beliefs

How to start charging for your coaching – part one 1

 in Coaching  tagged beliefs / business coach / business coaching / career coaching / charging / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching content / coaching courses / coaching fees / coaching qualifications / coaching session / coaching skills / coaching techniques / executive coach / fear / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / money / no / performance coaching / personal development / resource / value

One of the common questions asked by those at the start of their coaching journey is a variation of “How do I move from doing pro-bono/free coaching to charging?”

Before I go any further I invite you to consider why I selected the wording of that specific question. For example, one of the variations of that question is “how do you move from …”

I’d really like this post to be useful for you if you found yourself in this situation, not just an interesting piece of information. So before I go any further, let me ask you,

“What’s stopping you from charging for your coaching?”

There are many answers that could have come up for you to that question, each potentially with a different action that you can take. Below I’m going to discuss just a few of those answers.

Beliefs about the value of your coaching

These commonly are voiced as concerns about being good enough, questioning what a client would value about your work and why anyone would choose you etc.

I’ve written before about how to find the confidence to find clients to coach (Read “Finding the confidence to start coaching” for more specific actions you could take) I’ve also written “3 ways to keep your focus on your client and not your own inner critic/ thoughts” if those questions about your value distract you whilst coaching.

I’d certainly encourage anyone to continue to develop their own coaching skills and knowledge and add to that a plea to share that with others rather than keep it to yourself. If it’s beliefs about the value of your coaching, how will you know when you are good enough?

Beliefs around money

Your beliefs around money can be interwoven with your values and perceptions about the world. There are whole books written around the impact of money beliefs upon wealth and I’m certainly not going to try and sum them all up in such a short space.

What I will invite you to do is consider if your beliefs are getting in the way of you starting to charge for your coaching. If so, you have 3 principal options:

1.      Find a way that your money beliefs and charging for your coaching can work together.

2.      Change your beliefs

3.      Do nothing

If you choose number 1, next week’s post may give you some more ideas. For now, what would have to happen for your money beliefs and charging for your coaching to work together?

Not knowing what to charge and how to have that conversation.

There are many ways to decide upon what you want to charge. I suggest that you consider the points I wrote about in the post “How much is your coaching worth?”

It’s not at all uncommon for someone to tell me that they don’t know what to say when talking to someone about charging for their coaching.

One of the pieces of advice I was given when I first started to charge for my coaching was to practice saying my fees in advance. “I charge x for my coaching” The idea is that you become so used to saying the amount that by the time you come to speak to a real client there is no shock, amazement or doubt heard in the tone of your voice.

Practicing that also means that you “ask and then shut up”. It’s not at all unknown for a coach to have talked themselves out of their own coaching fee without the client saying a word. This usually happens after the coach has done a really good job of communicating the value and their offer to a potential client. Yet they just keep talking to try and answer objections that haven’t been raised.

Fear of getting told no

There’s so much that could be written on this topic. For now I’ll ask the following, if you offer someone a cup of tea/coffee and they decline, what would you think?

I suspect you’d probably presume that they weren’t thirsty, perhaps didn’t want a hot drink or maybe didn’t like tea/coffee at all. Immediately interpreting that as meaning they think you are a terrible person etc is probably not high on your list of possible explanations.

Yet, when it comes to inviting someone to experience your coaching service many view a no as meaning something personal about you as an individual. There will be individuals who at this moment in time aren’t “thirsty” for coaching, others who want to try a different approach and some that have tried coaching before and didn’t like it.

I generally find that it is much easier to have a conversation to invite someone to experience your coaching service if you think of it as a service/product and not as selling yourself.

Just to add …

Next Wednesday, I will continue this in part two and discuss when to make a transition to start charging for your coaching.

What else would you add to the question what is stopping you from charging?

About the Author

Jen WallerJen Waller is on a mission to support, nurture and encourage coaching skills and talents from non-coach to coach and beyond.

She has created a free 7 day e-course about how to create your own unique coaching welcome pack that works for you and your clients. Get your copy here.

