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Coaching Best Practices: 3 Weird Ways to Get Coaching Clients

December 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Some of the coaching best practices to get coaching clients may seem a bit odd at first, but they are highly effective because they go below the radar that tells people to say ‘no’ automatically. Most people aren’t even aware that their sub-conscious is programmed to say no to any type of sales. Think of the last time someone walked up to you in a department store, asking if there was anything they could do to help you. The natural reaction is “No, thanks.” The natural reaction most people have to enrolling in coaching is the same. If you try to enroll people using the same techniques everyone else does, you’re likely to get a ‘no’ regardless of your skills or credentials.

3 Weird Ways to Slide Beneath The Rader and Get Coaching Clients

  1. The first weird way to get coaching clients is to give them the most value you possible can give them during a free session. Run 2 or even 3 hour free sessions if that is what it takes. Traditional coaching best practices might argue that if you give away the farm, people won’t feel like they need any additional coaching. This couldn’t be further from the truth. The best coaching practices actually suggest that people will think if what they are receiving is your free stuff, you must have even greater value to offer.
  2. Another weird way to get coaching clients is to put your prospects off a bit. Sure, some coaching best practices suggest you offer great customer service and do what you need to get clients scheduled at all costs, but this can actually makes you look a little too easy. You wouldn’t tell someone who is asking you out for the first time that you are open anytime during the next 5 days, would you? Even if you have nothing going on, give a couple of options for scheduling. Work with people, of course, but play a little hard to get as well.
  3. The third way is to never give your prospect a complement unless you back it up. Most people are trained to put their guard off if they feel they are being played. While coaching best practices agree that you want to establish rapport, complementing people is tricky. Make sure immediately after you compliment someone you tell them what specifically you admire about them and ask a question to learn more. This is a great way to make sure you are sincerely complementing someone and prove to your prospects that you mean what you are saying.

Be Open To Throwing Coaching Best Practices Out The Window

There are times to use coaching best practices, and there are times to be creative. Every situation is unique, and the person with the most flexibility will always prevail over the more rigid stereotypical salesperson. As Tony Heish, Zapppos’ CEO, would say, have fun and don’t be afraid to be a little weird and wacky.

Give this strategy a try and see for yourself that it works. If you liked this coaching tip, leave a comment or use the handy bookmark buttons below to share it with others on Facebook, Twitter, Digg, etc. Thanks!

Colette Seymann
JTS Advisors Designated Accountability Coach

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Coaching Communication Competence: Hearing and Listening

December 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment

To paraphrase something a Greek philosopher once said, something that is vitally important for coaching communication competence; we have two ears and only one mouth – we should be listening twice as much as we speak.

The #1 Tip to be an Superstar Coach

Listen. Yes, the most important, numero uno, top dog of all skills to learn if you want to be the greatest coach of all time, is to listen. Ok, the greatest coach of all-time was a bit of hyperbole, but if you listen, you will be a very competent and successful coach. Your competence at listening will make you a superstar coach!

Coaching communication competence is sometimes an overlooked part of your training as a coach. You learn motivational techniques, promotional strategies and coaching methods – all very important to the success of your business. However, the way we communicate, and the way we listen, are skills that sometimes get lost in this fast-paced, sound-bite era.

The 2 Most Skills for Coaching Communication Competence

  • Hearing
  • Listening

Yes, you read that correctly. You need to hear the words your client is saying, but hearing is not listening. You need to go a step further and LISTEN.

There is a difference between hearing and listening. Hearing is often only a passive exercise, while listening is an active endeavor. Good coaching requires you to be an active listener.

One More Coaching Communication Competence Tip

Be an active listener by the following rules:

  • Don’t think you know what your client is saying after only a few sentences.
  • Don’t formulate your rebuttal before the client finishes speaking.
  • Don’t judge what your client is saying until the end. The intent and meaning of what a client is saying is often clarified or summarized by the whole of what they say, not in the first few sentences.
  • Listen to the tone in their voice. Listen for emphasis, sarcasm, hesitation, and other subtleties that often give clues to the true meanings of the words.

