Have you ever had a coaching session where you felt that your coaching strategy was inadequate to deal with your client’s problem? It probably happens to every coach sometime in his early days of coaching. Maybe your client has an addiction problem, or maybe she is depressed over a marriage that is falling apart. Whatever the specifics, you are suddenly confronted with a client whose problem feels way out of your comfort zone. How do you manage? What strategy do you use?

Manage Your Own Psychology First

If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed on a coaching call, take a moment and manage your own psychology. Slow down, take a breath and remind yourself that the call isn’t about you. It’s about your client and using your best coaching strategies and techniques to give your client what he needs. Remember back when you were first learning how to coach? Maybe you were like me and got nervous before calls because you feared you and your coaching strategy would not be good enough. The cure was to put the focus where it belonged—on your client. That took away the fear because your concerns became irrelevant. The same thing applies If you are feeling in over your head in a session. Refocus and concentrate on your client instead of on yourself.

Your Basic Coaching Strategy Doesn’t Change

As a life coach, you don’t necessarily need to have the answers or the solutions for your client. What you need to have are the questions that will help your client find her own answers. That is your most basic, most effective coaching strategy almost always. By asking the right questions to elucidate and clarify your client’s beliefs, feelings, expectations, etc., you help her find her own best solutions. Don’t panic. Don’t rush in with answers. Don’t try to fill the quiet if she takes some time to find her own answers. Just give her time to think things through.

Any call has the potential to become a challenge for you if you don’t prepare in advance. Make it part of your coaching strategy to get into an empowered state before each call and remind yourself that the call is for your client, not for you. Keep a list of powerful questions to ask your client posted on the wall by your phone. These two preemptive steps will go a long way toward keeping you from being over your head in a potentially overwhelming session.

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.

Dorine G Kramer
JTS Advisors Strategy and Accountability Coach