Discover your ‘Book of Rules’…

 in Guest Post  tagged away / beliefs / business coach / business coaching / certainty / charging / client / clients / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching courses / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / coaching training / conditioned mind / connection / contribution / Epic Living Now / evolved master coach / executive coach / focus / focus filters / growth / internal representations / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / love / Morgan Tinline / nlp coach / performance coaching / personal coach / personal development / self talk / senses / significance / towards / unconscious mind / values / variety

In this week’s guest post Evolved Master Coach Morgan Tinline shares insights and explainations about how we are “wired.”

Discover your ‘Book of Rules’…

by Morgan Tinline

As an Evolved Master Coach, I work almost entirely with the unconscious mind – also called the conditioned mind. This is where clients experience lasting change that happens very quickly. I assist clients to essentially change their ‘wiring’ so that they choose to be cause and create the life they desire.

As is my foremost objective when in a coaching session, I want to offer you the opportunity to gain massive value from this post simply by enjoying it for yourself in whatever way is best for you!

So, from my perspective as an Evolved Master Coach, I want to share with you some information on how we are ‘wired’ and more importantly, how that ‘wiring’ serves us as individuals on an unconscious level. And of course, I’d love for you to gain insights into how to change that wiring almost effortlessly!

Let’s start with how we perceive and process our world…

Internal Representations:

Your internal representation will to a great extent determine your focus. You will soon learn that you get what you focus on. Your focus determines your thinking; your thinking determines your behaviour, which determines your results.

The Five senses (VAKOG) supply information from the outside world directly to the conditioned mind for processing/filtering. This information together with our Self-Talk (Ad) creates our Internal Representation.

Your unconscious mind is symbolic and it thinks and communicates using V, A, K, O, G and Ad. In order to use our minds effectively we need to use all of our Internal Representations, aligning them with what we want.

Think of all the signs that you see for caution or warning… “Don’t Slip” for example (with a picture of a man slipping). Remember that the unconscious mind doesn’t process negatives directly. The mind processes everything through VAKOG all the time. Rather state everything in the positive, FOCUS ON WHAT YOU WANT.

What feeling and images are in your mind when you think of yourself slipping on a wet floor? What kind of internal representation would that create? Our Internal Representation becomes our focus… we tend to produce the necessary behaviour to manifest that. This is the basis for effective change.

“Don’t think of a pink elephant”

Realise that you can’t think about what you don’t want to think about without thinking about it.

So all 5 senses and our self talk together, make up our Internal Representation. Now ask “What am I focusing on? Is my focus positive?” From now on this includes all 6 things we can do in our minds. Are all the systems supporting you towards successful achievement of your goal? This will make a huge difference in your life.

picture for Morgan Tinline guest post dec 11

Our mind sorts information into 7 ± 2 chunks of information. Our Internal Representation constantly combined with our Physiology creates our State. State dictates our Behaviour and we create certain Results in our lives.

Focus Filters

What are you focusing on? Is it towards what you want or towards what you don’t want? Are you focusing on what you want or are you focusing on what you don’t want?

Core Focus Filters – (Internal Acid Test)

Our core focus filters are our human needs. This model has been adopted from Anthony Robbins, who says “You don’t always get what you want, but you always get what you need.”

These needs are not wants and desires, but profound needs which service the basis of every choice we make.

You will always find a way to fulfil your core needs, either in a positive, negative or neutral way.

There are 6 basic human needs:

Certainty

This is our need for safety, security, consistency and predictability.

Variety

The opposite of certainty is our need for uncertainty, variety, the unknown, risk, challenges.

Significance

This is our need for being important, being needed, feeling worthy, unique, status

Love / Connection

Our need for connection, intimacy, love, sharing, bonding

The first 4 human needs Certainty, Variety, Significance, Love / Connection are the needs of the body/personality. People will do ANYTHING to meet these needs, one way or another.

The needs of our spirit or soul are met through Growth and Contribution…

Growth

Our need for growth, expansion, learning, becoming more… when we stop growing, we die. We need to constantly develop emotionally, physically and spiritually.