Let’s go back to that old saying – you have two ears and one mouth. I think the old Greek philosopher who came up with this one forgot to add another body part with which we listen. Our eyes. Yes, we can also listen with ours eyes. Coaching communication competence requires us to use our eyes.

We use our eyes to “listen” to a person’s body language. Body language includes the way they sit or stand, how much they fidget, and their facial expressions. There is an entire body of science created around the meaning and interpretation of body language.

Remember that body language is an important part of active listening. We use our eyes to capture a client’s body language. In effect, we are listening with our eyes. So, let’s make that old saying – We have two ears, two eyes, and one mouth – we should be listening four times as much as we speak. Powerful coaching communication competence depends on listening with our ears AND our eyes.

Though a coach’s communication competence includes how they talk and listen, it is much easier to find advice and information on what to say to clients. Listening is the forgotten component of coaching communication. But, if you remember it and put an emphasis on learning how to listen, instead of just hearing, you will undoubtedly become a more effective coach; one to whom the clients LISTEN!

Special Bonus – Learn 32 ‘Guru’ Transformation Techniques when you fill in the form at the top right and click the “Watch The Videos Now” button. You’ll learn how to become a life coach in 30 days.

Fred Philips
Business Coach
Writing Team, Coaches Training Blog Community

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Coaching Competencies: The Difference Between a Coach and a Counselor

December 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Sometimes when discussing coaching competencies, the words “coach” and “counselor” are used interchangeably. However, they are NOT the same thing.

What is the Difference Between a Coach and a Counselor?

A counselor is someone who has specific expertise in a certain type of business or industry. Coaches work for a broader range of clients and generally have a wider range of knowledge in more areas than a counselor.

Counselors diagnose problems with a company’s organization, structure, and work flow. They then analyze the results and provide solutions on a client’s behalf. Coaches also provide analysis, though it is not an as specific to a certain company or industry. However, they usually do not provide all the solutions; instead they provide you with the tools needed to answer your own questions, draw your own conclusions, and chart your own course toward advancement, achievement, and success.

Counselors will set goals for you and your company. Coaches will help you figure out what your goals are and use their coaching expertise and knowledge to help you define, clarify, and achieve those goals..

Coaching Competencies: What Coaches are NOT

Coaches are not:

  • Teachers
  • Trainers
  • Therapists
  • COUNSELORS

Coaching Competencies: What Coaches ARE

Coaches are:

  • Facilitators
  • Motivators
  • Inspirational speakers
  • NOT counselors

According to a 2011 survey on executive coaching done by Sherpa Executive Coaching, coaching is being employed by many companies as a leadership development tool. As a coach, your coaching competency is in demand, so it is good to know how you differ from a counselor.

When learning various coaching competencies it might be good to give a little allegorical story that illustrates the difference between coaching and counseling.

Mr. Smith wants to lean how to fly a plane. He first hires a counselor to help him. The counselor comes by with an a manual on how to fly a plane, Flying a Plane for Dummies, or something similar. The counselor goes through the book in detail and tells Mr. Smith everything there is to know about the workings and operation of a plane. The counselor also relates his experiences as a pilot and then sets a date a few months in the future to see how Mr. Smith made out with flying his plane.

Mr. Smith next hires a coach to help him learn to fly. The coach goes with him into the plane, sit with him, and encourages and supports him while he learns all about the operation of the plane. The coach then makes certain Mr. Smith knows where to find all the right answers to any questions. When he is ready, the coach encourages him to take his first flight, with all proper precautions, and supports him when he takes that maiden flight.

Mr. Smith looks back at his experience and decides that both the counselor and the coach have value and specific competencies, but it was the coach who provided the inspiration and the “coaching” he needed to get in the cockpit and achieve his dream by becoming a pilot.

