people, animals, and things are part of the same divine whole. Human suffering is caused largely by unawareness of this universality.”
Background
When she was 15 years old, Dr Anne attended her first class in psychology and “fell in love with the subject”.
“Never looking back, I went on to complete my PhD in Applied Psychology. In India and other parts of Asia, the general feeling even today is that you go to a psychologist only when something is wrong with you or to cure a mental illness.
“I’ve seen a boy I played with as a child being diagnosed as a schizophrenic as an adult and being ostracised by his family. This experience, among others, gave birth to my belief that the understanding of human behaviour is needed to nurture the normal instead of waiting until things go wrong.”
As a graduate student, she continued to be passionate about psychology. However, at the time in India, she says, “psychology had no scope and everyone advised me to take up economics. I went against the tide, listened to my heart eventually ending up with an All India scholarship and a dream career working with some of the best organisations, not only in the country, but globally.”
The All India Scholarship Test Exam is a merit based nationwide education and scholarship test programme aimed at offering financial support to students for their welfare and education.
After a short stint in the academic arena, she joined a Fortune 500 company to develop managers “considered the crème de la crème of the financial world”.
“In a world where numbers ruled the roost, my job was to encourage managers to focus on the intangible. Very soon my diary was overflowing and my dates booked much in advance – a testimony to the difference I made. In the same company, I was also the first person from India to be invited to conduct programmes in the company’s head training centre in London.”
She was also selected to join the company’s best practices team in Hong Kong to implement a number of leading edge OD and HR interventions while providing expert advice to the business and HR colleagues on matters relating to executive assessment, performance management, talent management and succession planning.
Working in the corporate world, her “focus has been on building thriving individuals, teams and organisations, helping them go from good to great. This essential perspective brought in by Positive Psychology, complements and extends the problem-focused psychology dominant for many decades, resulting in more and more people seeking how they can become more fulfilled and achieve full potential.
“My vision for coaching is to help ordinary people live extraordinary lives. Most efforts focus on fixing the broken or inspiring the top 5%. I believe if our efforts concentrate on the majority in the middle, we will have a more close-knit family, a responsible community, an evolved society and a better world.”
APAC
“We’re committed at APAC to providing meaningful, growth-provoking experiences to our members. We aim to maintain quality, be relevant and, above all, do what we do best: transform, make an impact that is deep, meaningful and long-lasting.
“We also endeavour to play a role in the development and the future of coaching in the global scenario and ensure that coaching and coaches in the APAC region get exposure and visibility as we share the wisdom and richness of the region with the world.”
APAC was one of the co-signatories of the recent Global Statement on Climate Change, along with the AC, APECS, ICF and EMCC, committing to collaborative action and a collective voice on the climate and biodiversity crisis.
APAC holds a coaching conference every two years. Benefits include its Find A Coach database, a quarterly newsletter, APAC Voice, monthly webinars on issues, including financial savviness, Coach Connect networking sessions for coaches and Power Hour learning sessions encouraging knowledge exchange, experience sharing and skill development. Its Community Service initiative has seen projects make a discernible difference in communities in Hong Kong, India, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand.
It recently organised a three-part series, ‘Conversations on Covid’, which featured a first-hand account from a member in China of their experiences in two epicentres: Italy and China. Topics included agility and resilience, and exploring lessons learnt about inner strengths.
It’s also kicked off its first youth initiative with the first in a series of online workshops for high school students for which it collaborated with Youth Corps Singapore.
Client work
Dr Anne’s clients range from top leaders and struggling teams to celebrities to couples work. Recently, she coached a team “in shambles due to leadership changes, lack of trust and so on” and she coached a couple for more than a year “as they had relationship issues”.
“The team has now come together, working through their issues and the couple are not only living in harmony through the pandemic but spreading their wings towards new possibilities.”
On coaching leaders, she says, “in my experience across different markets, one learning that’s common is ‘what got you here, cannot take you further’. So I urge leaders to constantly reinvent themselves.
“I specialise in helping leaders funnel through the noise, clear all distractions and arrive at the essence of what they seek. I believe emotional and spiritual intelligence – EQ and SQ – are as, if not more, important than IQ. And human capital is the differentiator. Leaders who know how to rein this strength will be game-changers.”
With women leaders, she says, “I inspire them in their endeavour to feel comfortable in their feminine skin, accept themselves in their entirety and stand head to shoulders with the rest, neither making their femininity an excuse nor allowing it to come in the way of negotiations, discussions or getting their dues.
“Finally, [whether someone is] woman or man, the proof of the pudding is in the decisions made during tough times, the capacity to energise the team when everything looks bleak, because in this VUCA world, one constant is challenge. After the pandemic, winners will be those who don’t take the easy way out by engaging in massive layoffs but who work with the business, innovating and collaborating to make the best use of human assets. These are leaders, especially HR leaders, who I would put my money on, as at the end of the day, people or organisations, it all boils down to the vision and the means to achieve it, not just the end result.”
Trends
APAC completed its fifth Asia Coaching Benchmark Survey in 2019. Dr Anne, who was involved with the fourth survey from start to finish, presenting the results in the 2017 APAC Conference in Bangkok, explains: “The survey seeks to establish baselines of the coaching industry in Asian markets and track its development over time to identify trends and new insights to support the advancement of the profession.”
