executive coach

Decisions, decisions, decisions 1

 in Guest Post  tagged business coach / business coaching / charging / chunking / client / clients / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching courses / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / coaching training / Confidence After Cancer / executive coach / future pace / Gabby Mottershead / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / nlp coach / Parts Integration / performance coaching / personal coach / personal development / questioning / reframe / resources / self sabotage Ralph Waldo Emerson / test / Tony Robbins / Visual squash

Coach Gabby Mottershead shares, in this week’s guest post, a technique she’s used with a client feeling overwhelmed.

Decisions, decisions, decisions

by Gabby Mottershead

‘It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped’ according to Tony Robbins. I have been thinking about him a lot recently as I am working as crew at his Unleash the Power weekend in London soon. I am very excited about this, his events are always amazing. As well as helping the attendees with their goals, I know it will be a great time for me to reflect upon my own journey, and also to connect with some great people.

Helping clients who are stuck with decisions they want to make is an area I get a lot of personal satisfaction from. I know it is sometime easy to feel overwhelmed with the amount of choices we have to make, and many people feel paralysed, unable to choose between two equally great choices, or two equally unappealing ones. This week I had a great result with a client using ‘Parts Integration’, also known as ‘Visual Squash’

This tool is very useful for coaching clients who have decisions to make, and let’s face it, that is most of them.

If you are not familiar with it the process is:

1. Identify the conflict and the issues involved

Key Questions: What does that give you? What’s important to you about that?

2. Create a visual image of each issue and place one in each hand

3. Separate intention from behaviour

a. Reframe (through questioning, what does this issue really mean) each part through chunking-up (getting to the ‘big picture’, the client starts with saying that they want a promotion, the key questions result in the client realising that they want to feel loved. Keep questioning until you find the ‘common intention’ of both sides of the dilemma, this is always the result that they want, which is usually a feeling.

A good example of this is ‘I need to earn more money’ being the issue. Questioning elicits that this means ‘visiting my son in Australia’, which means ‘I can feel loved and know I am a good mother’, which means ‘this will make me feel loved’ much more compelling, and once the client is conscious that this is the driving force, other solutions may appear to them.

b. Identify what resources (skills, knowledge, memories, etc) each side has that would be useful to the other part in achieving their highest intention

4. Suggest hands come together while the two images come together through a series of images that create a third image that is an integration of the two

5. Bring the third ‘integrated’ representation inside

6. Check ecology, to the coach shifts in thinking are very obvious, red faces are common!

7. Test and future pace

Once you have those key words from step 1, it is quite easy to play those back to the client as the driving forces behind the course of action that is right for them

Not only is this good for clients, it is a very playful way to work on your own decisions to be made. I realise that I suffer with serial incongruity, in plain English, I repeat the same patterns in my own behaviour, and just one example is yo-yo dieting. I believe once you recognise these patterns, it is easy to change them; it is recognising them that can be a challenge.

An interesting twist I was recently introduced to was the assertion that there is no thing as self sabotage, only competing intentions. Mmmm some coaches I know talk at length about the self saboteur, so who is right?

I would say, whatever works for you.

I hope this is useful, thanks to Kate Trafford for reminding me about this tool.

I would love to hear from other coaches who use this model, I love it.

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

About the Author/Further Resources

Gabby Mottershead, founder of Confidence After Cancer, an organisation that provides coaching and support for women after cancer treatment.

Gabby was inspired to start this support and coaching non profit based on her own experience, she was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive breast cancer in 2008 aged 44. Following chemotherapy, surgeries, and radiotherapy, she suffered with depression and lack of confidence .She realised that there is lots of support for cancer patients during their treatment, but when that ends you are very much alone. She started to connect with other people on Facebook, and set up a support group, and was stunned by the numbers of women who contacted her saying they felt the same, and had nowhere to turn to.

It is a sobering fact that that breast cancer survivors are 37 percent more likely to commit suicide, and depression and anxiety are common (Source the Journal of Cancer Institute) and that this elevated risk continues for at least 25 years after diagnosis.

Gabby provides 121 and group coaching and has been approached by local hospitals to run sessions for them, as the medical teams acknowledge that they are not able to support cancer survivors in the way that they would like to.

Gabby is passionate about holistic care, Reiki, NLP and her mission is to inspire healthy minds and healthy bodies.

Follow her

Twitter : @gabbymot

Blog: http://gabbymottershead.wordpress.com/

Website : www.confidenceac.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/ConfidenceAfterCancer

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall, Who Is The Best Of Them All? 1

 in Guest Post  tagged awareness / business coach / business coaching / charging / client / clients / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching courses / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / coaching training / executive coach / Frederique Murphy / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / mirror / Mountain Moving Mindset / nlp coach / performance coaching / personal coach / personal development / refer / style

Coach Frederique Murphy shares her expertise and knowledge in today’s guest post as she asks:

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall, Who Is The Best Of Them All?

by Frederique Murphy

As coaches, I think that it is very important for each of us to know our coaching style, and I mean, to really to know it. Knowing your coaching style inside-out will enable you to optimise your coaching abilities, and as a result, maximise your results with your clients.

