Key Messages
Gain The Tools To Succeed As A Professional Coach With Guidance From Kim Morgan
Kim Morgan’s The Coach’s Survival Guide can help you take your coaching to the next level.
Whether you’re just starting out or already have years of experience, this book provides useful tips and advice to overcome any challenge.
Drawing on real-life cases and Morgan’s decades of experience, she’ll show you how to manage clients’ expectations and handle conflicts of interests while still providing a quality service.
You will learn why it is important to have a contract between you and your client, when it is appropriate to disclose personal information and how you can maintain a healthy work-life balance.
With these helpful tips, you can easily become an experienced coach who is respected in your field!
Gaining Credibility As A Coach: How To Leverage Your Personal Experiences To Advance Your Career
Successful coaches don’t just have the ability to motivate and support their clients—they also have the credibility needed to build trust.
This is especially important if you want to coach in an industry or sector you haven’t previously worked in.
Building your credibility starts with your training.
Consider pro bono coaching sessions as a way to gain experience with the type of clients you want to work with commonly.
These will give you real-life examples of how you can connect and relate to those who need your guidance, and can help provide testimonials for use in your marketing materials.
You can also leverage personal experiences when building credibility; even though it might not be related in any professional manner, it allows people to get acquainted with you on a more personal level.
When Doreen looked at her past experiences and saw that she had gone through divorce, online dating and remarriage, she decided to put them into her career as a relationship coach—she was already giving advice about love in her network of friends!
Helping clients by bringing up topics based on real-life examples will help both parties become closer and reach a better understanding of each other’s point of view.
Ultimately, becoming a successful coach requires more than great coaching skills — having a high level of credibility is essential to creating lasting relationships with your clients.
Remember that deep down, everybody wants someone they can trust — so make sure that starts with yourself!
How Much Should Coaches Disclose About Themselves During Sessions? Tips For Maintaining Professional Boundaries
When it comes to the client-coach relationship, it’s important to know where the emotional boundaries lie and to respect them.
Knowing how much information to disclose is essential in creating trust between the coach and the client.
For example, coaches should only share personal information that benefits the client, not for their own benefit.
Humanist therapists understand this concept; they believe that some self-disclosure can help clients come to terms with their imperfections and that no one is perfect.
However, there are instances when a coach may inadvertently overstep their boundaries by sharing details of personal experiences that were unrelated to helping the client.
This can leave clients feeling like they are now responsible for helping them rather than the other way around.
Being aware of your emotions and thoughts, as well as those of your client, is key to building trust and understanding within a professional coaching session.
Finally, knowing how to properly respond if a client begins to cry during a session is also an important part of setting emotional boundaries.
A coach needs to stay still and remain calm while allowing their client time to express whatever emotions they may be feeling without interfering or invading their personal space.
It’s vital that your clients feel safe expressing strong emotions without judgement.
Overcoming Imposter Syndrome: How To Make The Leap From Professional Expertise To Coaching
The phenomenon of imposter syndrome has been widely recognized in recent decades, with estimates that around 70 percent of women and men experience it throughout their professional lives.
It can be particularly prevalent among new coaches who come from more established careers such as law, medicine or senior management.
After years of training for these other occupations the transition to coaching may feel unsettling.
They might think that the task is too easy compared to what they’re used to, leading them to feel like an unworthy fraud.
Imposter syndrome can make those suffering from it excessively hard on themselves or even prevent them from taking opportunities out of fear that someone will discover how incompetent they are.
This distorted perception of their own value despite hard work and success robs them of self-confidence and the opportunity to grow.
If you’re a coach who is dealing with similar issues, it’s important to remember that many people receive exactly the same feeling and ask yourself if it’s coming from your childhood experiences or this transition into coaching practice.
Professional help and guidance can definitely assist in easing those worries while gaining more knowledge related to your field can set your mind at ease.
Luke’S Mistake: Believing He Could Build A Coaching Business With Online Communication Alone
When Luke arrived on the coaching scene, he thought he could build his business just using online communication.
His expensive website, fancy branding and active activity in the online world were all for nothing because he lacked real-world paying customers.