Contribution

Our need to go beyond our own needs and contributing to others, making a difference in others lives, helping, educating, coaching.

We tend to focus on two; the dominant two influence our behaviour the most.

Exercise:

1) Write down all the ways you currently get: Certainty, Variety, Significance, Love/Connection, Growth and Contribution in your life in general.

2) Answer the following questions (take your time and think about it).

a) What is it that drives you? What are your top 2 Core Focus Filters? Which two do you value the most?

b) How does this impact the quality of your life? What are the consequences (positive and negative) of valuing these needs in this order?

Process Focus Filters – (Inner Parent)

These are process driven that shape our Focus and our reality.

Meta Programs

Values

Beliefs

Memories

Decisions

Attitudes

Language

Time/Space/Matter/Energy

Key Focus Filter – (Internal Driver)

This holds the Key of your Focus. It determines what is and what isn’t important, based on all the other filters. Your mind created a question that sums up all your filters together. It filters your conscious and unconscious thinking, all the time. It is basically the question that you keep asking yourself consciously or unconsciously, no matter what you are doing. You filter all information coming in through your 5 senses all 400 Billion bps as if your life depended on it. How important do you think this question is?

And now, for the even more amazing stuff. For those of you want to discover your own unconscious ‘instruction manual’…

 

Book of Rules Exercise:

 

What is important in your life?

List the top 5 things that you value in life. What is life about for you? What are you striving for, what would you like to feel or experience in life?

 

1. ___________________________________________________________________

2. ___________________________________________________________________

3. ___________________________________________________________________

4. ___________________________________________________________________

5. ___________________________________________________________________

 

(For each of the above that you listed answer the following question)

For you to feel/experience __________ , what needs to happen, what needs to be present in order for you to feel that way or to experience that?

 

1. ___________________________________________________________________

2. ___________________________________________________________________

3. ___________________________________________________________________

4. ___________________________________________________________________

5. ___________________________________________________________________

 

In the past, what have been the feelings you would do almost anything to avoid?

List here the top 5, your biggest ‘Away From’:

 

1. ___________________________________________________________________

2. ___________________________________________________________________

3. ___________________________________________________________________

4. ___________________________________________________________________

5. ___________________________________________________________________

 

(For each of the above that you listed answer the following question)

For you to feel/experience __________ , what needs to happen, what needs to be present in order for you to feel that way or to experience that?

 

1. ___________________________________________________________________

2. ___________________________________________________________________

3. ___________________________________________________________________

4. ___________________________________________________________________

5. ___________________________________________________________________

 

Most people make it really difficult to achieve their ‘Towards Values’ and really easy to achieve their ‘Away Values’. Why not make it really easy to achieve your towards by using OR, and make it really difficult to achieve Away but using AND.

 

I trust you have enjoyed asking some of the right questions for the answers you’ve always had! You can email me with any questions/queries and feedback. Send email to mo****@***********ow.com

In conclusion, I leave you with the words of my friend and mentor…

“May you find all that you seek outside, inside of you.” – RS

About the author

blavatarMorgan Tinline is an Evolved Master Coach currently living in South Africa. He is passionate about people and assisting them in accessing their massive potential. Add to that his past personal experience and triumph over severe depression as well as overcoming Bipolar Disorder without any medical assistance or traditional therapy, and you get a coach who loves every bit of his 100% success rate.

Specialising in self-sabotage, Morgan is currently building a platform through which even more people can choose to have instant and lasting change and live the life they desire.

Stay informed of what is happening as well as upcoming visits to various countries around the world in 2012 and beyond. Go to www.epiclivingnow.com, follow him on twitter @EpicLivingNow, and like his page on facebook – Epic Living

Believe it or not

 in Guest Post  tagged Andy Lucas / beliefs / Bill O’Connell / business coach / business coaching / change / charging / Christian De Quincey / client / clients / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching courses / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / coaching training / executive coach / Frank Farrelly / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / limiting beliefs / Michale Neill / nlp coach / performance coaching / personal coach / personal development / Plato / resources / Richard Bandler / Robert Dilts / Spring to Mind / Thought / Timaeus / toolkit

In today’s guest post Andy Lucas shares his coaching and therapeutic experience as he focuses upon beliefs.