What is interesting, is while there have been some coaching styles, identified in previous researches, white papers, studies, my view is that there are as many coaching styles as there are stars in the sky, and each style has its weaknesses and strengths. You see, each of you have your own style; you are your very own individual, and as a coach, this is reflected in your way of being, you way of doing, your way of acting, your way of working: in a nutshell, your coaching style.

As coaches, we have all learned how to be coaches, and, I believe that — no matter, what course, qualification, certification, diploma, degree…, you’ve undertaken — our very own unique coaching style, while existing from the very first session, will continue to grow throughout our coaching career, as we continue to learn, stretch and grow as individuals.

So, do increase your awareness and find out as much as you can, about your coaching style; the more you consciously know about it, the best relationships and results you will get and the more apt you will be in conveying your methods and ways to your leads and clients.

(Note, it would be impossible to do a thorough list, so this is not an exhaustive list!)

Do you talk?

Do you ask questions?

Do you interrupt?

Do you use humour?

Do you use authority?

Do you speak firmly?

Do you give tough love?

Do you shock?

Do you push?

Do you nudge?

Do you guide?

Do you recommend?

Do you hold accountability?

etc, etc, etc…

As coaches, we mostly do all of these; the differences, depending on your coaching style, is in the “How much?”:

How much do you talk?

How much do you ask questions?

How much do you interrupt?

How much do you use humour?

How much do you use authority?

How much do you speak firmly?

How much do you give tough love?

How much do you shock?

How much do you push?

How much do you nudge?

How much do you guide?

How much do you recommend?

How much do you hold accountability?

etc, etc, etc…

And, know that your coaching style will not suit everyone. And I am not using the word everyone as in everyone in the world, I also mean, as in, everyone, within your focused and targeted audience.

For instance, if you target male adults, who are transitioning out of their “9-5 job” and moving to entrepreneurship, while this audience shows that you have a targeted audience, still, be ready, that all of the people who match this description will not, and I am going to use a word, you might not like, will not like you as their coach.

Accept this and move forward; the happier, more fulfilled, more satisfied your relationship is with your clients, the best they are getting from you, and this shows that your style is suiting them.

There are several processes and systems you can have in place in your coaching practice, to try as much as possible to find these good matches. The reason why I use the word try is that I believe that there is not a way to know at 100% before starting coaching a client, if this is going to be a good match. I also believe, that as you go from new to the coaching world to becoming an experienced coach, you will get close to that 100%. There are a few things you can do: before starting working together, and before your first coaching session, have a conversation, where you will be able to ask questions; you can also, request for your prospective client to fill in a questionnaire. Having both the conversation and the questionnaire, will give you a lot of answers, even before starting working together. And, once you start, remember, to have the necessary documentation in place, from contract and terms and conditions, to frames and well defined outcomes.

But, I hear you say, “but I want to help them all!”

Here is what you can do: first, and preferably, do not, this will not end well, for both you, and the client you took on; second, sometimes, no matter what filters you use, this will happen, and as you are very well aware of your style, very soon in the relationship you will notice some signs, some behaviours, that will indicate to you, that the relationship is not working. As coaches, our main primary intent, is for the client to get what they need, right? And, sometimes, as hard as it may sound, it is up to the coach, you, to realise that you might not be what they need.

When this happens, refer your client to another coach. Remember, another coach, will have a different style, and that style might suit your client better. One thing, I want to add: it is not because you do not like other styles, that you should avoid referring clients to other coaches, with different coaching styles; I know it might read funny, at first, but think about it. You more than likely coach the way you would personally like to be coached, but do not let your own needs shadow your judgement and your client might absolutely love this other coach, while, you would more than likely not, see what I mean? Have your client’s best interest at heart, and refer to the best coach for them.

So, remember:

Your coaching style will be the best for some, and completely clash for others.

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall, Who Is The Best Of Them All?

You, my coach, are the best of all.

BUT, You are not a one size fits all.

About the Author/Further Resources

FrederiqueMurphy EventB MediumFrederique Murphy is a business mindset strategist, who founded her business to focus on her passion: transformation! Thanks to her Mountain Moving Mindset programme, Frederique empowers business owners, entrepreneurs, and corporate executives to master their mindset, so that they can move mountains and bring their life and their business to a whole new level! She shares her M3 Power through her coaching and mentoring packages, her published books & articles, her award-winning blog and newsletters, and her unique live events. For more information on Frederique’s transformational range of products and services, visit FrederiqueMurphy.com, get your free M3 Power, and start climbing now!

