depends on results, and results depend on taking action. So what do you do with those clients who simply can’t or won’t get into action? Are there any coaching tips to help chronic procrastinators? In order to get clients to accomplish what they really want, you’ll need to help them take the action they wouldn’t do without your coaching. Helping your clients achieve goals that were merely dreams, is really what successful coaching is all about. Here are the top three coaching tips to help people get out of their own way.

The Top Three Coaching Tips for Successful Coaching

Coaching Tip #1: The first of these coaching tips is to help your clients examine their current motivation. Find out what pleasure they associate to taking the action, and what pain they associate with taking the action. Another aspect of this successful coaching tool is to have your clients identify what pleasure they associate with NOT taking the action and, equally so, what pain they associate with NOT taking the action.

Successful Coaching Requires Identification of Clients’ Motivations

Tip #2: The second of these coaching tips is to have your clients adjust their motivation. Find out what pleasure they need to associate with increasing their motivation. Don’t forget the other side of the coin. Have your clients determine what pain they need to associate with NOT being motivated. Successful coaching for procrastination requires having your client clear about what really is driving them. Which is usually to avoid pain and gain pleasure.

Sometimes the Best Coaching Tip Is to Focus on Clients’ Desires

Tip #3: The lynch pin of these coaching tips is to have your clients decrease their desire for activities that conflict directly with the actions they need to take. A very successful coaching technique is to have your clients think of their level of desire for taking an action on a scale for -10 to +10, the latter being the level of desire that they must take action immediately. A 0 is no desire to take action, and -10 is the feeling that they would literally die if they took action.

This coaching tip requires your clients to lower their desire by asking questions such as what could they notice or believe that would cause them to decrease their level of desire at least one point? What would they need to imagine or do? What would they have to stop doing or thinking about? Once they approach -10, they won’t have a desire to participate in the conflicting activity. This is “The End” of a successful coaching session.

Colette Seymann
JTS Advisors Bi-Designated Strategy and Accountability Coach