How do you communicate and collaborate effectively with your life coach?

In my experience, not all people know what they want to get out of coaching. Simply wanting to find a new direction is enough to enter the process. A good coach will always ask you what you want to experience as a desired outcome. Ethically, all coaches should focus on your needs as the priority.

Expectations are critical to getting value from your experience with a life coach. Many people who have not had a life coach experience may be expecting something more like therapy where the client is looking back to see why their past actions or attitudes might be blocking their path to success. Life coaching is more about looking forward. It is about beginning from today and working together to find a path to reach your best life. Life coaches have tools to help you identify areas of your life that you may not immediately realize are problem areas or strengths and help you use those insights to improve your outcomes. Clients do not have to know the answers before they begin a coaching program. That's what we are here for!

There can be a misconception that coaching, counselling, mentoring and consulting are one and the same . As a result, there is sometimes a view that the coach is there to guide and tell the client what to do. This is why it’s important to clearly communicate what coaching is and what it isn’t

Take responsibility for what *only you* can do. Your coach acts as a guide or advisor and your actions are what create changes. The results of the coaching relationship depends on your daily practice of stretching your comfort zone to be, do and have the life of your dreams.

Refrain from arriving in a coaching session with self-diagnosis, asking the coach to write the prescription. I would say be open to exploring with your coach to identify the right goal for coaching. Often what may appear as obivious issue may have another bigger issue making this an issue. Goals can always change as you make progress in coaching. However, the very first goal should be identifying the right goal.

The coaching space is a safe one. Your coach has an ethical responsibility to ensure the confidentiality of what you share and experience. In my experience, a coach is your biggest supporter and wants success for you and the only way to get there is by having a two-way open and honest relationship.

Coaching is a partnership between the coach and the coachee. Your certified coach is trained in holding a safe space for you. When you trust your coach and the process, you want to be open and transparent that your coach knows what is working for you, what is not and support you in the best possible way.

It's surprising and ironic to me that this is AI generated, because of how accurate it is about the human experience. In other words, looking at it from reverse, it would be absolutely pointless for you to hire a coach if you're not going to be completely open & honest. Your willingness to open up about what's going on with you in your life, without omitting any details, will dictate the success of your coaching journey. What's happening in your life? With your job/business? Your relationship with your loved ones? Your ability to communicate? Your personal health & wellbeing? Your mental/emotional state? Your dreams & goals? It's all relevant and necessary in order to have a successful relationship with your coach.

100%. Being honest and open and ready to share your thoughts and emotions, as well as the facts, is critical for success. I find the clients who get great results are those who approach the coaching conversations prepared to roll up their sleeves and get stuck in.

It helps to be honest. A coach can work only with the data you choose to give. So do not hesitate to share your concerns and thoughts. Do bring it up if something is preventing you from sharing your thoughts and address it during the rapport building phase. Always remember you are a team and both of you are focused on just your growth. Maximise your sessions with open and honest communication.

It is critical that you show up, on time and prepared for your sessions. Again the onboarding process should help a coach establish if you are likely to need more space to move sessions or make last minute changes. Not showing up and doing the work in between sessions, limits your progress and wastes your coaches and you own time. Make the most of the investment you have made and do the work. If you are not doing the work - it is the coaches responsibility to address this with you and reassess your contracts / agreements.

I like to use analogy of LEGOS to explain how coaching works. When you are building your Lego structure and put first 5 bricks, it looks nothing like the final outcome. You put 5 more, it still does not look anything closer to the final structure. However, you continue to put your bricks together as described in the manual and eventually able to make what you wanted to make. Coaching works the same way. The difference is, it does not come with a manual, but you trust your coach and the coaching process, give your focused attention, do your part deligently, if get stuck share with your coach and continue your work in between the sessions too, that is when you are able to make that aha worthy change.

Some wiseman once said, "the biggest problem with an idea is being the only idea." When you are working with your coach and you are not open to exploring new ideas and open to creative answers, you may find yourself stuck, hitting the wall again and again.

Approaching coaching with a ‘growth mindset’ will stand you in good stead. Being open to have to think and work out solutions to your problems is key. You know yourself far better then your coach does so expecting them to come up with answers isn’t going to get you far. Coaching isn’t mentoring - it’s a collaborative journey. And yes - being ready to experiment with new ways of thinking and behaviour is really important. Habits and beliefs built up over a lifetime won’t change overnight. Trying out new approaches, then reflecting and tweaking is a good way to move towards your goals.

Set backs will inevitably happen. If you and your coach have established great rapport you can work together to overcome the hurdles you face. This brings us back to the onboarding process and the due diligence needed for coaches to not work with people who they cannot really help. Entering into this professional agreement means that both parties need to be completely happy with their partnership.

Gratitude and too many platitudes towards a coach may lead to a positioning of the coach ‘above’ the client - which needs to be avoided. The guru status of coaches is concerning - therefore only recommending a coach if you have truly made progress is more important than spending lots of time appreciating their support.

Hmm. This isn’t essential. Obviously I love it when I get good feedback but I don’t agree that coaches ‘need to express gratitude’. Again I don’t agree that any client has to do a review or send me referrals. It is entirely their choice. I wouldn’t want a client of mine to feel pressured to do the things mentioned in this section. Maybe it’s just the language the bot has used needs tweaking a bit here?

I think having mutual respect and trust is critical in a coaching relationship. Think of it like a m?bius of energy. The energy that you bring into your coaching relationship is the energy that gets reciprocated. Your coach may be able to make you feel better on some days when you are feeling low but keep in mind that coaching is not the right space if you are feeling low and unmotivated everytime. Expect yourself to be hard at work with your coach and own your desire to be successful.