Coaching to Flourish Live Season 2, Episode 9

In this episode:

Coach Training EDU Assessor and Master Coach Raj Anderson, and CTEDU Director of Curriculum and Content, Britt Fulmer, host today's Coaching to Flourish Live. During this session, they discuss self-awareness from the coaching and client perspective, navigating difficult conversations, the importance of "designing the alliance," and other difficulties that arise in challenging coaching sessions.

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The Question:

How do you deal with clients having difficulty within the coaching process?

The Question:

What kind of strategies do you use to deal with clients that frequently respond with, "I don't know.”?

The Question:

How do you manage clients that aren't following their action steps or making excuses?

The Question:

How do you manage clients lacking self-awareness that can't see themselves as part of the problem they are trying to solve?

The Question:

How do you see your clients change or adjust after having those problematic and direct communications with them?

Great Takeaways

Explore self-coaching or self-assessment to understand better what you bring to the client-coaching scenario.
Revisiting the importance of "designing the alliance" in the coaching session.
Understanding different types of "I don't know" responses and what is behind them.
Explore client jet-lag.
Tips for having those difficult conversations with clients.
Self-awareness in the coaching session.
Meeting people where they are.

Quotes to Ponder

"If your client isn't really invested in their own development, that can sometimes make the coaching process more challenging." – Britt (3:10)

"I would encourage anyone who is a coach to think about the scenario and what might be coming up for [them] as to what is making an interaction or engagement [with a client] difficult." – Raj (4:23)

"One of the harsher realities of coaching is that not every client is going to be the best fit for you. If you're looking at it through a lens that is impossible for you to break away from, the professional thing to do then is to have a conversation with [the client] about connecting them with another coach that might be more suited for them; and that is the best thing you can do for them in service of their goals." - Britt (7:49)

"In designing the alliance, it helps me to learn, to meet [the client] in their world." – Raj (10:03)

"I have clients where we do a check-point, and things have changed or shifted – what they thought they initially wanted is not what they really wanted, or who they are now is not the same as when we started our work together." - Raj (19:33)

"My opinion, the most critical thing we do in coaching, is we help our clients become more self-aware so they can achieve the right goal, not just any arbitrary goal that they set for themselves." – Britt (22:00)

"My role [as a coach] is, I'm walking along side you with a torch and I'm shining a light on the things that are going to trip you up." - Raj (24:22)