So, you’ve signed a contract with an ideal coaching client. You cultivated and established a warm relationship based on your knowledge and their trust, and you both can’t wait to get started. What does your plan for the all-important first coaching session look like and for all the coaching sessions that follow? Does it vary from client to client? How comfortable are you that your coaching process supports and even enhances your coaching skills?
Some coaches use an approach that varies from client to client, and others combine their coaching skills with a proven process that:
- Provides them and their clients with a powerful roadmap from day one
- When combined with their coaching skills ensures their client’s success at every step
At The Passionate Coach, we believe that the coaching process you use throughout your relationship with a client is as important as the skills you develop to deliver it.
Your coaching process should support both you and your client and at the same time create a continuous flow of two-way coaching dialogue that puts the client at ease and moves them toward the future they have imagined.
Your coaching process is also critical as you establish expectations in the early stages of the coaching relationship. Your client will want to know how you are going to work together and the more specific you can be, the better.
When we refer to a coaching process, we are not including the processes you use when you are working on the business. Your financial, marketing, sales, and operational processes. We are talking about the process you use when you are working in the business – doing the coaching with your individuals or teams.
Your coaching process should complement your coaching skills and create a road map for the client’s future by addressing what has held them back in the past. Your client has chosen to be coached because there is something they want to achieve and they don’t feel they can do it on their own. To paint a successful future for the coaching engagement, it is necessary to have a clearly communicated process that builds the client’s confidence and trust in you. Ideally, the process you choose will exceed your client’s expectations by moving them toward an autonomous coaching relationship that enables them to become lifelong learners and transformational thinkers.
Ideally, we recommend five stages in your coaching process:
- Uncover
- Discover
- Visualize
- Create The Plan
- On-Going Coaching.
Uncover – In this phase, you and the client will determine what has held them back and work together to address those barriers. Using your questioning and feedback skills you can help your client connect with feelings, beliefs, or events that have prevented them from performing at their best. Helping clients experience a paradigm shift can set the stage for a more successful future.
Your clients’ strengths should also see daylight at this stage so you can both capitalize on them moving forward. The best way to do that is through an assessment, one that you use or one that your client may have recently taken. Please note that an assessment is a snapshot in time. It represents who we are, what we believe, and how we behave at that moment, and can change over time. So be sure the assessment is current.
Think of this stage as a look back in time to take stock of the client at their best and at their most challenged. This a chance to help your client create a mindset based on their strengths that will point them in the right direction and support them on their journey.
Discover – In this stage,you help your client discover their priorities, values, and life lessons. You and your client will create a whole-life inventory of the things that are important in their life, the values that they live by, and their model for learning life lessons.
Priorities and purpose. These are not goals, well not yet, but they will feed into goals. Priorities are the most important things in your client’s life. And purpose, if the client is fortunate enough to know what theirs is, drives their priorities. They might include work, relationships, family, giving back, finances, or health. Keep the list to no more than eight. Only the most important priorities should make the list. Keeping up with email or cleaning the garage, for example, are non-starters.
Values form the lighthouse of your life. They are the beacons that keep us away from the rocks so that we can live meaningful lives. Values help us make decisions because they steer us away from the things we don’t want and toward the things we do. In this stage perform a simple values assessment with your client.
Life Lessons – An outcome of masterful coaching is turning your clients into lifelong learners. Lifelong learners may pursue learning in an academic sense but more importantly, they know how to apply learning models to their everyday life. Life with its’ ups and downs, achievements and disappointments, provides us with more learning opportunities than any seat of higher learning. Not everyone knows how to take advantage of those opportunities so it is important for every coach to have a learning model that they can share with their clients.
We recommend becoming grounded in the Kolb experiential learning model. Kolb is a four-step learning process: concrete learning, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. Effective learning is achieved when a learner progresses through each stage.
Visualize – Now that your client has assessed who and where they are today it is time to move forward. Give your client the time and space to imagine what they truly want. Not what others have told them they should want but what they truly want. Ask them to dream big with as much detail as possible.
Your client may not realize it, but they are already a powerful visualizer. Most people spend a lot of time imagining their life, but they tend to be more focused on worry and anxiety than on success. Encourage clients to switch their vision to revolve around achieving a wonderful life that only they can imagine. Give them a pen and paper and 15 minutes to imagine the possibilities. If they balk and claim they can’t imagine what’s possible, suggest they first write down what they DON’T want and then challenge them to decide what they do want in exchange.
Create the Plan – Now thatyour client has a positive mindset and a vision of a bright future, it is time to create their plan for success. We recommend 5-7 goals that are values-based and connected to their priorities and the future they imagine. Nothing wishy-washy. These goals should give them chills when they read them.
Encourage them to create goals that meet the S.M.A.R.T. criteria:
Ongoing Coaching – Whatever your plan is for ongoing coaching, communication with the client should be consistent and your process made clear. It is in these regularly scheduled sessions that real progress takes place. Coaching sessions should reflect shared ownership and accountability as the client works towards their goals.
Adding a tracking system to your coaching process can be significantly powerful. Look for a system that is automated, accessible, and maintained by your client, and refer to it in each of your coaching sessions. The outcome is shared accountability and responsibility, and a tool to keep your client on track when you are not around.
Take the time right now to reflect on your coaching process. Are there components that might be missing? If so, do a bit of research. Find and master meaningful coaching tools that will add value to your coaching process and your clients. The right process and your coaching skills will set you apart and turn your clients into raving fans.
Thanks for reading.
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