8 Characteristics of Great Life Coaches

Life coaching should be a collaborative experience, a shared responsibility between the coach and coachee. The responsibility of the coach is to identify weaknesses in mental process, and change them for to the strong processes, allowing the coachee to actively pursue and achieve their dreams.

The coach/coachee relationship is a delicate dance of outcomes, observation, trust and curiosity that could last from just one project to a life time of achievement.

As a coach you should be striving to offer your clients the best possible experience, one that will help them systematically achieve what they want. Key characteristics of the collaborative experience of life coaching should include:

1.     Curiosity: Asking questions will get information, offering us more to work with. Be curios as a coach, and ask key questions that will provide you with detail that you can use.

2.     Non-judgemental: As a coach it is essential that you work outside of the blame/reward structure. There are no wrong or un-resourceful people just resourceful strategies used at the wrong time or for the wrong reason. As a coach your role is to create choice, and blame is not one of those options.

3.     Supportive: People often hear what they ‘ought’ to do, what they ‘should have’ done. When in your company, your client will be supported and encouraged. Develop your clients confidence, empowering them to face and overcome challenges.

4.     Outcomes-Focused: The first question every coach should ask the client is: what do you want? Help your clients formulate clients in a manner that gives them every chance of success.

5.     Customised Service: Tedious repetition is the death of every good coach. Overcome the boredom by tailoring the tools and processes to the person you are coaching. Every client should be an adventure of discovery and an opportunity for success.

6.     Cumulative Oriented: A coach that drops a ton of advice and strategies on a clients head should drop coaching. Big change can be achieved through small steps and small cumulative achievements add up to major success.

     7.     Resource-Biased: Assume that your client has all the resources they require to achieve whatever it is they want. Respect the resourcefulness of your clients, and help them uncover this positively empowering assumption.

8.     Lifelong Learner:  The more you know, the more choice you have, the easier it will be to change what doesn’t work. Make it a personal commitment to encourage people to become lifelong learners, and lead the way by your own example.

Coaching people into their personal success is a privilege that should be earned on the bases of your own personal success and kept by your own continual development.  Life Coaching shouldn’t be a last resort of a failed career, but the natural progression of a successful one by a person that wants to impart and share that success. As a life coach, your clients success is your reputation.