What some clients seek from their coach....
- Clarity
- Validation
- Unbiased feedback
- Alternative opinion
- Someone to listen
- Reassurance and guidance
Maybe you need help to navigate life’s challenges and opportunities more effectively. Maybe you need fresh perspectives, and help to set clear, achievable goals.
Having someone to bounce ideas off of and hold you accountable becomes invaluable in making positive changes and unlocking your full potential.
Clarity
The first universal need is clarity. Clarity is about helping you deeply understand yourself. Better understand your own values, and what’s meaningful to you and what your priorities are. Together, we get clarity on your own dreams, and what you believe that success looks like by better understanding your current situation.
Clarity is something that you need in order to move forward.
No matter what your problems are, you need clarity before choosing goals or setting off in any direction. You may already have a degree of clarity, but we still need to ask and answer the right questions to make sure we are both on the same page. That’s the best place to start.
Clarity also helps because you may be overwhelmed with too many choices. We can often experience what is called ‘analysis paralysis’ – where we spend so much time and energy analyzing our choices, overthinking, procrastinating that we don’t get to the point of making a decision. Another way to look at this is that you may be overwhelmed with too much information. As your coach, I can help remove the mental and semantic noise that interfere with mutual understanding, therefore providing clarity so you can stay focused without getting distracted. Many people are willing to take the necessary steps to reach a goal, but they need to know what their true goal is first before deciding on the steps to get there. One of the biggest causes of stress is the unknown or simply not knowing something. When a coach provides clarity, the information gives you the power and control that help alleviate much of your stress, it clears the way.
Validation
As your coach, I will always look for what is going right because by doing this, I can identify your skills, capabilities, and resources needed to achieve your goals. It gives you momentum. Validation of you and the decisions you make can help give you the confidence to take the next step.
I will give you my undivided attention. Which you may often not get. As my client, you deserve my time and you are important to me. Knowing that I am paying attention helps in our world of crowded loneliness where you can feel insignificant. I will look for what you are doing right with genuine sincerity. No matter your previous choices, there is always something positive, even if it was just your intent and it’s my role as your coach to recognize that.
Unbiased Feedback
While my initial goal is to validate you as my client and make you feel comfortable , always remember that my job is not to become your friend no matter how hard this is. But it’s true. I will repeat that, my job is not to become your friend. Friends are great for offering full support, but that support is biased. Family is often even more biased, it can be negatively biased sometimes too, and either will say they are doing well no matter what, or they may attack you and tell you that you are not doing well enough – depending on the family and friend dynamics.
The point is that friends and family have a stake in your outcome that is often self-serving. So, as your coach, I can help you look at the positives and the negatives, the pros and the cons, the things that are going well and not right, for each type of decision based on your personal goals, your current needs, and your finances. The best I can (and will) do is give you alternatives – and the potential risks and consequences of each of them.
Alternative Opinion
Similar to getting biased feedback from friends and family, you might only spend time in the same circles or echo chambers of people who think like you. Particularly in our social media world with algorithms designed to keep your attention – once you start liking, sharing, or repeatedly reading a particular viewpoint, your news feed will continue to push more of the same viewpoint in your direction. We’ve been doing the same things in our lives for so long, and there’s goodness in that because you surround yourself by the friends you want, but it can also be challenging when you’re trying to grow.
The point is that as your coach I will provide alternative opinions that you may not be getting from your peers, colleagues, friends and family. These alternative opinions are not necessarily negative, but just from a different perspective, a different lens, looking it from a different angle. As a coach, I will open you up to other possibilities – other options you have not yet considered.
Someone to listen
You may have a need to feel important, to test your opinions and views, and, sometimes to vent about things that you are unhappy about. As a coach, I am someone who listens, gives you these unbiased opportunities to speak. I have mentioned before that we live in a world of crowded loneliness. Despite there being so many people around us, so many people we can access through technology, you may feel lonely and that you’re not connected. Some people feel connected to humanity just by having someone listen to them. We might even have people around us, but not people who listen to us. As a coach, I will listen.
Perhaps this is just what you need. Someone who will just listen, free of judgment, without any expectation, without any guarantee, without any desire to get something back. Sometimes you just need to let things go, you need to give things up, you need to shed baggage, you need someone such as a coach to listen, to make you feel valued, and to clarify your thoughts. Once you feel valued and empowered, they are ready to start or continue on with your journey.
Reassurance and guidance
Sometimes, you may already know what you need to do. You’re already aware, you are just not sure that it is the best way or that there aren’t other options. It is probably not uncommon for you to say, “I think I need to do this thing next,” and many times you’re correct. But what you needed was some reassurance. What you needed was some confidence in what you believed you wanted to do. I’ve been in that place myself. You don’t want to waste your time, or money, or risk embarrassment, so you would rather not take that next step until you get reassurance that they are pursuing the right option.
As with reassurance, guidance is an important element as your coach. I help provide whatever map you need to reach your goal. You get clarity, validation, unbiased feedback, alternative opinions and someone to listen to on your journey, someone to talk to. As your coach, I provide reassurance and guidance throughout your journey.
Where are you now?
The Wheel of Life exercise is a powerful self-assessment tool that allows you to gain a holistic view of your current life satisfaction and balance. This includes areas of life and business. The Wheel of Life exercise serves as a starting point for self-reflection and goal-setting, enabling you to create a more balanced and fulfilling life by focusing your efforts on the areas that require development.
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