When discussing coaching competencies and the definition of coaching, remember that, as a coach, you facilitate, motivate, and inspire people to reach their goals and dreams. Be a coach; not a counselor!

Special Bonus – Learn 3 simple ways to become a life coach with the “30-Days to Become a Coach” video toolkit when you fill in the form at the top right and click the“Watch The Videos Now”button. You’ll learn how to change your client’s life in 45 minutes.

Fred Philips
Business Coach
Writing Team, Coaches Training Blog Community

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What Does A Freak Show Have To Do With Coaching Techniques For PFTS?

December 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

One of the key coaching techniques for pfts (that’s code for profits) is to grab people’s attention. Did you know that it’s virtually impossible for us as humans to see another human in an unfamiliar position and to not look? That’s why we loved the book, “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not” as children and are drawn to shows like Circ de Soleil as adults. How can we use apply this to our coaching techniques and profit?

I Like Freaky Things And Other Coaching Techniques For PFTS

If you have a conversation with someone, it may or may not have a life changing impact. In order to change someone’s life in the context of a single coaching session you need to engage the other person at a deep emotional level. You need to stir things up a bit and not be just like everyone else in your clients’ lives who is willing to accept mediocrity and status quo. Freaky coaching techniques for pfts is not about your profit, although it can be, but your client’s profit from the conversation.

The Easiest Way To Get Someone’s Attention Is To Do Something Freaky

Just as we crane our necks to see an accident on the highway, turning someone’s life upside down like a wrecked car is a sure what to get someone’s attention. Giving someone a fresh perspective is one of the most common coaching techniques for pfts, but most coaches play too small. There’s one coach that has thousands of people lining up to walk across fire at his events. That is freaky! Having a client visualize the pain she will experience if she fails to make immediate changes in her life until she is sobbing uncontrollably. That is freaky. Having someone visualize a painful experience from his past and then modify the memory so that he is unable to recall that event again without laughing is also freaky.

Challenge yourself and dare to make a difference by facing your own fear of the unfamiliar in your next session.

Give this strategy a try and see for yourself that it works. If you liked this coaching tip, leave a comment or use the handy bookmark buttons below to share it with others on Facebook, Twitter, Digg, etc. Thanks!

Colette Seymann
JTS Advisors Designated Accountability Coach

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Coaching Techniques For PDFs

November 24, 2011 By 1 Comment

Producing coaching techniques for PDFs can be very beneficial to you and your business. There are many different ideas for content and ways you can package your material. Below are a few ideas to get you started.

Ways of Delivery For Coaching Techniques For PDF

  • White Papers: PDF format works well for white papers. As a rule, white paper content is in report, study or guide format. White papers are used to educate and/or solve problems of your readers, giving the needed information for informed decisions. Besides giving relative information to potential clients you can use them to gather addresses of interested people. They are usually sent out for free and are anywhere from 4-24 pages in length.
  • Bonus Material: This is similar to a white paper but typically covers a certain subject more specifically. When someone buys a product, bonus material is usually given out as a gift. This adds value to the item sold. Even if you are in a joint venture project and giving out bonus material with someone else’s product and you personally don’t make any money on it, it is still a sample of your work and program and may lead to future sales, representative of a more extensive program you offer.
  • Books: You can self-publish your information and sell the PDFs on your site.

Content Ideas For Coaching Techniques For PDFs

  • Methodologies: There is a lot written about what coaching is but very little about the different techniques and methods used. It would make fascinating white paper material to compare the different methodologies to the one you use. Or if you are a specialist in a certain type of coaching such as Neurolinguistics or Strategic Intervention Coaching to give more explanation on how it works.
  • Exercises: As a coach, you must have hundreds of exercises to help clients get to their desired destination. These lend themselves very nicely to a coach technique for PDF, clients love to have them, and it adds value to your coaching.
  • Tests: There are also many on line tests that you can acquire either for free or as an affiliate, or for a fee that you can put on your website to determine different things about your potential clients. These are great coaching techniques for PDFs.
  • Course Content: You can put all your course content in PDF format as individual module PDFs. This is an easy way to send your course material to your clients.
  • Explanations on different solutions: You can give case histories (as long as you don’t breach client confidentiality) and explanations of how certain specific problems were overcome and how client solutions were found.

