This month we want to share the story of one of our Fellows, YuPeng Qiu, in the first of an occasional series. YuPeng is co-founder of the China-based Whole SELF Leadership Center, through which he provides business consulting, leadership coaching and workshop facilitation services. He also translated the Chinese edition of Working with Emotional Health and Enneagram.
In 2016, YuPeng attended his first Enneagram workshop and was immediately fascinated the wisdom of the powerful tool. He subsequently took a systematic approach to learning about the Enneagram and started the journey of applying Enneagram wisdom in both his self-development and business consultancy.
One year later, at the International Enneagram Association (IEA) China conference in Shenzhen, YuPeng had the opportunity to meet with people he regarded as giants and mentors in the application of the Enneagram to the business world.
At the conference, there were three parallel streams: one on the Enneagram and psychology, one on spiritual aspects of the Enneagram and one on the Enneagram in business. There were about 200 attendees at the conference, of which nearly all attended either the psychology or spiritual breakouts. YuPeng took the business option, and it was there that he heard a presentation from Gayle and Malcolm.
It was a revelation. ‘As they were sharing, I just cried all the way,’ says YuPeng. Having imagined the potential of the Enneagram in application to business settings, he was now hearing about that potential having been realised for years by Gayle and Malcolm. The concept of emotional health provided even more inspiration.
Some months later, YuPeng was able to join Gayle and Malcolm on a video call, and what followed were a series of monthly calls during which YuPeng was able to discuss his work and be linked into what he describes as a ‘lifetime’ supply of information about the Enneagram. In 2018, he spent time in Melbourne with Gayle and Malcolm, and later that year established the Whole SELF Leadership Center with co-founder Susie Niu.
From Gayle and Malcolm’s perspective, YuPeng was not the first person from China to express interest in introducing their ideas into that country. However he was the first to demonstrate the ‘fire’ to act. This was enough for them to feel comfortable offering their ongoing support to YuPeng.
What followed was a keystone project for the Whole SELF Leadership Center, with an insurance company in Shenzhen, during which he was able to apply much of what he had learned about the application of emotional health and the Enneagram in business. This saw the Center move into a new phase in its development.
The Covid-19 pandemic arrived at an unfortunate time for YuPeng, as his business had been gaining momentum. However, like so many others, he got innovative with online technologies, setting up a public group chat and later establishing an ‘online retreat’ group for individuals interested in joining the journey of learning around the Enneagram and emotional health. That group still meets today.
In reality, the pandemic caused only a short pause for YuPeng’s business development. The Center took on a new client in Shanghai – a client that has since grown from 13 employees to 60 and seen a six-fold increase in turnover. They then took on further clients in Beijing , including an NGO working in the area of sustainable forest products. For them, YuPeng ran a novel Enneagram workshop for families, including children, that was a great success.
Based on his exploration of and devotion to the local business world, YuPeng and his team eventually formed a systematic framework and a series of innovative tools and models for increasing individual, team and organisational effectiveness. An ever-growing list of clients benefit from their intent and work. Some of those have even decided to join the Center and work together with YuPeng and Susie.
YuPeng is enormously thankful for his connection to Global Leadership Foundation and its community of Fellows and Friends. He appreciates the connection to the Foundation and its community of Fellows and Friends, which always makes him feel integrated and whole. As he says, ‘Together, let’s take our Whole SELF to lead a better world and increase the emotional health levels of the globe!’
