The Client Already Knows
Key Takeaways:
A coach helps clients find their own solutions, based on the principle that clients already have the resources within them.
Coaching is about listening, asking questions, and helping clients organize their thoughts and ideas to reach their goals, without needing expertise or providing specific advice.
Coaching requires the coach to have faith in the client's ability to find their own answers and to be curious about the client's perspective and thought processes, which is different from consulting or mentoring.
“Well, I know the one job I couldn’t do, and it’s yours!”
I laughed when a client said that to me recently.
“Why?" I wondered. “I absolutely love what I do!”
In fact, at that moment I was listening to this client explore how she felt about two career options, and I was enjoying every minute of it.
“I couldn’t sit here and listen to people like this. I’d just want to tell them what to do!” she said.
“Well,” I said, “the school of coaching I’m trained in has five main principles. One of them is: ‘People already have all the resources they need within them.’
This tenet is one of the most reassuring principles of coaching for me.
When I start a coaching session I typically write two words at the top of my notepad:
‘curiosity’ and ‘faith.’
I must have faith that my client already has the resources and answers she or he needs and that my curiosity will help her or him find them.
It isn’t always easy.
Sometimes we discover that we've been asking the wrong question. Sometimes the client thinks they have already found the answers.
For example, I want to lose twenty pounds so I know I need to work out more and eat less.
But the truth is, those answers have been there all along but have yet not solved the problem, and as we look more closely, we start to find deeper answers.
I fell in love with what is (awkwardly) called “no content coaching,” the key being that the coach doesn’t need to have any experience in your problem area.
As one of my instructors once said, “I coach a brain surgeon and a Wall Street trader. I don’t know how to do either profession, but I am able to coach them to help them find the path and answers they need.”
I did not choose to become a consultant or a mentor, fields where clients need you to have experience and proven answers in a specific field.
As a coach, my job is to resist having the answers!
My job is to listen powerfully, ask powerful questions, help you organize your thoughts in a way that will lead you to the answers you already have (or know how to get), and then hold you accountable as you follow that path.
I don't need to tell my clients what to do because they already know—they just need a little help to realize it.
Let’s discuss how this could fit into your life, click below to schedule your complimentary session with me.