Читать книгу Coaching for Daily Miracles - Raimon Samsó - Страница 8

2

Avoid 12 Beginner Mistakes

I trained as a coach in the International School of Coaching (TISOC, CoachVille Spain) where I learned the 101 errors to avoid in a coaching practice. I would like to share 12 with you:

Expecting too little from your client

You won’t know what your client can do until you ask him three times, each time with something bigger than what you initially asked. In other words, double or triple the goal and see what kind of response you get. Question your client again. In some cases, do not take "no" for an answer if you think the client is capable of much more but is afraid. Remember, they are your clients, not your children or friends. You get paid to expect much from them.

Relying on the client’s payment

If you’re just barely making it financially and you can’t afford to lose a client’s payment, you will not be fully capable of coaching clients. The trick is to have 50% more revenue than you need to cover your professional and personal expenses. This provides a good back-up, allowing you to coach from the heart, not from the wallet. When you care for a person, don’t worry about money, worry about that person.

Seeking your client’s recognition

Coaches never know exactly how their coaching helps their clients succeed. I find it easier not to seek recognition for my client’s success. I find it more useful to try to figure out what difference my guidance has made to my client. I used to feel belittled when clients did not appreciate or recognise the value of my role or wisdom, but that was in the past. Feel happy for your client and don’t seek recognition, even if you played a key role in his success.

Thinking that you have to have the answer

Sometimes you will respond to the needs, problems, and questions of your client

and sometimes you will not. Do not feel pressured to have the answers, unless the client has hired you as an expert on the subject and your role is that of a consultant on that particular subject. If the client pressures you inappropriately, ask him to stop. Suggest that you work together so he can find the answers himself, or else refer him to someone who can help.

Getting emotionally involved with the client

It is one thing to care about your client, but it is another thing to get too close or too involved in his goals and problems that they become your goals and problems. Maintain professional distance but it’s important to still be compassionate and understanding. Bad coaches engage their clients emotionally because they remember a similar stage or situation in their past life, and tend to want to protect the client from feeling the pain, prevent him from making mistakes, or feel sorry for him because he missed an opportunity.

Creating dependency on the part of the client

Coaches create client dependence by doing too much for them, offering too much support, or getting too close emotionally with them. You have crossed the red line when the client’s goal or problem becomes yours. Challenge and support your client continuously so they create their own support structures, networks, community partners, etc; this way the coaching is clean, independent, and stimulating.

Considering the client as a source of revenue

Clients generate revenue, but if you fall into the trap of matching them to a check, they will perceive this as such and probably drop you as their coach. Coaching is a vocation, and is more than a "business." If you make it a business, your income could temporarily increase, but in the long term, it will fall. Coaching is also a relationship. The revenues that flow from it are just by-products of that relationship.

Not practicing what you preach

Your coaching is most effective when you practice what you preach. If not, something is wrong. Coaches tend to attract clients who are ready to reach the same level that their coach has attained (whatever the area or field is). Therefore, to get more and better quality clients, aim for the next level yourself through wisdom, evolution, skills, and professional development. That being said, ask the client to do more than you would do yourself. Why keep your clients at your own level of performance?

Not learning from your client

If you're too busy coaching, you will not learn much from your clients. Make it a point to learn interesting things about your clients:

· How do they think, who or what are their models of success?

• What limits them? What are their barriers to success?

· What are their technical skills, their knowledge of the Internet?

· What are their business ideas, their work habits?

The trick is to be interested in your clients, not to try to be interesting to them.

Not knowing who your ideal clients are

If you have not defined the qualities and desires of your ideal clients, you will not know who should be doing the coaching. It is certainly good to coach someone you feel you can help, but is also very important to know exactly who you prefer to coach, so that you can quickly identify a group of people, inform your contacts, milieu or target audience about client profiles you are seeking. This is one way you attract clients more easily.

Pushing the client too hard

How far you can push the client? To what point is the coaching relevant to his life and not to your life? You know you're pushing your client too hard when:

 You feel tired after the session.

 The client resists and fights your pressure.

 When you’re convinced that your way will bring success.

 You feel frustrated about your client’s slow reaction.

 You get angry, fret and want to be right during your session with the client.

Solution? Talk it over with the client and/or withdraw. Give the client time to lead the coaching.

Applying the brakes on the client

In an effort to protect the client from failure, stress or pain, bad coaches sometimes slow down their clients or suggest that they lower the level of their goals or expectations. This is a difficult thing to do. I prefer to tell my clients about the potential risks of self-restraint, and ask their permission if I can be as blunt as necessary to see how far they can take it. The mistake we often make as coaches is to play God or to apply the brakes on a client on what he can do.