As coaches we have so many coaching techniques, ideas, solutions, and a wealth of information to help people that are ideal topics for coaching techniques for PDFs. Share your knowledge with others in PDF format.

Hope you took some great value out of this post today! I’d love to hear your feedback, so make sure you leave a comment with your thoughts or questions. And also, you can click on the Twitter button below to retweet this article… Thank you!

Dana Bosley
Spiritual Growth Coach
Writing team, Coaches Training Blog Community

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Coaching Competency: Get Rid of the Gobbledygook

November 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The health of your coaching business depends on your coaching competency and your coaching competency depends on how well you communicate with your clients. Most of your communication is done with words, though some can be done with examples, games, and non-verbal methods. But, words are the “meat” of your communication with clients.

When communicating with clients, it is easy to resort to clichés and jargons that have been used over and over again. These mostly meaningless words and phrases can be called “gobbledygook.”

Your Coaching Competency Depends on Throwing Out the Gobbledygook

Gobbledygook in heavy doses has an extremely negative effect on your coaching competency. If you are using too much gobbledygook, your clients will soon notice and begin to tune you out. Once they tune you out, they lose confidence in your competency, they put one foot out the door, and soon, you will have…NO clients. Plenty of gobbledygook, but no clients!

Just like periodically throwing out the trash, you need to eliminate the gobbledygook in your speech on a regular basis. We all use clichés and common phrases, and in small doses, they do no harm; occasionally they add some spice and value. However, when these phrases and clichés become a constant part of your coaching vocabulary, it’s time to take out the trash!

Make sure to listen to yourself when you speak with clients – you’ll hear them. Clichés, phrases, garbage words that mean nothing. Everyone uses them, but a coach’s competency is compromised when they are used too frequently. Use them with care and they won’t come back to bite your business in the butt!

Many coaches use greetings or opening lines that are gobbledygook. Here‘s one:

“How are you?”

How many times have you heard that opening line? Throw it out. Replace it with:

“How is that new project your are working on?” Or, “I see you are looking great this morning. You are really sticking to your workout plan.” Or, what a beautiful morning. What do you have planned for the day?”

One Meaningless Word

“Should”

Yes, that’s right, the word “should” is overused and is often meaningless to clients who have been hearing about the things they should do for years. They don’t need to hear what they should do, they need to hear about what the can do and will do, and how you will help them do it.

More Gobbledygook

“Let’s think outside the box.”
“Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
“The ball is in your court.”
“Don’t sweat the small stuff.”
“800 pound gorilla in the room”
“The bottom line”
“Raise the bar.”
“Push the envelope”

Clichés are often used to motivate, inspire, and educate. However, if used too frequently, they can make you seem flippant or robotic; clients may believe you have a “canned” routine that you use for all your clients. Will the occasional use of common phrases and jargon ruin your business? No, but you should use the clichés and the gobbledygook with extreme caution; regular use of trash words will effect your coaching competency and your business.

In recognition of National Cliché Day (November 3rd), let’s use that day to throw out all the tired clichés, useless jargon, and over-used expressions. Let’s think outside the box, raise the bar, and eliminate the 800 pound gorilla in the room; oops, I mean: For the sake of your coaching competency, throw out the gobbledygook!

Special Bonus – Learn 3 simple ways to become a life coach with the “30-Days to Become a Coach” video toolkit when you fill in the form at the top right and click the “Watch The Videos Now” button. You’ll learn how to change your client’s life in 45 minutes.

