Advanced Coaching Techniques #2

The second class for this course was held on Wednesday, June 06, 2007. We began with talking about the “wrong trap”. We discussed how we can move the client to the topic of the day without saying ‘What is wrong?’ Some different questions that we could ask instead are: “What would you like to achieve?” “How can I support you?” “What would you like to focus on today?” Along the same line we may encounter a client that doesn’t know what they want coaching on. What can we do with the client that doesn’t know what they want to coach on? A good question to ask is “What do you want more of?”

Defining the Opportunity – What more is there for the client…moving into creating. Sometimes people move toward things out of a sense of guilt. We as coaches need to be careful not to move the client forward in this way. What are other ways to move clients forward without using guilt? Enthusing the client into action or helping them create a goal, are a couple of ways we can do this.

Personal Basics – Self Care. We were asked to think of three things we have done for someone else, what came to my mind was: made husband lunch, took kids to the park, had the neighbor girl over to give her mom a break.
Then we were asked to list three things we have done for ourselves, I listed: started walking, cut my hair, eat healthier & drink more water.
There is a direct correlation between caring for ourselves and having the energy and focus we have for others. I have found this week that when I feel good and take care of myself I actually have more energy for others.

Self acknowledgement is also essential to self-care. We tend to shy away from it because we don’t want to become arrogant. Another aspect is asking for what we want. When we don’t express ourselves we can harbor resentment which serves nobody.

I felt good about today’s class. I feel like have implemented so much needed self-care into my life and I feel like I have a good grasp on these Advanced Coaching Techniques that we talked about in the first two of the three classes.