This month we want to welcome and introduce our newest Fellow, Vicky Lee. Based in Shanghai, China, Vicky’s work focuses on organisational and leadership development and professional coaching.
Vicky Lee used to be what she describes as a ‘corporate high flyer’. Her first degree, with which she graduated in 1997, was in marketing. She initially thrived in busy corporate environments.
About a decade later, during a period where Vicky was dealing with a difficult boss and some personal challenges, a friend suggested she attend an Enneagram workshop in Hong Kong. At first she was sceptical. She had already done a Myers-Briggs assessment and wondered what new insights the Enneagram could offer. Nevertheless, she eventually decided to take the workshop, and it opened a whole new path to her.
Learning about the Enneagram, her own type 3 and the effect her fears and stress were having on her, often leading to below-the-line reactions, Vicky saw a way forward. Before long, she was attending further Enneagram workshops and after that an International Enneagram Association (IEA) conference in Hong Kong, where she met Global Fellow Stingo Chan.
It was Stingo who suggested she also learn about the concept of emotional health because he felt it would help her with the application of the Enneagram in a business context. He invited her to meet Gayle and Malcolm, which led to her attending an emotional health workshop with them. From then on, every time Gayle and Malcolm were in Hong Kong, Stingo asked Vicky to join them for dinner with the promise of good wine and food. ‘We joke that we didn’t really talk about the Enneagram with them. We talked about food!’
At this stage Vicky was still working in product and business development roles, so she saw her relationships with Stingo, Gayle and Malcolm as friendships. Any sort of business collaboration was not on her radar.
Meanwhile, Vicky had also discovered Vipassana meditation. She attended her first Vipassana 10-day retreat 12 years ago. She knew this would be a challenge – her type 3 personality wasn’t adept at sitting still and doing very little for days on end! However, she came out of it with new energy and a stronger connection to what she would later recognise as her heart centre.
Looking back, Vicky sees discovery of the Enneagram and Vipassana together as ‘the gifts for me to meet a different me’.
Ultimately it was her newfound dedication to Vipassana that prompted Vicky to launch her own coaching business. Going out on her own was the only way she was going to be able to give herself the time to attend a 10-day residential retreat every year. ‘After the [third] retreat, which was in Malaysia, I flew back to Hong Kong and typed my resignation letter.’
Vicky saw an opportunity to share her knowledge of the Enneagram (given she was already well versed in the concept) through programs which she ran alongside her leadership coaching and other training and development work. ‘My first Enneagram teacher gave me the opportunity to co-train with her’, and this led to some corporate opportunities. Stingo was also looking for a workshop facilitator to work with, so Vicky started doing some work with him. ‘These people helped me start from scratch.’
It soon became clear to Vicky that she had discovered her life’s purpose in helping others with their conscious development.
As Vicky learnt more about emotional health with Gayle and Malcolm, she realised that the concept of emotional health had been core to her personal growth for some time. ‘Vipassana is about mindfulness and emotional health is about mindfulness also. Both are about vertical development.’
Vicky’s coaching career is now in its tenth year. Always looking for further vertical development herself, she has added numerous other accreditations to her portfolio. Over the years she has worked closely with her colleague and Global Fellow YuPeng Qui, who she also met through Stingo, Gayle and Malcolm.
Initially she was reticent to accept the offer of joining Global Leadership Foundation as a Fellow, feeling she wanted to improve her own level of emotional health first. This year’s anniversary of her own career has given her the confidence to come on board, and we are delighted to have her as part of our Global Leadership community.
Gayle
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