Fred Philips
Business Coach
Writing Team, Coaches Training Blog Community

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Best Practices In Coaching: Getting To The Root Of The Problem

November 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Even the best practices in coaching won’t help you if you can’t diagnose the issue. When we talk about diagnosis in coaching, we are really talking about identifying what people really want. According to modern psychology , what people really want is to get their needs met. The most essential needs to survival are certainty (comfort and safety), love (connectedness), significance (being valuable or needed), and variety. So how do you figure out what people need? Is there really a best practice in coaching technologies that even new coaches can use?

Best Practices In Coaching To Uncover Unfulfilled Needs

One of the best practices in coaching to find out where people are in terms of getting their needs met is to ask them to rate where they feel they are on a scale of 0-10. Zero meaning that they feel the level a particular need is getting met is completely unfulfilled, and ten being that the need is getting met completely. Go through and ask this level for each of the four survival needs. From this simple exercise you can find their “wound” or where they are most unfulfilled.

The Other Side Of The Coin

Ok, you may know what people want or need, but there is always the other side of the coin to deal with. What is holding them back from getting their needs met at a higher level? The answer is again in the needs. They may not have the financial means or certainty to take the next step, or they may not want to lose significance by playing full out and risking failure. Once you understand the diagnosis in terms of what people need and what is keeping them from getting their needs met at a higher level, you can use your best practices in coaching to help them get lasting results.

Give this strategy a try and see for yourself that it works. If you liked this coaching tip, leave a comment or use the handy bookmark buttons below to share it with others on Facebook, Twitter, Digg, etc. Thanks!

Colette Seymann
JTS Advisors Designated Accountability Coach

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What Are The Coaching Core Competencies?

November 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Coaching core competencies is the skill set that a professional coach must master to be certified.

There are many different associations that are working toward getting the profession of coaching acknowledged, regulated and standardized at the National and International levels. The one I am most familiar with is the International Coaches Federation (ICF).

One of the things these different associations want to standardize is coaching core competencies, however, since there are so many in the mix there are many differences. It may just be a matter of semantics—each association vying for supremacy. But for the time being, until they can agree on the coaching core competencies, the ICF competencies are as good as any to strive for.

ICF Coaching Core Competencies

The International Coaches Federation (ICF) details eleven coaching core competencies.  This provides an excellent tool to gauge your skill set, recognize your level of efficiency, and a standard for expanding your abilities. The eleven coaching skills that the ICF deems necessary for one to be competent in if they intend to be employed as a coach, and/or be certified by the ICF are as follows:

1. Ethical Guidelines

2. Coaching Agreement

3. Trust and Intimacy

4. Coaching Presence

5. Active Listening

6. Powerful Questioning

7. Direct Communication

8. Creating Awareness

9. Designing Actions

10. Planning and Goal Setting

11. Accountability

 

Mastering The Coaching Core Competencies

Although only eleven ICF coaching core competencies have been listed above, there are many sub topics under each one.  Learning and maintaining these skills is vital for offering topnotch professional coaching services, even if the coaching core competencies may differ in wording depending on whose list you are looking at. It is important to note that developing these competencies takes time and practice, and are best learned through a coaching training program.

Although many coaches have a high level of experience and education before transitioning into professional coaching, and may already excel in some of the areas of the coaching core competencies, it is still a good gauge to determine your ability as a coach.

Are They All Necessary?

Not every coach core competency has to be demonstrated in a single coaching session, but some behaviors should always be present, such as coaching presence, active listening and powerful questioning. The others may be called for in only certain coaching situations,  and so may not be evident in every session, but are none-the-less just as valuable and are still core to the coaching process.

Coaching clients benefit when a coach is well-trained in all areas of the coaching core competencies no matter who’s list you are going by.

Hope you took some great value out of this post today! I’d love to hear your feedback, so make sure you leave a comment with your thoughts or questions. And also, you can click on the Twitter button below to retweet this article… Thank you!

