Are you a motivational coach? Do you go to one? Do you know one? Whether you already go to one or are thinking of hiring a motivational coach for yourself or your team, you can tell how good they are by how blatantly honest they are with their clients.

Motivational coaches should motivate, and to properly motivate they need to kick some ass. If your coach isn’t kicking your butt, you might want to find another one. But, they also need to emphasize the positive – loudly and often.

Yes – kicking some butt and lavishing praise do go together. A motivational coach should be doing both if they want their clients to be motivated, inspired, and energized.

Motivation by Butt Kicking

The first thing a coach should tell you is to stop bitching and complaining about how tired you are, how unlucky you are, how disadvantaged you are, and how old (or young) you are. No whining, no complaining, no bitching. Everyone faces obstacles – it’s how you handle those obstacles that proves how much a man or woman you are…and how successful you will be.

If you have a task to do – just do it. Don’t procrastinate, don’t wait until tomorrow, don’t expect someone else to do. Think about locking yourself in a room until you make some significant progress on that task. Procrastination is for losers…at least that’s want a good motivation coach would say.

The right coach should also be telling you to get rid of all distractions when you are trying to get a project done or reach a goal. Working on a project with a deadline? Turn off Twitter, Facebook, and whatever technology that distracts us all. Don’t watch TV, fiddle with the radio, or make phone calls. Create a playlist of music if that helps, but don’t keep trying to find a specific song.

Motivation by Lavishing Praise

Like the person with the evil devil on their shoulder, a motivational coach should also serve as the angel on the other shoulder. Butt kicking works, but so does heaps of praise. Here are a few ways positivity can help a client succeed.

A good motivational coach should always acknowledge improvement and the attainment of goals. They can offer some small reward or gift when a significant milestone or achievement is made.

As a good coach you can help clients find positive quotes to keep at their desk or workstation. Motivational quotes, inspirational quotes – great quotes help to inspire and motivate, especially during difficult times.

A coach can work with clients to identify three or four positive outcomes that will result from hard work or the achievement of a goal.

Top 4 Ways a Motivational Coach Can Motivate

• Take a genuine interest in the future of the individual – whether it is on the ball field, in the boardroom, or just in your coaching office.
• Align performance with economics. By demonstrating how the successful completion of specific tasks will result in more pay or income, a client or team member will be more motivated to reach certain goals.
• Listening. A coach should listen more than they speak. Listening is at the heart of good coaching. It is a skill that must continually be improved. Without good listening skills, a coach isn’t worth the paper his or her certification is printed on.
• Kick butt and lavish praise. The balance may change with different clients, and it is up to you to figure out the correct balance, but being a good motivational coach means butt kicking and praise giving have been successfully integrated and balanced.

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!

Fred Philips
Business Coach
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