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.

Colette Seymann
JTS Advisors Designated Accountability Coach