HRTech | Christine Khor | PeeplCoach
As a first-generation, Australian born Chinese woman, Christine Khor grew up in her Melbourne home surrounded by expectations to pursue a career in Medicine or Law. Instead she chose to forge her own path with an Arts degree majoring in Psychology at Melbourne University. She found herself in a marketing role that sparked her passion in the field. From there, she leveraged her knowledge to dabble in recruitment, executive coaching and now – tech. 2020 may have been a roller coaster of a year, but Chris’ determination and passion have not wavered. As an executive coach, and someone who loves her job, she describes herself as a psychologist for business and careers.
We had the honour of chatting with Chris about her company – Peeplcoach.
Christine jumping into the Antarctic Ocean - the Polar Plunge.
What gave you the idea for Peeplcoach?
For the last 20 years, I have worked with individuals and businesses to build sustainable, successful and performance driven teams and careers. As an executive coach, I saw first-hand the impact of such coaching, however I was disappointed and disturbed by the fact that only the most senior people within organisations had access to an executive coach. Middle management, including emerging and developing leaders, are often the bulk of leadership teams and yet they get very little access to 1:1 coaching support. I saw the need, I saw the opportunity and I worked, and continue to work, to solve the problem; to make executive coaching support accessible to all employees within organisations, when they need it, to accelerate both business and professional impact.
Any key stats, data, reports, research you can provide to give flavor to the opportunity/problem?
Here are some powerful stats associated with coaching*:
35% improvement in Leadership Performance
33% improvement in Business Deliverables
18% improvement in Profit Performance
36% improvement in team collaboration
96% of organisations report an improvement in Individual Performance
67% improvement in work life balance
What does Peeplcoach do? Who is the solution for? What problem does it solve?
Peeplcoach ensures 1:1 career and leadership executive coaching is accessible to all employees to accelerate their professional and business impact.
What is unique about Peeplcoach?
We provide one-to-one and on-demand career coaches that provide personalized advice. The modular platform and exercises enable us to customize the program to meet the specific needs of the organization / employees.
In addition to this:
Mobile first platforms ensure that the exercise and coaches are available anytime, anywhere, any device.
Our online exercises fast-track learning and behaviour change.
Peeplcoach programs start from $99 + GST per person per month making them accessible to all employees within an organisation.
Where do see your proposition in ten years’ time?
We believe that COVID19 was the great accelerator of:
Online learning
Fast-track career change and personal career accountability
The acceptance that leadership capacity is a critical component, not a luxury, of business success.
By 2030, Peeplcoach will be known as the “peepl’s” platform for career and leadership development and will be a mainstay of organisations emerging and developing leader development programs.
The industry and organisation specific data and insights gained from the platform will guide and inform organisation’s people and human resources strategies.
Peeplcoach will be the global benchmark for middle management coaching and leadership development programs.
If you are not from a Tech background how has that impacted and what do you bring to the table?
My business and hands-on experience ensures that I approach tech development from the view of the user rather than the view of the programmer. We build what organisations and individuals need, not what tech can build.
Biggest challenge you have faced so far?
The biggest challenge has been the need for investment. I have self-funded all my previous businesses and funded growth from profit. Tech businesses are “cash” hungry which has required investors. Learning to pitch, receiving feedback and dealing with rejection has been a journey.
Example of a good result with Peeplcoach?
I have had so many great results. Every coaching session is a great result – when we can see, immediately, the impact we are making to an individual, their career and their business.
When we had our first client expand to 64 participants after an initial trial with 5 people.
When we hear feedback from managers regarding the improved performance of their teams.
What our participants are saying
In what ways do you think female founders are treated differently?
I am not sure, as I am not a male founder, so I don’t know how they are treated. All the statistics say that women have less access to funding and are subject to more social stereotyping regarding their commitment levels, how they will handle stress, impact of family commitments, less technical skill and less business acumen.
One disadvantage I feel I have faced is a smaller network in the VC/finance industry resulting in less referrals and therefore less access to funds.
I choose not to focus on this, instead I focus on connecting with as many like minded people as possible who believe in equal opportunity and equal access to resources and in making 1:1 career and leadership coaching accessible to all.
I do also believe that whilst female founders may be treated differently, we should not allow this to make us act differently!!!
What is your focus now? And for the next couple of years? How has COVID impact your activity?
During COVID we spent time speaking to participants and organisations alike to understand what their true pain points were. We have refined our offerings and improved reporting to meet these needs.
The next few years we will be focusing on:
Scaling the business both domestically and internationally
Capital raising to fund this
Product, data management and reporting refinements to continue to meet the dynamic needs of individuals and organisations.
What tips would you have for female entrepreneurs?
Believe in yourself
Don’t worry about impressing others – impress yourself
Ask for help
Build your networks – learn from men – they are great at this
If you are a mum and feel guilty- remember they also have a dad or another mum!!!
What are the one or two lessons/principles/ you carry with you into everything you do?
When assessing options and risk I ask myself the question: What is the worst that can happen? Usually when you break it down, most risk is manageable.
I have to believe in myself and what I do - if I don’t who will?
Where do you see yourself in 10 years’ time?
On the morning of the 9th of November 2030, if I were to reflect on the last 10 years - the thoughts that will be going through my mind would be:
What a roller coaster the last 10 years has been, all starting with Covid19 and the impact on the year of 2020.
I will have scaled the business and will be continuing to work towards my vision of EVERY person having access to an executive coach when they need one.
Coaching will no longer be seen as a luxury for a select few, but rather and essential for all working people.
We will be partnering with many of the largest and most innovative employers and organisations in the world and we will provide the insights to help them build more productive, innovative and diverse teams.
How do you balance your personal time and your ‘work’ time?
Focus on the big rocks and what is important – I don’t get caught up in doing things that other people think are important, unless I think they are important!!
Ask (and pay) for help when required.
Allocating the time and making the effort to ensure a healthy mind, body and spirit.
80% rule is OK – I am not a perfectionist.
I don’t dwell on feeling guilty or having regrets. It is important to learn from mistakes and change behaviour but wallowing and regrets is a physical and mental drain.
Finally, in the word of Confucius “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life”. I love what I do, and I work every day.
* http://www.gallup.com/poll/165269/worldwide-employees-engaged-work.aspx; https://learning.linkedin.com/blog/engaging-your-workforce/how-to-calculate-the-cost-of-employee-disengagement; The Effectiveness of Executive Coaching: What We Can Learn from the Research Literature by Kenneth P. De Meuse and Guangrong Dai; 2016 ICF Global Coaching Study; https://www.kornferry.com/institute/298-the-effectiveness-of-executive-coaching-what-we-can-learn-from-the-research-literature; https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/the-benefits-of-team-and-individual-coaching/80537/
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