Believe it or not

by Andy Lucas

It seems to me beliefs are an intrinsic part of coaching and therapy, whether it be the belief by you, your client or both. And along the journey, during the dance between coach and client, all kinds of beliefs emerge, both generative and limiting.

So how do we help our clients to overcome limiting beliefs and to “power up” the generative ones?

When I completed my training all those years ago I remember being excited about using all the great stuff I’d learnt. But then as I actually worked with clients on a daily basis I didn’t always achieve the rate of change I’d anticipated. I sometimes got disappointed and even disillusioned about what I’d been taught, or at least what I thought I’d been taught.

Then things got really exciting because I became determined to understand what else I could do to become more confident about helping people. I became intrigued, even obsessed about the role of belief in coaching. As I investigated further I decided beliefs are probably just a string of thoughts giving meaning to what we see, feel and hear. As Plato wrote in Timaeus, we “should not look for anything more than a likely story”. And perhaps that’s all a belief is – “a likely story”.

If you’re going to make up stories then you might as well make them good ones.

As I continued to study and practise I began collecting a range of resources to work with beliefs. Some were just useful tips or ideas, others were entire approaches or techniques and all became part of an essential toolkit. And I wonder if this toolkit might help other coaches too.

BELIEF TOOLKIT (OR A FEW RULES IF YOU LIKE RULES)

Stay out of the way

A shamanic instructor once taught me the importance of staying out of the way when working with clients. Even though it can be tempting to offer advice or ask “content-leading questions” our work is generally more effective when we resist that temptation and allow our clients to generate their own solutions. So I have a rule for myself – do whatever it takes for the client to create their own generative beliefs. And if they’re thinking “stupid stuff” let them make it so stupid they find it impossible not to notice.

Get on with it

Belief follows experience so I reckon it’s a good idea to generate a rewarding experience for your client at the very first meeting. You want your client to believe in the work you do right? Creating a good experience for them at the outset is a good start, because experiences lead to belief. Perhaps there’s no better way to ensure your client believes in your work than to have them experience concrete or visible evidence at the very beginning. (And you might find you get to believe in yourself more too.)

Get out of your head.

I let loose my internal police from time to time, just to make sure I’m doing my job properly. And the chief asks me “Who are you treating, yourself or your client?” That’s all I need to hear to create total inner silence as the client begins to speak. I wonder what kind of ritual you might develop for yourself to create and maintain your external focus, the kind of state that has you pay close attention to your client’s communication.

Acknowledge the nature of belief.

Christian De Quincey in his book “Consciousness from Zombies to Angels” offers a simple seven step guide for “experience beyond belief”. Running through this process as a guided “closed eyes contemplation” can offer a useful foundation for your programme of coaching / therapy, because it gives the client an opportunity to develop flexibility in thinking and believing.

Do believing the client’s way

I like to find out how the client gets to be convinced about something, what they already believe strongly, how they “do believing strongly”. Help your client change their own beliefs, when they want to, by working with those structures of belief. I like Richard Bandler’s use of submodalities in belief change in his book “Get the Life You Want”, pages 19 to 30 Building New Beliefs: The Structure of Certainty”.

Notice the “degrees of belief”

Perhaps a client is presenting an analogue rather than digital function of belief. It isn’t necessarily a choice of believing or not believing. Maybe there is a scale. How does a given proposition measure up against hope, intent, fear? What is their attitude to it? Does the client have a scale and how do they move things on that scale.

Use the client’s believable inner voice

If a client wants to use compelling affirmations or self dialogue what kind of voice will have them pay attention and believe it? Michael Neill in his book “SuperCoach” demonstrates how to “make believe” something is true. In his exercise “Changing the Movie of Your Life” he illustrates a practical approach acknowledging the effect of the tone of the internal voice and of the kind of feelings when generating beliefs.

