Any motivational coach will tell you that the most commonly perceived problem their clients face is being ‘stuck’. And in life coaching circles, coaches often ask what’s the best way to get people ‘unstuck’. Few people are naturally positive, so most of us depend on life coaching routines to get us into a great state of mind. As a motivational coach you can teach these skills to your clients. Beyond that, there are 3 things you need to know to help your clients get back on track:

A Good Motivational Coach Helps Their Clients by Increasing Awareness of Where they Are

1. Where they are. This one may seem obvious, they’re ‘stuck’. But a good motivational coach will help their clients see that when someone says they’re not getting results they tend to translate the situation into a universal. This simply means they see the situation in terms of all or none. The key to effective life coaching is to realize that it’s a natural pattern to use universals to amplify our situation.

As a Motivational Coach You Must Discover Where Your Client Wants to Be

2. Where they want to be. An effective motivational coach is well-versed in getting people to connect with their vision. But beyond that another life coaching technique is to help people see what they really want in terms of meeting their basic needs; such as significance, certainty, love/connection and variety.

Use Your Life Coaching Skills to Close the Gap

3. What’s the gap between where they want to be and where they are? Don’t settle for being a motivational coach who simply gets people into action. Although that’s valuable, using your life coaching skills to find out what’s really holding them back will be far more effective. This is usually defined in terms of which basic needs will be less fulfilled by moving forward. For example, many people don’t like to make prospecting calls because they fear rejection. They might feel a loss of significance or certainty. Most fear is really about a perceived loss of meeting basic needs.

The challenge of getting your clients ‘unstuck’ is really a great opportunity for the motivational coach who is willing to use their life coaching skills to get to the deeper issues. Then the transformation will be longer lasting and you will make a greater impact on your client’s lives.

Colette Seymann

JTS Advisors Designated Accountability Coach