Coaching is Changing

This article was originally published as a blog in November 2019 https://mindsetcoachacademy.com/blog/

Our 20th-century lifestyles?

When we entered a new millennium nearly 20 years ago, there was much talk about technological and scientific advances. After all, science fiction books and films had, for decades, been trying to predict and depict what our lives would look like from 2000 onwards.

The internet was still in its infancy, social media didn’t exist, and mobile phones did little more than tell you the time and accept calls. We naively looked forward to how technology would make our lives easier and free up our time.

But no one could predict quite how much things would change in under two decades. Rather than technology giving us more time, it seems to have put our lives on fast forward. Everything is now about speed – how quickly something can be achieved. However, it’s not with the aim of freeing up our time but instead about cramming more in.

This has had numerous consequences. Some medical professionals now believe that it is changing the way we think and absorb information. With the overwhelming amount available at our fingertips, many now choose to just scan through text trying to pick up the key points rather than delving deep into a topic or subject.

There is a drive towards instant gratification. Rather than spending time with friends and family in the real world, we instead try to get our dopamine fix from likes and hearts on social media. We have become impatient and expect what we want in an instant. The high street is dwindling as we can now order with a click of a button without even having to get out of bed. Businesses promising fast delivery, such as Amazon, thrive with same-day deliveries increasingly available. It makes you wonder if our lives can get any faster.

The impact on health and coaching

But as we prepare to enter a new decade, there is an increasing amount of evidence that we’ve not only reached our limit but have in fact, gone beyond it.????

As life has become increasingly about instant gratification 24/7, the warning signs of the damage it’s doing has also increased. It’s now thought that 1 in 4 people suffer with a mental health issue each year and worryingly, numbers are on the rise amongst the youngest in our society. There are problems too with our physical health such as the increase in obesity. It seems that the faster we live our lives, the more issues we face.

This is perhaps, in part, due to our reluctance to commit to the long term. When there is something wrong, we want it solved. Now. Pronto. We get some pills from the doctor to get rid of the symptoms. We hire a coach or a counsellor to get past a specific problem. We would rather put a sticky plaster over a grazed knee than stop and think about how we could stop falling over and injuring ourselves.

We remain at the surface level rather than digging down into the root of what’s really going on. We look for a quick result that will keep us going for the next few months rather than a permanent solution.

The same has been true within coaching. A client comes and wants to get from A to B in the quickest way possible. The coach obviously obliges, and the client goes off happy with their quick fix. But it’s not long before the client comes up against the next obstacle and is then looking for their next quick fix.

Has the bell rung on short-term fixes?

The harsh truth that we don’t always want to face, is that sometimes, these obstacles are rooted in the same problem and a different approach to coaching would have given a more permanent result. It has also become increasingly easy for potential clients to simply Google their issue and find a course or free information that will help them move that next step forward. If people are going to continue paying for coaching, they are going to demand more for their money.

With so many problems arising from our fast-paced life and so much availability, the tide is beginning to turn. People are now looking for a more permanent solution to their problems. They want a higher quality of service. Rather than placing a sticky plaster over problems, we now need to take a more holistic approach to get to the root of problems and provide more long-lasting results.

Research has repeatedly proven the connection between mind and body. Our health service is now recognising the links between our psychological and physical health and this has led to GPs adopting a more holistic approach and referring patients to complementary therapies and therapeutic interventions.?

The same is needed within coaching. Just offering coaching sessions is no longer enough.?Let’s take a common example of a client who wants to become more visible. What holds them back from doing that can vary. It could be anything from the fact that they lack technical information on how to do a live or set up and share a lead magnet. If they’ve experienced an embarrassing situation when they were getting visible as a child, they might have then made a limiting decision. It could be that they need to be able to remove anxiety from the situation.

A holistic approach for 2020 and beyond

In other words, there can be a whole host of things that stop them from getting visible. If a coach wants to be able to help them, they need to be working from a more holistic standpoint.

When I look at what’s needed from coaches in 2020 and beyond, I see a need for a combination of three different approaches:

1. Coaching

Let’s start with the obvious one – one of the approaches that coaches need to include is coaching! This enables you to take a diagnostic approach and to explore where your client is now and where they want to be. It’s in getting to their goal however, that clients might need more support and that’s where the other two approaches come into play.

2. Consulting

With consulting you draw on your previous experience and impart your knowledge, expertise and tools. Sometimes, a client is simply missing key information. The lack of knowledge prevents them from being able to the next step. When you’re able to fill in these gaps and share your experience, your client can make more progress.

3. Therapeutic intervention

The third approach is therapy. When you’ve been able to diagnose and identify an issue that’s holding your client back, then a therapeutic intervention might be needed before progress can be made. For example, the client might need a strategy for removing negative emotions before they can move forward.

Getting the best transformations and results

Let’s go back to our example of a client who needs to become more visible. Imagine that they need to do live videos on a social media platform to promote their business. If they don’t know how to be persuasive on those lives or struggle with the technology, they will probably need consultative support where you share that information with them.

On the other hand, they might be a people pleaser who’s worried about offending someone who views their live video. In this case, they may need coaching to get to the root of the problem and therapeutic intervention to overcome it.

It’s exactly what I’ve found was needed within The Mindset Coach Academy and it’s the reason that it has been so successful. As well as teaching coaching skills, it also includes training on a range of therapeutic techniques and interventions such as Time Line Therapy, Hypnotherapy, EFT and NLP to create rapid and lasting transformation.

In addition, it shows coaches how they can offer consulting too. For example, the work around choosing a niche and an ideal client is a key element of the Mindset Coach Academy training and it gets coaches exploring their previous experience and how to apply it to help their clients achieve the results they desire. From there, they can identify areas in which they can offer consultative support and tactical advice as well as coaching to keep their clients moving forwards and making their goals a reality.

Coaching with confidence

Combining these three approaches not only ensures that your clients get better results but also gives you the competence and confidence to lead as a coach. If you lack confidence in the transformation that you can offer, then your client will lack confidence too and the results won’t be there. It’s important to remember that in coaching, your clients will only actualise what you believe to be possible.

When you can offer a combination of coaching, consulting and therapeutic modalities, you have mastery and confidence and your clients pick up on this. You can offer your clients the kind of service and long-term results that they won’t be able to find in an online course or with other coaches who only have expertise in one style of coaching or therapy. The bottom line is that your clients can have confidence in you and the transformation they seek.

Coaching alone is no longer enough. If you want to build a successful coaching business fit for 2020 and beyond, you need to offer consulting, coaching and therapy. The Mindset Coach Academy gives you everything you need to do just that. If you want to join us in October, February or June intakes you can book a call here.

This article was originally published as a blog in November 2019 https://mindsetcoachacademy.com/blog/

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