Use an outcome frame

When preparing a session I ask myself “What are you doing to help your client move their focus from beliefs about problems to beliefs about solutions?” Even though it can be tricky for a client to resist focusing on a limiting belief some conversational approaches do the job. Robert Dilts, in his book “Sleight of Mouth – The Magic of Conversational Belief Change”, uses conversational skills to shift attention from a “problem frame” to an “outcome frame”. You can also read about focusing on solutions in Bill O’Connell’s “Solution-Focused Therapy (Brief Therapies Series)”.

Have a laugh or quote someone else (or both)

Often the easiest way a client breaks free from the chains of an unwanted limiting belief is through humour. Frank Farrelly’s book “Provocative Therapy” is about using humour in therapy and coaching. Even though some examples in the book can be shocking it is still worth reading to explore the art of using humour to illicit rapid belief change. I often hedge my bets with this approach and start a potential piece of provocation by saying “If Frank Farrelly were here he might say to you…..”

Have a sing song

I think there’s a good song about most things. I don’t know if it has anything to do with coaching but it makes me feel good. And don’t we all owe it to our clients to do that? So here’s some music from the wonderful Jocelyn Brown called “Believe”. She says “ …. all you need to do is find a way”.

About the Author/Further Resources

Andy Lucas 2010 2Andy lives and works in Brighton. He is an NLP trainer (Society of NLP), coach, hypnotherapist and meditation instructor with a particular interest in Hawaiian Huna and Yoga Nidra.

Visit www.springtomind.co.uk for more details about Andy’s work.

Making the Most of Your Brand: YOU!

 in Guest Post  tagged behaviour / beliefs / brand / business coach / business coaching / charging / client / clients / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching courses / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / coaching training / executive coach / image / Jennifer Holloway / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / marketing / nlp coach / performance coaching / personal coach / personal development / reputation / selling / skills / value

In this week’s guest post Jennifer Holloway shares her expertise about what is your personal brand and some of the benefits you can get from personal branding.

Making the Most of Your Brand: YOU!

By Jennifer Holloway

Everyone has a personal brand – whether they know it or not; that mix of things that defines who you are and what you’re all about, including:

Your Values – the principles by which you live your life, the rules you use to define right and wrong. Think of these as the foundations on which your personal brand is built. For one of my clients, his values centred around an overarching desire to be genuine and honest whilst still showing empathy to others.

Your Beliefs – what you hold to be important to you, the things that motivate you to do what you do, that drive you to succeed. It could be money, it could be fame, it could be a wish to make a difference. So for instance, I had a client who felt you should always take responsibility and act as if someone is looking, even when they’re not.

Your Reputation – in a nutshell, what you’re known for. Looking at this in more traditional marketing terms, you might call this your strapline. I’ve generated a reputation as ‘The Antidote to Yes Men’ – saying what needs to be said and making things happen.

Your Behaviour – what you say and do that is an outward communication of those deeper values and beliefs. You could think about it as the three words they’d use to describe yourself. Just some of the words used by my clients have been ‘trailblazing’, ‘larger-than-life’, ‘dynamic’, ‘inspiring’, ‘rebel’, ‘connector’…the list goes on.

Your Skills – your strengths, your natural talents, the things you excel at doing. One way to think about this is to look at the things that others come to you for. When I worked in an office I became the ‘go to’ person for writing copy because of my way with words and a love of language (plus a qualification in editing which helped!)

And last, but certainly not least…

Your Image – not just how you look but how you sound as well. This tells people an awful lot about you and will usually tie back in to all the previous things. For instance, one director I worked with used his quirky cufflinks to add a bit of individuality, while another added a large sports watch to his pinstripes to give a hint to the fact he was a keen cyclist.

