Coaching Certification or Life Coach Training for a Forward Focus

Coaching is about a client’s goals.  In coaching sessions, clients explore what they want to accomplish and plan how to make it happen.  This is different from mental health in that the coach does not spend time working with the client to resolve past issues.  It is different from consulting because the coach is not analyzing the client and then providing a recommended plan of action.  Coaching Certification and Life Coach Training teach listening to the client, asking questions, and empowering the client to explore possibilities and process options.

When a client begins thinking about their goals, it often starts with identifying what they do not like in their current situation.  The focus of the thinking is on the problem.  A coach works with the client to focus on solutions and on what they want to achieve in the future.

A client might define a goal in terms of what they do not want.  For example, a client might not want to be stressed.  If the goal is to “not be stressed” then the focus is on the stress.  The coach asks the client, “When you are not stressed, what are you?”  The client might say they are relaxed or calm; when the client describes what they will be, the coach says, “So the goal is to be calm.”  The focus is now forward on what the client does want.

The nuances of the words influence how the mind hears, processes, decides, and acts.  Through Coaching Certification and Life Coach Training, a coach is trained to work with the client to create the forward focus so that the client achieves more easily.

Business Coaching Certification and Executive Coaching Certification for Success

An excellent starting point for developing success is to understand three principals taught in Business Coaching Certification and Executive Coaching Certification and begin practicing the approach that creates success.

1. Speak in Specific and Accurate terms – Statements that delete, distort, or generalize limit understanding and positive, proactive planning.

Without a clear understanding of the circumstances, clear thinking and decision-making are less likely.  Consider this example: A client states that they can’t do it.  This deletes information – the reason; distorts – does not look at how it could be done; generalizes – ‘can’t’ is a broad statement. 

A coach asks: What is preventing you?  What are the possibilities for making it work?  How will you move past the barriers to make it happen?

2. Keep it Positive – The path of least resistance is often negative and human beings have a tendency toward it. 

Think about the difference between these: debt-free versus financially free; no stress versus relaxed; not work so many hours versus balanced schedule. 

A coach asks: If you are debt-free, what does that mean?  If you are not stressed, what are you?  If you are not working too much, what is your schedule?

3. Talk about what you Do Want – When people communicate, only seven percent of the words are heard and understood, and negative statements reinforce the negative.

Read this out loud to yourself: The horse did not jump the fence and run over three children.  Now, what did your brain process?  Most people think ‘a horse jumping over a fence and running over three children.’  The human brain often fails to process in the negative, so the ‘did not’ or ‘don’t’ gets lost.  “Don’t forget” often = forget. 

The coach asks: “If you don’t forget, what are you doing?”  “Remembering.”  When the client says they do not want to be overweight or that they want to lose weight, the coach asks, “what is your ideal weight or size?”  The goal is what they do want.

How will you use this information?

Business Coaching Training and Career Coach Certification for the Language of Success

Because each person is their own best expert, the role of a coach is to ask questions that open the door for an individual to explore their own possibilities and make their own choices. 

People often hold themselves back unconsciously.  This means that coaches with business coaching training or career coach certification are equipped to uniquely support successful outcomes.
Consider a few examples:

• When someone says ‘I’ll try,” how likely is their success?  The word try actually tells their brain not to worry, that they don’t really have to do it.  Their brain says, “Ok, you are the boss so I won’t…”
• When someone says, “He makes me mad,” they are giving control of their own feelings to someone else.
• When someone says, “they will never understand,” the absolute statement does not even allow for the possibility of understanding.

Coaching is a partnership focused on the success of the client, and a powerful tool for a coach to use in supporting their clients success is to recognize limiting language, ask questions to open the thinking, and model effective language.  Learning the information, practicing it, and applying it effectively takes time and is worth every bit of it! 

The three principals coach training encompasses:

• clarity of meaning
• positive and proactive focus
• intentionally thinking and speaking in terms of the desired result

Sit back and really listen to what people say and how they say it.  Ask yourself if it seems positive or negative.  Ask yourself is the conversation is stuck on the problem or exploring solutions.  Ask yourself what the likely outcome is based on what you hear.  Then, evaluate how the way it was said influenced your perceptions and the results.

3 Pillars from Coach Training for Leaders and Coaches

Coach training creates successful leaders.  The role of a leader has changed, and now leadership skills are more aligned than ever with coaching skills.  Three of the skills are pillars of both roles; consider the application and implication of each.

1. Listen
How often have you observed a conversation and thought to yourself, “they really don’t get what is being said?”  Communication is a top deficiency in the workplace and because listening is the first communication skill, those that develop listening skills create more opportunities.

• What happens without listening skills? Miscommunication, conflict, missed deadlines.
• What happens with listening skills? Understanding, productivity, creative thinking.

Listen intentionally – focus physically and mentally on the speaker, summarize what they say, and work to understand both their feelings and what they aren’t saying.

2. Ask
Have you ever noticed how easy it is to come up with a solution to others situations?  Is the follow-through as assured if the idea is someone else’s?  Telling is easy; asking is effective.

• What happens without asking? Intimidation, resentment, shut-down.
• What happens with asking? Engagement, commitment, motivation.

Ask to empower – ask others their thoughts and ideas, and how to make it happen so that they develop the action plan and timeline and they own the follow-through.

3. Support
What is support?  Encouragement, empowerment, and backing someone up whether or not you agree.  To earn the support of others, a leader starts by giving support.  A Coach is a partner and by definition of the relationship, supports the client.

• What happens without support? Minimal effort, disinterest, mistakes.
• What happens with support? Loyalty, enthusiasm, trust.

Support because people matter – show you care to earn the privilege of leading or coaching.