Sometimes even with advanced coach training it’s hard to know what your clients really want.  That’s because it’s not always clear to your client.  This life coaching training is based on the foundation that what your clients really want is to satisfy one of their basic needs at a higher level.  In this coach training we’ll work under the assumption that the basic needs are certainty, significance, variety and love & connection.  But this life coaching training can be applied to other needs as well.

Coach Training: Listen to Your Client to Discover What They Need

Life Coaching Training Step #1:  Ask your clients what they want, but listen for what they “need”.  The key to this coach training step is to listen for the top 1-2 needs they are trying to meet by getting what they think they want.

Coach Training: After Listening, Explain the Four Emotional Needs

Life Coaching Training Step #2:  Explain the four emotional needs.  Certainty is about safety, security and comfort.  Variety is the opposite of certainty.  Significance is about being unique, special, one of a kind, needed.  Love and connection is about being part of something bigger than you, and in many ways it’s a polar opposite to being significant.  The key to this coach training step is to have your clients understand that their needs drive their actions.

Coach Training: Have Your Client Rate Themselves on These Needs

Life Coaching Training Step #3:  Have your clients rate themselves on a scale of 0-10 on each of these needs.  The key to this coach training step is to find out where they are getting their needs met and where they are not.  Their wound is the need they are not getting met at a high level now.  Mind read, that is tell them what you think their wound is, and listen to their feedback.

Following these life coaching training steps will help you and your client identify what they really want to achieve.  Your clients will most likely still have the same vehicles to achieve their needs in terms of goals, but by using this coach training you will help establish motivation that is strong enough to carry them through the obstacles that will inevitably come up.

Colette Seymann

JTS Advisors Bi-Designated Strategy and Accountability Coach