Interesting Folks
The Disruptive Coaching Guru (Dr. Peter Chee)
- Details
- Written by Scott Murray
Dr Peter Chee is a positive ball of energy who hurls himself at you in the attempt to get you to reach your potential and be the best possible you. A life coach and executive coach with a distinctive disruptive coaching program, his life’s mission is to transform leaders and change the world for the better.
First a little about his background: Peter was born and raised in Penang, Malaysia, near the beach area of Tanjung Bungah. When he was young, he was very active in the Boy Scouts (today he’s is a Baden Powell Fellow of the World Scout Foundation, an honor bestowed by the King of Sweden). An avid water sports enthusiast, he trained on dragon boats and represented Penang in swimming at the national level. He joined debating teams and took elocution contests and speech courses hence his ability to speak so well in front of an audience. His family still lives in Penang and despite his globetrotting, he tries to get back to the island every weekend to spend time with his family.
Early on, Peter wasn’t very good in school, slightly naughty and acting out, his teachers told his parents that he was a poor student and lacked potential. But his parents didn’t believe them, they believed in Peter and started to coach him in a bid to unleash his potential. Peter’s father was the regional manager of an insurance company and was very active in training and public speaking. Noting special characteristics in his son, he told him to write draw his life goals to clarify what would motivate him in a bid to help unleash those talents. He did and those goals included having an MBA, a doctorate in management, being a trainer/coach like his father, traveling the world, having a dream home by the beach, writing books, having a beautiful wife, being a famous author, and being an entrepreneur and CEO of his own enterprise.
His father kept that list and some decades later showed it to his son. Peter could hardly recognize his own handwriting, but realized he had met all those goals plus much more. Peter learned to soak in his father’s teachings by sitting at the back of his management training courses absorbing the information he was disseminating.
Peter’s started his professional life at the bottom of the ladder, his first salary as a general assistant was only US$50 a month (barely enough to pay for his food & transportation) yet with time he built himself up to be the CEO of ITD World, a leading multinational corporation for human resource development.
Peter’s philosophy is to learn from the best and adopt their teachings using his own style. He has learned from many of the world’s top gurus including Marshall Goldsmith, John Maxwell, Ken Blanchard, Anthony Robbins, Jack Canfield & Brian Tracy.
Anthony Robbins once told Peter, “success leaves clues”, look at people who have succeeded and learn from them, that will help accelerate your progress. Peter has adapted that to “go and learn from the best to be better than the best.”
Peter’s father taught him early on that if you want to be successful, you must be able to communicate and influence people. Peter learned from Steve Jobs that if you are working on something you are passionate about you don’t need to be pushed, the vision pulls you. Peter says everyone is born and gifted in their own special way, it’s just a question of helping them to discover it what that is.
Elaborating on his parents’ influence, Peter says, “My dad was more about achievement, my mom was more about loving, nurturing and caring for me in every way, that’s where I get the soft-side from, my life purpose is transforming leaders and changing the world with love for God and people.”
In the CanCham seminar he recently held, Peter presented the participants with a learning action plan: what they were going to do and when they were going to do it. He gave them a disruptive coaching tool for game-changing results (the team coaching tool); and a one-on-one speed agility coaching tool, which they then practiced. It was a full house (60+) with many high-profile CEOs and presidents, who asked good questions, made many new connections, were fully engaged and applied the tools that Peter taught them.
Peter says he has never had an audience that wasn’t engaged, but some audiences provide different challenges. For example, a group of accountants, engineers and highly technical people may take a little longer to reach but he gets through eventually using the powers of speaking and facilitation techniques to energize and engage people.
