Introducing Shimoo (심우)
After four years of coaching executives part time, I decided to launch my coaching and leadership consulting business. I’m excited to take this step and start Shimoo, which means I’ll work full-time to support people’s learning and growth. It also means I need to commit myself to becoming who I want to be day by day, which I will take seriously. I am grateful for the support from my family, friends, and colleagues in this journey.
The company name Shimoo means “trusted friend(s)” in Korean (심우 or 心友 in Chinese characters). One day when a friend of mine and I were talking about our lives and concerns, he used the word shimoo to refer to our friendship. “Joonki, we are shimoo. We are caring for each other’s long-term well being and success in a deep way.” Shimoo is defined as friends who deeply understand each other heart to heart, who always trust, pull each other up, share feedback and take care of each other, and who can lean on each other and never hate or dissociate in any circumstances. Shimoo relationships require effort, consideration, and honesty. I think of shimoo in building relationships with my clients.
Most executives, even with their brilliance, people skills, charisma, and confidence, struggle. They face insecurity, difficulties with emotion management, or lack of confirmation from others, which could lead to bad decisions and relationships. I faced similar issues in my experiences as an executive.
Earlier in my career, when I had an opportunity to lead a ~ 35 member team with P&L responsibilities, I found myself frustrated when my team members were not on the same page as me, and I lost my patience often. I blamed myself for not acting like the leader I wanted to be, but didn’t know how to correct my course. I felt failure in my communication and leadership. This experience led me to take steps to become an executive coach to help myself and to support people like me. Looking back, I could have benefited from having a trusted partner who I could share my struggle with, who could show me my blind side and push me without being judgmental.
At Shimoo, the focus is on helping clients to create a culture of learning and growth. Organizations need to perform and achieve their goals – there is no confusion on this. The big question is how. Shimoo supports leaders and organizations who think deeply about their culture as an integral part of their strategy to achieve the goals. We help them in three ways: we coach executives and managers, facilitate leadership team discussions and strategy off-sites, and coach teams on cross-cultural mindset to be more empathetic to each other. By grounding our coaching in shimoo, we foster humility and excellence in a way that enables great growth.