To avoid a similar fate, it’s important to understand that having an online presence alone won’t be enough to make you a successful coach.
Whilst it might make you feel like your business exists and looks great, without actual customers your business doesn’t exist at all.
The Coach’s Survival Guide recommends that new coaches take their marketing efforts offline as well.
There’s often no substitute for actively networking with each other, getting involved in community groups or setting up meetings with individuals who may become clients.
Giving presentations is also a great way of showcasing who you are and what kind of services you have to offer.
Ultimately, courage is key when it comes to building your coaching business as it requires taking risks such as delivering speeches, speaking to potential customers persistently and pitching yourself outside of the digital realm
The Benefits Of Establishing A Contract With Your Coaching Clients And How To Do It
When it comes to coaching, the best way to ensure that both your clients and you have successful relationships is by having written contracts in place.
This is an obligation of all members of the International Coach Federation, and for good reason – these contracts lay down the foundation of your future relationship with a client, clarify what you should expect from each other, and cover topics like fees and cancellations, as well as contact outside of sessions.
Writing a contract may seem daunting or unnecessary to some coaches – think Hailey who was worried that beginning on such a formal note would damage the warm rapport she had established with her clients – but in fact, it’s essential for setting up a great working relationship.
You can never be entirely sure that your client has all the information about coaching, and signing a contract prior to sessions helps manage expectations while giving them some emotional security.
Don’t forget- great coaching relationships are built on written contracts!
Coaches Need To Consider The Loyalties Of Both Clients When Caught In A Conflict Of Interest
When coaches work within organizations, there can be a potential conflict of interest when it comes to their loyalties.
This scenario has been exemplified by a real-life example: A corporate company hired a coach for one of their employees and it became apparent that the company wanted said employee to leave.
The employee was unaware of his worsening situation, yet the coach had formed a personal connection with him through the coaching sessions.
The dilemma arose because neither the employee nor the company could get what they wanted out of the coaching sessions as they were at odds with each other.
It becomes essential for coaches in this position to manage conflicts of interest, as they need to ensure loyalty both to their organizational clients – in this case, the corporate company – and the individuals that they are coaching.
A coach must serve two masters; an individual client and an organization’s broader needs.
This can mean that difficult situations may arise which require scenarios such as reevaluating goals – even if these mean treading carefully so as not to betray either party’s trust – or actively trying to make an individual more aware of their situation by raising questions relevant to their predicament.
No matter which approach is taken, having an understanding supervisor and being aware of your code of conduct is recommended for coaches facing these kinds of dilemmas.
Why Coaches Need To Maintain A Work-Life Balance To Avoid Resentment Towards Their Clients
Coaching, while a rewarding career that helps many people find new paths and start anew, can become all-consuming if one doesn’t maintain a healthy work-life balance.
Take the example of Sam, whose successful coaching business sees her working with unemployed women to help them find new careers.
Despite being beloved by her clients and having maintained contact years after their coaching sessions have ended, she’s sacrificing her own life outside of work for the sake of it.
The same goes for Diana, another successful coach, who works with senior executives but has recently taken on more clients and is now working long days.
This has caused her to become overburdened and resentful toward her clients due to the amount of time she spends catering to their needs.
In order to prevent cases like Sam’s and Diana’s from occurring, coaches must prioritize the importance of developing and sustaining a positive work-life balance for themselves before they can adequately turn their attention toward others.
This means making sure that they set aside time to pursue hobbies that make them proud or expanding their social circle by making new friends in order to build up their self-esteem outside of their professional successes.
By maintaining an even work-life balance coaches will be able to better build relationships with their clients on mutually beneficial terms that allows them to continue developing sustainable careers in coaching.
Wrap Up
At the end of The Coach’s Survival Guide, it is clear that coaches have a responsibility to consider the physical and mental health of their own as well.
It is incredibly important for coaches to stay in shape, get adequete rest, practice self-care and set boundaries with clients in order to effectively do their job.
It takes determination and effort, but the rewards come back tenfold if you stay true to your commitment!
With insight on how to handle common coaching obstacles, The Coach’s Survival Guide offers fantastic insight into how you can establish yourself as a successful coach while still prioritizing your physical and mental health.