Put all those layers together and you have your personal brand and the great thing is that if you take the time to define exactly what that brand is and then learn how to promote that to your audiences, you’ll get payback – BIG TIME! Here are just 10 of the benefits of personal branding:

  1. Defining your personal brand gives you the confidence to be yourself.
  2. Being yourself is a lot easier than trying to be someone else.
  3. By focusing on what’s great you add clarity to your brand.
  4. You can also pinpoint the thing that really makes you stand out from the crowd.
  5. Promoting your personal brand helps you sell your benefits to your audiences.
  6. By selling the benefits people know what they’re buying into.
  7. Doing this consistently helps people to trust what they’re buying into.
  8. People like to put things into neat little boxes in their mind, so you give them the box to put you into.
  9. By having you in a neat box, it’s easier for people to sell you and your benefits to others.
  10. If you don’t do all of that, you’ll get left behind.

So do you know what your personal brand is?

About the Author/Further Resources

Jennifer HollowayWith a career including 15 years in the strategic PR and communications, Jennifer knows a thing or two about promoting a personal brand – she did it every time she picked up the phone to a journalist. The result? She stood out from the ‘press office crowd’ and got her stories on the front page as well as national TV.

When not making headlines Jennifer was mentoring and coaching colleagues and, sensing she had discovered a new passion, was inspired to change careers entirely, setting up her own personal brand coaching business, Spark.

Today, she is a personal brand expert, using her knack for spotting someone’s USP and her way with words to help them promote that in everything they say and do. Known as ‘The Antidote to Yes-Men’ her down-to-earth, straight talking, honest style delivers real value by helping today’s leaders discover how, by being themselves, they can be even more successful.

And when she’s not doing all that, Jennifer is living her version of The Good Life, pottering around the garden in her anorak and wellies, keeping bees and feeding chickens – and occasionally sipping a nice glass of Rioja while listening to The Archers.

Visit Jennifer’s website at www.sparkexec.co.uk

Once upon a time…! 2

 in Guest Post  tagged attitudes / awareness / behaviours / beliefs / business coach / business coaching / charging / client / clients / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching courses / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / coaching training / decisions / executive coach / Frederique Murphy / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / metaphor / nlp coach / performance coaching / personal coach / personal development / states / stories

In this weeks Friday guest post, Frederique Murphy would like to tell us a story and discusses metaphors.

Once upon a time…!

By Frederique Murphy

I’ve been very much looking forward to writing this blog post and as I could see the date, fast approaching, I had decided to be open and only decide on what I was going to write about this week! I knew (that is a decision made on faith) that something would inspire me 😉

And, of course, here I am, I believe I have found the perfect topic to write about and I am delighted to share this post with you as I know that these words “Once upon a time…!” are key when working with your clients.

You see, earlier on this week, I participated in my first ever marathon. And, while I could write a post (which, by the way, I will more than likely do!) about running a marathon and the dozens of business parallels that exist, I’d like to look at the bigger picture and write about how you, as a coach or a coach-to-be, can use stories and metaphors during your sessions with your clients.

Stories and metaphors are phenomenally powerful and when used appropriately and with a clear outcome in mind, there are simply brilliant to help your client with whatever it is you are helping them with.

So, Once upon a time…!

And then, what, why and how, you may ask!

Let’s start at the beginning and define what we are looking at:

Story is a common term for a description of a sequence of events, or a statement regarding the facts pertinent to a situation in question. (Wikipedia)

A metaphor is a figure of speech that constructs an analogy between two things or ideas; the analogy is conveyed by the use of a metaphorical word in place of some other word. (Wikipedia)

The reason why I love using stories and metaphors with my clients is 2-fold.

On one hand, using stories and metaphors, during your sessions can help you, help your clients change, shift, transform, facilitate, expand, take action; all of these impacting their states, awareness, attitudes, beliefs, decisions, and behaviours; so, VERY powerful, right?

On the other hand, it makes you unique 😉 Now, what I mean by that, is while telling stories and metaphors will not make you unique in itself, by you telling your own stories and your own metaphors is unique. You and only you can draw from your own real-life stories and leverage these in your coaching practice and no one out there can utilise these events, and situations with the same power. Your past experiences make you unique and as a coach, you can leverage these events and situations and use them when working with your clients.

