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Coachology's CEO and Founder Luke Salway tells us about a leap of faith that led him to where he is today, shedding light on the transformative power of personal development.
Meet Luke Salway, the visionary CEO and Founder of Coachology — a dynamic training and coaching enterprise dedicated to empowering global businesses and individuals.
With a wealth of experience as a Master Facilitator, business coach, motivational speaker, NLP Trainer, and MCC Certified Coach under the ICF, he specialises in leadership development and personal growth. But this personal growth did not happen overnight.
After 15 years as a successful senior leader in organisations, Salway decided that he wanted to explore his creative side, and add more modalities into his training & coaching library. It was then that he took a leap of faith that transformed his life. A pivotal 45-minute coaching session challenged him to confront the fears holding him back, and led to him establishing Coachology.
Today, as an entrepreneur and business owner, he relishes the ability to create, collaborate, and lead on his own terms, helping others unlock their potential just as he did.
In a candid, exclusive conversation with HRO, Salway shares his insights on the transformative power of personal development, the influence of his diverse career on leadership coaching, and his vision for the future of coaching and personal growth in Southeast Asia.
Q. After 15 years as a successful senior leader in organisations, we believe you were ready to explore your creative side! Tell us about the passion for personal transformation that pushed you to found Coachology.
Becoming an entrepreneur and business owner was the BEST decision I ever made. It is an absolute expression of freedom to create what you want, work with who you want, and partner with who you want.
I wanted to start my own business for many years but felt stuck. The trigger was a 45-minute coaching conversation I received from my coach when he asked me: ‘Our thoughts really only come from two places: Fear or faith. Where are your thoughts coming from?’.
Shockingly, my answer war ‘fear’. He then followed up with the most powerful question I’ve ever been asked: ‘If your thoughts came from 100% faith, what action would you take?’. Well, Coachology was the answer!
Q. You’ve had a diverse career path, from FMCG, to hospitality, manufacturing, healthcare, and now mentor & advisory. How have these varied experiences influenced your approach to coaching and developing leaders, as well as your role as CEO today?
Diversity enriches experience & learning. This is true for the individual, and also with the diversity of teams. Each industry and role that I have been a part of, both good and bad, helped me clarify my purpose. As a coach and mentor, I am able to relate to a much broader audience, and even support my clients with best practices from one industry, across to another.
Q. How does your leadership style blend NLP techniques in your practice? Can you share an anecdote or an example where you were quite proud of the impact you have made?
Firstly, I love NLP! There are at least 30 modules focused on communication & leadership, most of which I apply into my daily leadership functions. I’m a firm believer that leaders must be willing to discover what they don’t know that they don’t know, be open-minded, and have a growth mindset.
I do my best to walk-the-talk, and lead by example. In NLP, there is a principle called modelling, which is actually how we all learn as children; we simply model the behaviour of those around us.
As I implement these tools within myself, I do my best to be a role model for my team, my coachees, and my clients.
As I implement these tools within myself, I do my best to be a role model for my team, my coachees, and my clients.
Q. Having studied and taught personal development for over 20 years, what trends or shifts in this field have you found most defining in recent years, for HR leaders to be aware of?
There are two recent and powerful trends I’m observing in the HR space throughout Asia in the last few years. First is psychological safety, which is creating a safe space for teams to speak up without fear of punishment, humiliation, and judgement. The benefits are obvious!
The second is leadership coaching. Applying practical and effective coaching principles in a leadership environment. It’s one of the best ways to empower teams to solve their own problems, be more proactive, and increase synergy.
Q. You’ve previously said that day-to-day stress limits performance and productivity, and that there are better ways to work together to meet project deadlines and performance goals. Please share some of your actionable advice for our readers on this dilemma!
In addition to psychological safety mentioned above, clear & direct communication can solve or prevent 99% of all problems. Remember how most companies survived lockdown? That was with direct communication. Not easy, but achievable.
One specific tool to help with this, and reduce stress, is to clearly communicate expectations with all your colleagues. Most frustration is caused by unmet or unfilled expectations of what everyone should or should not be doing.
The root cause, however, is that those expectations are not fully communicated within our teams, so we all run around with this building frustration.
When we clearly express these expectations, it removes assumptions, creates clarity, and deep end alignment.
Q. What do you envision for the future of coaching & personal development in Southeast Asia? How are you preparing to adapt to or shape these future trends?
Coaching & personal development is continuing to grow and expand throughout SEA. One area I really see taking off is proactive succession planning.
More and more leaders are taking the time to develop their upcoming talent and are investing in both training and coaching to support them to successfully grow within the organisation. The result is greater retention, loyalty and performance.
Q. As we look to wrap up, what novel offerings or innovations can clients look forward to at Coachology this or the coming year?
We are proud to announce that we have just received our HRDC certification in Malaysia, which is a government funded programme that offers sponsorship & funding for organisations who develop their leaders, so you’ll be seeing and hearing much more of Coachology in Malaysia. We’ll continue to pursue our passion for partnering with organisations who are serious about implementing a coaching culture, and we plan to expand our reach throughout Asia Pacific.
Finally, we have some amazing organisational wellness and wellbeing initiatives to implement throughout the region, that provide greater employee engagement and satisfaction.
Q. Finally, at Learning & Development Asia 2024, you will be talking about “Inspire, influence, and impact: Empowering leaders to create a coaching culture”. Could you give us a sneak peek into what attendees of your session can look forward to?
For leaders and organisations that are looking to explore the powerful and positive impact of coaching principles, I am eagerly looking forward to sharing a few strategies and techniques for proactive leaders to get started with some simple, effective & efficient leadership coaching principles. Can’t wait to see you there!
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