How does coaching really work? If you asked 100 different Coaches that question, you would get 100 different answers!
Why is the question so subjective? Because it’s all about YOU – your perception, abilities, skills, life experience, and your application of the basic principles of Coaching.
Then, of course, you must also factor in the Client – their circumstances, abilities, focus, life experiences, plans, and their willingness and ability to adapt and change.
…and that’s without even getting to the “niche” stuff!
Let’s look at a working definition of coaching:
Coaching is a straightforward but often complex (see above!) methodology for support and/or guidance for either an individual or group that can be applied to virtually any topic, business, or philosophy.
It’s a cooperative, collaborative, interactive partnership that employs targeted questions and reflective listening to enable and inspire clients to resolve their outstanding issues.
Coaching is About Communication
In short, Coaching is all about advanced communication. It’s a practical application of skills, wisdom, and life philosophy that you learn exclusively by doing.
It’s about a cooperative, collaborative partnership with someone where your sole intention is to help them get the very best out of themselves.
It can only be effective if you as the Coach have absolutely no attachment at all to the outcomes they create for themselves. After all, from the client’s perspective, this is their life to live, and all the decisions they make and all the actions they take are entirely their own responsibility, right?
They must own their own life, and everything that happens in it. Personal responsibility is important to us all.
Your job as a Coach is simply to challenge their thinking with the use of meaningful questions in a way that helps them make effective decisions and then take effective actions.
You must also keep them focused on the task at hand as long as it’s necessary to get the job done.
Who Hires a Coach?
Mainly, two kinds of people hire a Coach:
- Those who are excelling and want to get better
- Those who aspire excellence and want to get there as quickly and efficiently as possible
Consider this:
- Every major sports star has a coach.
- Every major entertainer has a coach.
- Every major entrepreneur has a coach.
Why? Because it makes perfect sense to do so! It saves time and money, the two most important issues for the most successful people in any field of endeavor. It also relieves clients of the burden of a lot of trial and error too.
Coaching clients will always be strong people: people with character, a strong sense of purpose, and a desire to get things done …and the quicker the better.
That’s why Coaches find the profession so exciting! The variety also adds so much color to everything they experience.
How Can You Become a Great Coach?
Without reservation, the answer is: Your Clients will teach you everything you need to know!
You Learn by DOING!
Consider the story of Usain Bolt. How did he become the fastest man on the planet?
By going to a seminar? Reading a book? Watching a DVD? Going to a class? Reading a Manual? Of course not. He RAN! Maybe not so fast at first, but he ran.
Then he learned about the importance of a great start and a great finish. So, he practiced getting really good at his starts and finishes. Then he tried to cut as much space out of the bit in between as possible.
He practiced, adjusted, modified, adapted and changed …all during the time he was running. He had to learn BY doing, WHILE doing.
That’s how all the greats do it, and so will you. Coaching is no different. There is no other way.
But it’s easier, more fun, and much more fulfilling than you think. It’s a very vibrant, in the moment, way of connecting and communicating with clients to create beneficial outcomes about anything and everything that they have on their mind NOW.
Even the Client Learns by DOING
There can be no benefit from Coaching without making decisions and taking action. Just knowing about something doesn’t count for much. It’s the application of that knowledge in the form of decision making and taking inspired action that creates the results.
Being decisive and taking action on important issues has the ability to change your world. Resistance to change drops like a stone when you have tangible results that matter. That’s how we find the courage to step out and change things.
Coaching is Both Evolutionary and Revolutionary
Coaching is evolutionary because the more clients you work with the more skilful and refined you become in your abilities to help them.
It’s revolutionary because it has the ability to create massive and positive change for both the client and the Coach at the same time.
And yet there is no magic to it. There are no secrets to learn either.
It’s simply a form of advanced communication that the Coach, through practice, and the client, through cooperation and collaboration, benefit from over time.
There is no better methodology for creating lasting, permanent change.
Imagine how many people you can help, entrepreneurs you can enable to make their dreams come true, and valuable relationships you’ll forge!
So, go out there and change the world!
