As a coach, you’ll have a suite of proven tools and strategies under your belt ready to extract when your clients need them.
The question is: are you delivering them to your clients in a truly authentic way?
Or are you routinely firing off repeated strategies that you know have worked in the past, without examining whether they’re really the right ones for the individual client.
It’s ok, there’s no judgement here!
And this isn’t about throwing away any strategies that you’re currently using either.
Instead, let’s work out how to enhance what you’re already delivering to your clients, and then how to catapult that effort into something truly meaningful.
When Your Coaching is Just Scratching the Surface
You started coaching because it’s a profession that truly gives back – you feel a great sense of achievement through helping others; there’s a financial benefit, and you get to shine in your seat of expertise.
Awesome.
Very quickly though, something that was once new and fresh can become routine and we become at risk of falling into ‘default mode’.
Default mode is when we’re not really paying attention to what we’re doing with a sense of purpose and intention anymore.
If you’re engaging with your client from default mode, they’re definitely going to feel it. Something’s going to feel inauthentic about their interaction with you. They’ll get a sense that something is ‘a bit off’, and they’ll experience confusion.
Decisions and best actions don’t get born out of confusion.
Which means your clients will be less likely to act on your coaching advice, and they’ll wind up with lesser results.
Real Leadership Means Getting Comfortable With Starting All Over Again
Think about tying your shoelaces or texting. These are common everyday activities.
But there was once a time when these things were so brand new to you, that all your attention had to be placed on exactly what you were doing in each moment during these activities, for them to succeed.
Then, once you got the hang of it you could do it with your eyes closed, right? But you weren’t really there for the moments during those activities anymore.
All of a sudden you could think about your to-do-list while you tied your shoelaces.
You could walk AND text at the same time (not recommended by the way).
Well, it’s the same with the people we serve. Once the smallest hint of complacency slips into our work, the whole experience becomes less fulfilling – for both you AND your client.
And this doesn’t make for good business.
Coaching Others in a Meaningful Way Starts With Noticing the Simple Stuff Again
Present-moment awareness is essential for meaningful client interactions, and meaningful results.
Listening and observing with your full attention allows you to truly understand where they’re at, and then from that space know exactly what they need next. It’ll be different from moment to moment, session to session.
Remember, everything’s always in a state of change!
So how exactly do we get more real again, and into the present moment? By paying attention to the small details of life with great curiosity again.
Just like those shoelaces.
Here are some other everyday areas of life for you to make a start:
- Look at and listen to your partner/children/friend/pet with a sense of newness and curiosity again, as though you’re meeting them for the first time, and you’re in absolute awe.
- Make doing daily chores like doing the dishes, showering and making coffee an experience of the senses. Notice what you’re touching, seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting – without getting hijacked away from the moment by thoughts of the past or future.
- The next time you’re walking somewhere, make a point to pay attention to the way you breathe in and out, perhaps even counting the seconds of each inhale and exhale.`
How you do one thing, is how you’ll do everything. Practice present moment awareness in these simpler areas of your life, and watch how this ripples out into your coaching practice.
Be a Leader Who Demonstrates Through Presence, Rather Than Hot Air
If you want to create real impact in the lives of the people you’re coaching AND feel immensely fulfilled about the work that you do, then it’s time to start backing your coaching talk with your own powerful presence – the authentic you.
Get to know that real version of you again.
How are you in relationship with everything in your life?
Do you tend to do most tasks with a sense of urgency or calm?
Do you notice the journey to your coaching desk each day, or is the way there a blur because you’ve repeated the pathway so often?
What are your core values in life, and is everything that you do in alignment with them?
These questions are worth exploring to get to the core of who you are again. Let your service to others be borne out of this space.
The best way to help your clients reach their own highest potential is to get in touch with yours first.
Then, every interaction your clients have with you, and every decision they make, is going to be made based on the way they feel about you – not just what you’re saying.
Erin Lee
Erin Lee is an internationally-renowned Yoga, Mindfulness and Meditation teacher, featuring regularly at major wellness festivals and corporate events as well as running her own retreats, workshops and online programs. She also mentors other business owners to thrive at their soul-led work, while still honouring their own personal life balance.
Erin Lee
Erin Lee is an internationally-renowned Yoga, Mindfulness and Meditation teacher, featuring regularly at major wellness festivals and corporate events as well as running her own retreats, workshops and online programs. She also mentors other business owners to thrive at their soul-led work, while still honouring their own personal life balance.
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Keep the pathway to happiness simple - be guided to move your body, notice your breath, be aware of your thoughts and feelings, and choose kindness.
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