Acronyms play a big part in keeping Peter focused, first, in how he takes care of himself and keeps himself at a peak state. He uses the HMBS technique – Heart, Mind, Body, & Spirit. “Heart” is being in a state of love, being compassionate, generous and giving without expecting anything in return, “You are never disappointed that way,” Peter says, “the more you give, the more you receive”; “Mind” is constantly learning and growing, keep feeding the mind by challenging yourself to learn new things every day, but learning in a purposeful & deliberate manner at the same time, in Peter’s case that’s how can he be a better leader, coach, speaker and author and how to be a bigger inspiration to others; “Body” is taking care of the body using the BEDSMS formula (the B is for Breathing, be in a relaxed, meditative state; the E is for Exercise, “Get 30 minutes of exercise three times or more each week,” he says “or walk 10,000 steps a day – keep walking, keep moving”; the D is for Diet “Everyone knows what a good diet it but it’s important to drink enough water, at least two litres a day, 8 glasses”; the first S is for Sleep, get enough rest, ; the M is for medicinal herbs that helps strengthens the body, not prescription drugs; and the second S is Spiritual, the way to uplift your spirit is to uplift other people’s spirits and to leave a positive legacy when you are not around. Every morning during weekends, Peter coaches people around the world for free during sunrise as they walk by the sea, it boosts people’s health and spiritual well-being.
Peter says that if he can take care of himself then he can take care of his family, his team and his community. He coaches people to have better balance in their lives for sustainable growth and holistic happiness.
When dealing with people who have a negative outlook on life Peter teaches that awareness and acceptance cultivates transformation, meaning getting people to realize that what they are doing is not achieving the desired outcome and there are better ways of achieving more satisfactory results. He uses a formula he learned from Jack Canfield called Events plus Response equals Outcome (E + R = O), which gets people to articulate what they want while realizing what they must do to achieve those goals. It’s about self-mastery and getting people to regain control of how they respond to circumstances and the meaning they give to things, what would be a better reaction, a more positively empowering meaning, what would be a better thought?
Peter has been inspired by Bill Gates, who has dedicated the latter part of his life to helping those less fortunate, while influencing other wealthy people like Warren Buffet to also do similar philanthropic work. Peter says Gates is a terrific role model as he uses his success to be a force for good in the world.
On becoming a better leader, Peter says if you are able to change your way of thinking, behavior and habits, you can change your life and become a better leader but you must be willing to change.
Bombardier’s VP for Asia-Pacific Gregory Enjalbert is an example of one CanCham member whose life became more clearer with much greater direction & focus since working with Dr Peter.
There’s so much more we can talk about, but we just don’t have the space. To find out more about disruptive coaching for game changing results, please connect with peter by email : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Parting tips: “Be joyful in the present moment, don’t worry about the past, and let go of your anxiety for the future. Love what you do, do what you love, find your talent & life purpose. And be kind and loving to others and to yourself, this will enable you to be happier and, in turn, make a greater positive difference to the world.”
Biography
Peter is the president of ITD World, which has 12 branches across the world. The headquarters is in Penang. ITD World focuses on their top three stengths: talent & leadership development, creating a high-performance coaching culture and team management & employee engagement through the mantra “mission transforming leaders are changing the world for the better”.
Dr. Chee holds a Doctor of Business Administration degree from the University of South Australia (UniSA), and an MSc. in Training and HRM from the University of Leicester, UK. He was also a Graduate of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK and also holds a Certificate in Change Management and Performance Consulting from Pennsylvania State University.
Peter was the first Asian to author books with William Rothwell, Brian Tracy and Jack Canfield who holds the Guinness Book of Records for the most books on the New York Times Best Seller List with 210 books and 500 million copies in print. He was also the first Asian in the world to be ranked #6 among the top global Coaching Gurus 2018
He’s the author of 12 Disciplines of Leadership Excellence with Brian Tracy who has written 58 books in 38 languages. Peter has also authored The Leader's Daily Role in Talent Management & Becoming an Effective Mentoring Leader with William J. Rothwell who is an award-winning author of over 100 books & Professor at Pennsylvania State University.
Peter has trained and developed leaders from over 80 countries with over 30 years of experience. He’s a chief coach & developer of the Certified Coaching and Mentoring Professional (CCMP), which is recognized by the International Coaching Federation.
Dr. Chee continuously learns from the best to be the best. He has been coached and given the opportunity to personally learn from many of the world’s leading gurus such as John C. Maxwell, Ken Blanchard, Tom Peters, Anthony Robbins, William J. Rothwell, Brian Tracy, Jack Canfield and Marshall Goldsmith.
He’s the author of Coaching for Breakthrough Success with Jack Canfield, Inventor of The Situational Coaching Model (SCM) and The Coaching Principles (TCP). His specialties include Coaching and Developing CEOs and senior management.
www.itdworld.com/drpeterchee.html