Good life coaches are high in demand, but to be an effective coach, you need to have a diverse set of good coaching skills to complete the package. Among the essential skills, every coach needs are strong organizational and people skills.

Good Coaching Skills – Skills You Need

Having good organizational and people skills is harder to master than learning theoretical coaching concepts, but is a requisite for long-term, effective success. Here are five good coaching skills and attributes you’ll need to succeed as a coach:

Positive, Organized and Prepared: You will notice that good coaches have a positive attitude no matter what is going on. They will always look on the bright side of life and take whatever challenge they are facing in their stride.

Apart from being optimistic, good coaches are also organized. They are always taking notes, they know where everything is, and can easily look something up when needs be. Good coaches are always prepared. They have their notes, their tools, their paperwork and everything they need to conduct a coaching session or do other business.

When it comes to meetings, they always prepare an agenda for meetings and contact key participants before the meeting to hear their views and solicit suggestions for agenda items. Then they send agendas far enough before the meeting so that the participants have time to prepare.

Good Time Management: We all get seven days a week and 24 hours a day. This cannot be increased or changed in any way. Time itself cannot be managed but what we can do is to improve and manage ourselves. In essence, true-time management is all about management of ourselves or what they call “self-management!”

On a sheet of paper write up a “typical” week for you – by looking at your current schedule you will be able to identify places where better time management could be of use. Ask yourself why you are feeling unsatisfied with your schedule.

Make a list of what you want to change and what you want to make room for. Do you want more time to learn good coaching skills? More time to be with your client? Or just more time to get everything done? Are you doing too much?

Time management is not just about structuring your week so that you can get everything accomplished. It is about creating a manageable schedule that will give you time for the important things in life and at work. So, before looking at your time management skills look at what you are trying to juggle.

The Ability to Communicate Well With Others: Another good coaching skill that each coach must have is the ability to listen carefully and completely when someone is talking. Good coaches show an interest in others before talking about themselves.

They answer their phones and return phone calls. When making phone calls, give your complete attention to what the other person is saying (instead of doing other tasks like checking e-mail or surfing the Internet).

Courteous and Kind: Good coaches find the good in everyone. They make other people feel good and avoid starting or listening to gossip. They never ridicule, insult, or make fun of other people.

Use positive words, as much as possible and speak about what you want and how you want things to be, rather than suggesting motives or assigning judgments for other people’s actions and views. Discourtesy damages all relationships.

Helpful: Good coaches become a mentor for newcomers and share ideas with them. They also teach newcomers coaching skills that will help them excel.

Work with a spirit of abundance and always seek win-win results. Let others speak first and listen attentively, even on issues where you are an expert. Give first without attaching a receipt for return favors. When you do this, people will sense your genuine interest in them and feel more connected to you as a coach.

Achieving success in coaching is quite simple. If you master these skills you can become successful regardless of who you are. Go learn from other coaches who already have good coaching skills and believe that you can achieve success!