Coaching Principle 4: Clients Are Capable of Achieving Their Goals

12 December

[Previous blogs on the coaching principles can be found here]

Coaching starts with this fundamental belief. As coaches, we must believe in the immense potential locked inside our clients. Without that conviction, we won’t be able to help them discover that potential and tap into it.

This doesn’t mean that everything client wishes will miraculously appear in their life or that no effort will be needed. No, sometimes achieving a particular goal is not easy and can require a lot of work. Of course, it can be a bumpy ride. But if the coach doesn’t believe that the client is capable of reaching that destination, the client won’t enjoy the ride and probably won’t get there.

Don’t get me wrong, the coach is not a person who will encourage musing about pipe dreams. The job of a professional coach is the opposite. He or she will help specify what the client wants, strengthen their focus on these specifics and make them accountable to themselves.

Several things can happen when beginning coaches do not adhere to this principle. First, consciously or unconsciously, they start intervening and pushing clients to what they think is the right course of action. Second, they become judgmental about their clients’ progress. For example, they may become frustrated when a client doesn’t achieve the goals as rapidly as they expect.

In the best case scenario, they would have a mentor or supervisor to discuss such a case and correct their actions. But most of the time, these coaching relationships will uncomfortably linger without producing any beneficial outcomes.

I’ve experienced this with one of the coaches I’ve had. When I described my goal his reaction was: “Of course, you will get there sometime, but we will need to start with something smaller.” Little did I know at that time that I wouldn’t get much from his coaching.

So I repeat myself, the belief in a client’s capabilities is integral to the coaching process. Without it, there will be no coaching.

In the following video renowned psychologist and Nazi camp survivor, Viktor Frankl talks about this concept. He says that one needs to be an idealist about people in order to help them become who they really are.

One of the ways coaches can act on this principle is they help clients become aware of what’s possible. But additionally as Thomas Leonard, one of the coaching founding fathers, put it, coaches need to be able to “elicit greatness” in their clients. It means that we challenge the client’s limiting beliefs. We help them consider whether something bigger is possible.

So it’s important to explore what they think is possible and also why they think something is impossible. And then, coaches should explore what needs to happen or whom they need to become for something bigger to be possible.

One of my clients repeatedly asked me: “Is it really possible to make this change in behavior?” His goal was to change his communication style and he started seeing good results. But he was not sure the change would last. Without helping him get past this doubt, there is a risk that it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. But it wasn’t my answer that he needed. It was sufficient to project that I was confident in his abilities and then explore what made him doubtful and what could help him believe that this change was possible.

This is just an anecdote but a lot of people have such doubts and a coach needs to be there for a client during those moments.

As it was famously demonstrated in what is now called the Pygmalion effect, when teachers believe that their students are highly capable, they help them flourish even more. And the other way around, when they think poorly about their students, that undermines the students’ performance in a dramatic way.

Be the one who has a positive influence!

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