There are many coaching tips that can be drawn from the science of influence. But while Madison Avenue drinks liberally from the fount of Robert Cialidini – and other scholars of this branch of psychology, few coaches take advantage of this knowledge. Here are three tips that guarantee instant influence and can make a real difference in your clients’ results.
Use these Coaching Tips: Develop Commonality to Generate Credibility
While our conscious minds focus on differences, our subconscious minds look for similarities. So by demonstrating similarities between ourselves and our clients, we create a powerful ally in our clients’ subconscious minds. Little things, like mirroring their posture or their speech in pace, vocabulary or volume, can create an amazing sense of fellowship in our clients, and that can open a door of influence that can bring profoundly positive results.
Bypass Their Gatekeeper through a State of Higher Suggestibility
By presenting our message in the form of stories, we can bypass the conscious mind’s gatekeepers, and be heard directly by their subconscious mind. This is one of the most powerful coaching tips, perhaps because we were told stories as a child by our mothers, or perhaps it is because stories aren’t actually real and are therefore not so threatening. In either case, stories induce a state of higher suggestibility that delivers our message more effectively and with more influence.
Use Small Commitments to Generate Massive Consistency
Consistency is one of the most powerful drives for our subconscious minds. This explains why our behavior reflects our poor self-image, in spite of years of effort to consciously change how we act. So here is another one of the great coaching tips: Use this drive for consistency to achieve changes in your clients’ behavior. Ask your clients to make seemingly minor commitments. Once they have made the commitments, let the engines of their subconscious minds generate the energy that they need to change by driving their behavior to be consistent with these small commitments.
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Dave Iuppa
JTS Advisors Strategy and Accountability Coach
Great tips! I love stories and write about them all the time. The funny thing is how many people don’t realize they tell stories all the time … about who we are, our experiences, where we’ve come from and where we’re going. Thanks for the inspiration!
Consistency is one of the hardest things I find. I so like challenges and setting things up that maintaining what I’ve set up consistently is a great effort. Fortunately having a coach has helped me work through this. I recommend that everyone has a coach to help them achieve all they want in life.