5 Common Mistakes Coaches Make
Rohini Mundra
Thought Leader, Speaker, Author, Coach, Youngest Level IV Certified Trainer, Award Winning Entrepreneur
The coaching industry has come quite a long way, turning into a flourishing billion-dollar industry. Coaches are only human, so they are bound to make mistakes. However, it is the job of the coaches to make sure that these mistakes are readily rectified for both their reputation as well as their clients. So here are some common mistakes that might go unnoticed but are really important to rectify at the earliest.?
Do Not Try To Be A “Great” Coach
As a coach, the last thing on your mind should be your personal success. Coaches need to understand that the conversation is not about them, and definitely not about their success. The best coaches always recognize that their primary goal is the client’s welfare. Your effectiveness as a coach can be judged only by the success of a client.?
Don’t Work Hard?
Your job as a coach is not to work hard - it is, in fact, the direct opposite. You are not the one doing the work at all, your job is to listen, think and speak towards the betterment of a client, while actively encouraging them to pursue what they deserve. Your days of working hard are over, it is your job to make other people work harder.?
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Express Your Intuitions
As a coach, your intuition is something you should heavily rely on. You need to sharpen it, make it more useful for yourself as well as your client. It does not matter what may or may not transpire because of it, the important thing is that you convey what you feel in all honesty. A good way to make sure you have tried your best is to ask yourself just before you end the session “Have I missed out on anything that I wanted to say? Can we part ways now?” If you have, do so immediately, because the smallest bit of information can possibly give them ideas.?
Do Not Preach
Sometimes coaches try to go out of their way to give advice to their clients, which is the exact antithesis of coaching. A coach never gives advice, they only guide the client towards what they want. Even though they do provide some input from their end, the coach must mostly act as a catalyst and not as an active participant in the proces. This journey is of the client, not of the coach. A general rule of thumb is that if you are doing more than 25% of the talking, you probably aren’t coaching. You need to give them the space to come up with new ideas and formulate their own plan of action.
You Are Not Responsible For Their Outcome
Whether it is a success or failure, a coach is not a person who takes credit for either. The coach only challenges the client’s beliefs, affirms them, confronts their opinions and advocates for or against them. The onus is on them to succeed or fail. This is not an evasion of responsibility but rather an exercise of it - they are making sure that the client takes their own decisions and keeps making them on their own.