In the 2019 survey, the countries participating were Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Mainland China, the Philippines and Singapore.
“The fifth survey reconfirmed earlier findings that the meaning of coaching is perceived differently in Asia Pacific with finer nuances of other forms of help and this is true for India, too. The concept of the guru is an integral part of our DNA, our culture, so elements of guidance and expertise will continue to co-exist along with coaching.
“We can also see an emergence of creative applications of coaching and new niche specialisations such as spirituality, wellness, cross-culture and maternity.
“Post Covid-19, the trend towards virtual coaching and mentoring will be on the increase. However, globally, post-pandemic, employment is looking at a downward trajectory for employers and employees. While India has been leading the upsurge of start-ups, considering the present world crises, they may need to either close shop or innovate to stay afloat.”
And they’d benefit from working with coaches and/or mentors, of course:
“Their founders or leaders will do better with a coach and/or mentor to act as a sounding board, bounce ideas around with, provide honest feedback, play the devil’s advocate and encourage multiple perspectives or provide expert advice as the case may be.
“The pandemic has also led to global experimentation across various segments, forcing everyone to embrace online learning and development. I have clients who in the past insisted on face-to-face coaching who are now adopting virtual coaching during the pandemic. Therefore, I’d say that the use of technology and AI tools is likely to increase manifold and perhaps rapidly.”
Other (pre-pandemic) survey findings included that both external and internal coaches predicted an increase in all types of coaching services: one-to-one, group and team coaching, coach training, coaching apps and AI-based coaching tools, and coaching supervision.
“I think the soil in India is just right for coaching to blossom. Coaching appeared on the scene about 20 years ago and has [gained] traction. According to the survey, coaching services are being widely adopted in all markets, including India, and companies are increasingly becoming more open to introducing coaching services. The top reasons for companies in India not introducing coaching are lack of information and cost.”
Some 75% of respondent organisations had used coaching, compared to 63% in the 2017 survey.
The survey highlighted different rates across different regions and whether being paid for by an organisation or individual. Organisations pay lower (on average) in Indonesia (200 USD), India (138 USD) and the Philippines (139 USD), versus Singapore (325 USD), Hong Kong (350 USD) and mainland China (350 USD).
Unlike perhaps in the West, in the APAC region, while 95% of in-house respondents understand coaching as being facilitative, they also expect elements of guidance and knowledge transfer, and while coaching is primarily used for employee growth, leadership and high potential development, other focus areas are behavioural and remedial coaching.
APAC is also collaborating with the ICF to launch a pioneering research survey on the study of trends in interventions for organisational development (OD) in SE Asia.
Beliefs, influences and inspirations
“Books that not only inform and resonate my personal philosophy but also my work include The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, The Complete Works of Khalil Gibran, Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach and the narrative poem, Richard Cory, by Edwin Arlington Robinson.
“My key influences include my parents who have laid the foundation of my personality. I remember early discussions, arguments with my dad, mum and their friends on religion, Indian philosophies and life in general. And how can I forget Ms Ganguly and Ms Vaz, my psychology teachers who showed me that a teacher can be a friend, counsellor and guide too.
“I’m inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Helen Keller and [Zen master] Thich Nhat Hanh. They’re proof of the immense strength and will of the human being, the fact that a lotus can bloom in a muddy pond. When I talk of them, I am also reminded of [APAC founder] See Luan Foo, whose strength, willpower, ability to confront the truth and tenacity never fails to inspire me.”
She credits See Luan Foo, for her involvement with APAC “for a remarkable vision and for the person he is. When he shared his vision, not getting involved was not a choice as APAC resonated with my beliefs and thoughts completely.
“I’ve always believed the APAC region is a treasure trove of wisdom and has a lot to offer globally, and the coaching world would benefit immensely from it. I am exalted that I can play a role in this incredible journey.”
What makes Dr Anne who she is? “This is an interesting question, and I thought I’d ask friends, clients, associates, past team members, too.”
Insightfulness, energy, passion, empathy, not judging others, humility and ability to relate at all levels in the workplace were among the responses. One person says, for example, “Dr Anne’s energy, passion and ability to perceive beyond the situation, understand it multi-dimensionally and to empathise with sincerity are her greatest strengths, making her, her.”
How about Dr Anne herself?
“I think my vision of a better world, of an evolved, actualising human being, my infectious energy, passion, ability to be in the here and now, honesty, ability to confront the truth, multi-dimensionality in thoughts and views, appreciation of various perspectives, understanding of Eastern wisdom and Western thought, trust in the infinite, need for justice, search for the ultimate truth, lust for life and constant striving towards a better world… goes in some way [towards the] making [of] me, me.”
As a child she wanted to be a lawyer or dancer: “Even today, there are times when the worlds of politics and entertainment beckon me, as both these fields have the potential to influence millions at a stroke, the objective a more just, compassionate, better world.
“I try to live and let live. I believe in the very basic truths – honesty, equality, compassion and good for all. I believe in one world, one humankind, irrespective of nation, religion or race.”
- APAC: www.apacoaches.org
- SALT: https://saltconsulting.co.in