Being a subject matter expert is no longer sufficient. Business leaders today are expected to tread new grounds, and to get there, they must become better versions of themselves.

This is where former soldier Kapt Shan Moorthi (Rtd) comes in. Lest anyone is mistaken, Shan does not teach people how to do their jobs.

In his own words, he is just a “thinking partner”. “I create space for meaningful conversation. You could say I’m the ‘sounding board’,” he told FMT.

“Trusting that people already hold the wisdom within (themselves), I partner with them to unlock their potential,” he added. “That, to me, is the essence of coaching today.”

The concept of coaching for the corporate world began in the 1960s when techniques derived from the sports arena were introduced into the world of business.

However, coaching only became a structured professional field in the 1990s, about a decade after the term “coaching” entered the business lexicon.

Back then, while serving in the armed forces, Shan found he had a talent for imparting knowledge and experience.

He recalled that one of his mentors, Australian corporate coach Ross Walters, suggested he consider business coaching.

“I remember saying: ‘But I’m a military man, and I know nothing about business’. Back then, I thought coaching was like training someone in sports.”

Shan soon learnt that being a coach meant learning and knowing what the client wants and helping him gain clarity, so he achieves his objectives.

“It is about creating the space for clients to think, reflect and find their own answers,” he added.

Shan retired from the military service in 1994 to go into coaching full time. In 1999, he set up Teamcoach International, offering his services as a training and coaching partner.

Apart from Malaysia, he has also coached business leaders in Indonesia, Thailand, Brunei, Bangladesh, Singapore, Sri Lanka, US and Switzerland.

Teamcoach International also offers leadership coaching to those hoping to be certified as coaches themselves.

In 2018, Shan went down a different path, taking on a challenge no other coach had tried before.

A friend who volunteered at the Society of the Blind in Malaysia asked if he could contribute to the visually impaired. “I thought, ‘Why not?’ I could start a coaching certification programme for them,” he recalled.

It struck him that the members were highly educated. Some had master’s degrees and there was one with a PhD.

“Their only limitation was that they were visually impaired,” he said.

His first thought was that it would be ideal to train them to become coaches so they could coach others.

“Coaching, after all, is not about seeing. (Rather,) it is about listening, being present, and focusing deeply on another person,” Shan said.

“In fact, I found that the visually impaired were often more ‘present’ and focused than me,” he added.

Shan said that while many people assumed that coaches must also read body language, it was more of a distraction to him.

“On the other hand, the visually impaired are not easily distracted. They listen with full attention and without judgement,” he said.

For him, his first programme with them was a breakthrough. Of the 12 who participated, five qualified as certified professional coaches, and, he said, some were even better coaches than their sighted peers.

“Their ability to focus and be fully present gave them an edge in creating meaningful coaching conversations,” he added.

Riding on that success, Shan turned his attention to the hearing-impaired community the following year, eventually partnering with the Penang Deaf Association.

“The challenges were different. Their vocabulary was limited, and I also needed to know sign language to communicate with them,” he said.

Since many were not keen on reading the notes, he used graphics instead, encouraging them to express themselves in drawings. With the help of an interpreter the sessions were conducted in sign language.

Shan said that while none from this group qualified as certified professional coaches, they acquired enough skills to coach their peers.

In 2022, Shan partnered with the St Nicholas Home for the Blind in Penang, with several of them qualifying as certified professional coaches.

One lesson he learnt was that an individual’s ability to connect with and support others was not limited by physical disability.

His successes with these groups earned him a mention in the Malaysia Book of Records in 2024.

Looking back Shan said he was glad for the challenge. “Although we say we are inclusive, we still don’t give the visually impaired enough opportunities. We have to be more aware of the need to be more inclusive,” he added.

For him, there is a lot to learn from the experience of the less abled in society.

“Coaching builds self-efficacy, confidence and clarity,” he pointed out. “The image of participants coaching each other within their own communities is powerful.”

Coaching, he said, enables people to see their own strengths, helps them uncover hidden resources so they can take small but meaningful steps forward.

“It isn’t about fixing problems. It is about becoming a better version of ourselves,” he added.