Personally, I like to create my metaphors on real-life stories. While there are books given you stories and metaphors you can use, I prefer to use my own stories and create my own metaphors as I feel that it creates a stronger experience for both the coach and the client.

Remember, feelings are powerful, and whatever state you want your client to be in, the faster way to induce that state is to be in it yourself; i.e., when I’ll explain that amazing feeling of crossing that finish line, after I ran, jogged and walked for 26.2 miles / 42 kilometres, I can guarantee you that I know I will be in that state, and my client will be there with me.

So, when you are with a client, and you suddenly feel that this is what you need, you can draw, very naturally, from your own experiences and help your clients get where they want to be.

Here are a couple of things to consider when creating your metaphors:

  • what are the states you want to induce in your client?
  • what are the themes you want to leverage with your client?
  • what are the key messages you want your client to take onboard?
  • what is it that you want your client to feel and then do as a result?

And, while telling your stories and metaphors:

  • use a variety of tones,
  • use sensory language (hear, feel, see, touch, taste, smell),
  • use humour (where appropriate!),

and, enjoy!

So, there you have it 😉

Most importantly, have fun and enjoy the process. Think back of your stories, think of the states, themes, key messages and go for it, trust your gut-feeling, you will know which story, which metaphor to use to help your client.

…And they lived happily ever after!

About the Author/Further Resources

Frederique Murphy

Combining her business expertise, having been a business consultant for over 10 years, working on multi-millions programmes around the world and running a successful 6-figure business (she hit that figure within 9-months in business and then doubled it within the following 6 months!) and her mind expertise, being an international licensed NLP Master Practitioner & NLP Mind Coach, Frederique has developed the “Mountain Moving Mindset” programme, where she empowers business owners, entrepreneurs and solo-preneurs to master their mindset, so that they can move mountains and bring their businesses to the next level!

She shares her M3 programme through her mentoring & coaching packages, published articles, blog, newsletters, and live events, where she passionately teaches and uniquely transfers the same skills, attitudes and systems that work for her to the business owners ready to reach new heights!

Coaching Beliefs 6

 in Coaching  tagged beliefs / business coach / business coaching / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching courses / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / coaching training / executive coach / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / limiting beliefs / performance coaching / personal coach / personal development

If you’ve done any kind of reading around the topic of coaching, or even attending a training or two you’ve probably come across the mention of beliefs.

If you have already done some work with clients, or observed another coach at work you’ve probably experienced first hand how someone’s beliefs can influence the experience of a situation and their behaviour.

It’s not just your client’s beliefs that can affect the direction that a coaching session takes – your beliefs about coaching can also have an effect. This is not necessarily a bad thing but knowing what these are will let you utilise these to strengthen your work as a coach.

It will also aid you to set your potential clients expectations of what working with you is like and potentially help you in choosing the clients you want to work with and those you want to refer elsewhere.

Some of the beliefs you have may have been ones that you got from the training you have attended. You may have attended a coach training that left you with a belief that to be a coach you never give advice. Perhaps there is a different belief that you were taught – maybe something about the correct way to market yourself etc.

This isn’t a piece about how beliefs are formed or how to change limiting beliefs. This is an invitation for anyone who coaches to become aware (using whatever method, techniques or questions they want) to the beliefs that you have about coaching and what it means to be a coach.

From there you can choose to play with any beliefs you have, if they are working the way you’d like and decide if you want to keep them – or not.

One of the beliefs that I have is that the more exposure to different approaches, attitudes and techniques, the more flexibility a coach has when working with a client. For me, that’s a useful belief. I believe that the flexibility means I can tailor-make the work I do specifically to the individual and offer a bespoke service. It also has the extra benefit that I meet and connect with some fascinating people.

That belief in the importance of a range of opinions etc is also why I’m inviting a different guest author to post on a Friday. If you are interested in becoming a guest author please contact me. Perhaps you want to share what some of your beliefs are, or to cover something entirely different you think would be of interest to coaches/ those interested in coaching.