Dana Bosley
Spiritual Growth Coach
Writing team, Coaches Training Blog Community

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Three Coaching Tips for Today’s Economy

November 3, 2011 By 2 Comments

From time to time, every coach needs a few new coaching tips to add a little zest to their sessions. But these days, here are three tips that can make the difference to the success or failure, life or death for your clients. Yes, Life or death!

First among these Coaching Tips: Never Underestimate the Overwhelming Stress in People’s Lives

For men at least – and more and more for women, too – people simply don’t want to admit just how hurt they are. To protect themselves from facing the terror in their hearts they reply “Just fine” when they are asked “How are you doing?” But don’t fall for it. One of these coaching tips is to simply not accept that anyone is safe from the current chronic depression that has gripped our world. Gently probe a little deeper.

Coaching Tip Number 2: Actively Protect Your Client’s Relationships, Not just Your Client

No one is an island. Everyone has people that they care for and who care for them. In these difficult days, walls are built up from both sides, and the natural support system of love and encouragement breaks down. One person closes themselves off from support because they want to appear strong. From the other side, the person shuts down in resentment for being cut off. The natural outcomes are heavy layers of guilt and blame that build up and which must be addressed by the coach if the natural support systems are able to re-establish themselves, and healthy relationships are once again to be reestablished.

Today’s Tip Number 3: Don’t Ignore the Fundamental Problem – Help to Solve It

Whether through career or accountability coaching, your client must be assisted in charting a new course that provides financial security, and role identity. Only the coach is in the position to get to the heart of the matter and apply these coaching tips. Only the coach can offer some rout to normality in these insane times.

By the way… you’re invited to claim your FREE step-by-step “Master Coach Blueprint” video toolkit. Just go HERE now to get your master coach blueprint videos.

Dave Iuppa
JTS Advisors Strategy and Accountability Coach

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Keeping Emotional Score Is One of the Best Coaching Tips

October 25, 2011 By 13 Comments

It is easy to be buried in an avalanche of coaching tips. But one of the best tips on coaching that you will ever get is to keep tracked of the balance in the “emotional bank account” you have with your client.

OK, but what Is an Emotional Bank Account?

Glad you asked. Steven Covey invented the term in his landmark book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”. Basically the idea is that whenever you do something “nice” to someone you make a deposit into this emotional bank account. When you do something that is “not so nice”, you make a withdrawal. So long as you have a positive balance you are given a little slack, and the “not so nice” things you might say are not taken so badly. On the other hand if you start over drawing your account, you pay the price.

Fine, but Why Is this One of the Best Coaching Tips?

The idea is that as a coach, sometimes you have to be nice, and sometimes you have to be tough with your clients. And if you are keeping tracked of your emotional bank account, you know how far you can constructively go being tough, without breaking the relationship. That is how far you can go without overdrawing your account. And any idea that keeps you from bouncing those emotional checks has got to be one of the greatest coaching tips!

But How Exactly Do You Know Your Balance

Your ability, to bring your client to the very brink of total dismissal before you pull them back to heart- felt bonding, is really the power that makes this one of the greatest coaching tips. Therefore, your ability to judge the emotional account balance you have with your client is critical. I recommend making consistent deposits whenever you are not consciously stressing the relationship. Then when you are stressing the relationship be sensitive to your client’s emotional state. This requires you to remain cool in spite of any exterior persona that you are adopting. Then observe your client, looking for any signs of closing down or turning off. Pushing back is OK. But make a point of managing that interaction carefully, as well. If you do, you will have achieved a new level of effectiveness with your clients, and you will maintain a positive emotional balance, as well.

By the way… you’re invited to claim your FREE step-by-step “Master Coach Blueprint” video toolkit. Just go HERE now to get your master coach blueprint videos.

Dave Iuppa
JTS Advisors Strategy and Accountability Coach

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