How do you help your clients develop emotional intelligence and self-awareness as leaders?

Totally agree. Assessments are one of the most efficient ways to help clients gain self-awareness and understand how their self-perception may not be "the truth." However, there are two considerations here: 1. Assessments (at least the thorough, good ones) can be expensive so not all clients can afford them, and 2. Clients may not be ready to receive that feedback, and if they aren't, it might actually derail a coaching engagement if it's not what they expect to hear and their emotional maturity doesn't allow them to accept it. One thing I make clear to my clients around assessments is that we can pick and choose what from the assessments they want to tackle first. They are neither negative nor positive; they are simply feedback.

I use multiple approaches that assist the client in understanding how they are perceived by others and what may be holding them back. One approach is to administer the Positive Intelligence Assessment as it helps the clients to acknowledge their self-sabotuers. We review the results together and focus on the top 3 sabotuers. We can also refer back to the results as we work through our sessions and discussing when the sabotuers show up and how they can chose how to respond. I also like to administer the EQ-i 360. It is more complex and costly, so I do not use it often.

These are buzz words that are thrown around so much that they've lost their meaning. What is a "powerful question?" Give me a universally "powerful" question. There is no such thing, and this is what differentiates real coaches from the fodder that is so common on social media. A real coach will create a powerful question, in the moment, that truly helps a client make progress and overcome some limitation or achieve a new understanding. These questions are often extremely insightful, taking a calculated risk by testing a client's comfort zone and backed by a strong rapport with a client, but they would appear to an observer to be nothing more than a simple, probing question. However, that question often has profound meaning to the client.

I agree with the use of Active Listening. I refer to my coaching style as reflective as I help the client to see themselves as I reflect back to them what I see in hear as we work together. It is very insightful.

I encourage all of my clients to engage in some kind of mindfulness practice, even if it's not full-on meditation. I actually tend to start a majority of my sessions with a brief centering/mindfulness moment to "hit reset" with my clients so they can let go of whatever stress and other mental burdens they have before we start our session. This allows my clients to 1. learn more about simple mindfulness techniques that they can use on their own, 2. practice mindfulness in a controlled, safe setting, and 3. calm themselves and prepare for our session so it's more productive, they are more present, and we are both starting the process of breathing together which subtly helps to build rapport at a much deeper level.

All tools and techniques mentioned here are great when used in combination. Journaling is often the quickest way with the lowest hurdles or external dependencies and therefore often embraced as a go-to activity. Journaling doesn't have to take long. What makes journaling powerful are the prompts you use: To be meaningful, this exercise has to produce insights and journal prompts can help achieve this. These prompts will look different for each person and challenge, but helpful generic prompts are: ? What went well today (and why)? ? What should I keep doing / start doing / stop doing? ? How did my day line up with my plans / values / authentic self?

I love encouraging my clients to journal, and I often give them many options to do that exercise. The most common thought of journaling is to have a notebook or journal and write your thoughts/feelings/reflections in it by hand. That is absolutely the ideal way because of the way your brain and body process writing, however it's not the only way. I also offer that they can type up their thoughts in their phone notes section if they want (less than ideal), or they can do a voice recording and talk everything out (this is my second favorite choice after writing by hand). These are all forms of journaling, and they can have similar effects, albeit for different lifestyles.

People like to be heard. A key coaching skill is to "be present" for you client, help them see themselves, acknowledge what may be holding them back, make actions plans, and hold them accountable for the plans that they make. It is truly a partnership.