 

 

Is it history?

 in General life improvement  tagged business coach / business coaching / career coaching / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching content / coaching courses / coaching qualifications / coaching session / coaching skills / coaching techniques / executive coach / history / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / perception / performance coaching / personal development / resource / time

This was originally published as a bonus article in the Coaching Confidence weekly email during May 2011. To start getting your very own copy each week enter your details under “Don’t miss a thing!” to the right of this page.

Is it history?

One of the subjects I studied at university was history. There are skills, methods of analysis and approaches that I still use in my day-to-day life which may not be obvious.

There are also other skills and knowledge that I learnt directly from studying that subject which are far more obvious. For example an ongoing project has been researching my own family history – knowing my way round certain historical records is rather helpful for that.

I’m also involved in recording onto databases certain historical records to make them more accessible and easily searchable. Some of these records are hand written, while others may be typed. They are all from a past era in time and it can take some time to become familiar with the language that is being used.

I don’t mean that the records that I’m working on are written in a language other than English – there is just specific terminology that can take some interpretation.

Some documents can be really easy to understand and interpret. Others can take longer as I adjust to someone’s particular handwriting style or the abbreviations they may have been using.

Projects can be a straightforward list of names etc and can be more repetitive in the work needed as well as more superficial with your understanding of the data. Others involve far more involvement.

One of the projects that I recently did was make a record of names that appeared in newspapers. This was an African American paper from the turn of the 20th century and there was a story within one of the pages that recorded disturbances after a mesmerism act had visited town.

It appeared that some of the local youths had learnt some mesmerism skills and had used these for their own amusement. An example of a disturbance was one boy who stood up and shouted in Sunday school every time a particular phrase was used!

I’d be very surprised if at the time the instigator of this act would imagine that in over 100 years time someone would be reading about their exploits and sharing the account with others.

I also wonder if those who had been upset by the situation would still have the same feelings if they were looking back on it from 100 plus years into the future – would it still seem important to them?

As a coach I have seen plenty of clients make use of the benefit of hindsight – both actual and when someone imagines looking back at an event from the future. You may even have guided a client to think of something in the past and seen the difference it made to them.

As an individual I also know that sometimes just taking that step back from a situation, often makes it seem far less significant or scary. It can also put things into a much wider context.

Today I invite you to play with the following:

  1. Pick a situation or scenario that you are currently stuck with or want a new perspective.
  2. Make sure that you are in an environment where it is safe for you to be distracted – for example do not do this when driving a car!
  3. Imagine that you have somehow travelled 100+ years into the future and someone else is reading an account of that situation
  4. From this new perspective, 100 + years into the future, notice what your thoughts are now.
  5. From 100 + years in the future become aware of any advice/action you would share with the you from 2012.
  6. When you are ready bring your attention fully back to 2012, bringing any observations and advice back with you that you want to and is appropriate.

Feel free to take any action you want to with your new perspective.

Love

Jen

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.

April “From Non-Coach to Coach Discovery Sessions” now available

 in live event / Resource / site news  tagged business coach / business coaching / career coaching / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching content / coaching courses / coaching qualifications / coaching session / coaching skills / coaching techniques / discovery session / executive coach / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / non-coach / performance coaching / personal development / resource

Are you transitioning, or thinking of moving from being a Non-Coach to a Coach?

Are you uncertain about how you will do that?

One big problem I’ve noticed that many coaches struggle with is the transition between being a non-coach to a coach.

They’re often busy focusing upon what they think they “should” be doing. They either miss the chances to serve (and even profit) from opportunities already waiting for them or they are too scared to take the next step.

I love to be of service to coaches, particularly those who are just starting out on their coaching journey like you! So I’ve created a special 1 hour session to help with this problem, my From Non-Coach to Coach Discovery Session.

Scheduling wise I can only offer a set number of these sessions a month but they are open to all. I’m now taking bookings for April calls.

Your consultation will be laser-focused on 1 thing, and 1 thing only: You becoming the coach you want to be.

You get my expertise, loving strong coaching, AND specific action steps to move you forward quickly. Together, we’ll …

  • Create a crystal-clear vision of exactly what being a coach means for you and how it fits with your business and lifestyle goals.
  • Clarify exactly what’s been holding you back from making that transition to become a coach and why you are not already serving clients.
  • Identify the next action step(s) for you to take so you can easily make that transition from non-coach to coach

I’ll lay out specific action steps for you, and finally, I will make at least one coach’s request to you to get you going. And the best part?

Your 60-minute From Non-Coach to Coach Discovery Session is absolutely FREE

If you are longing to step up, get out there, start getting clients, start making money AND be of greater service to the world …you can see what a tremendous opportunity this is!

The only “catch” is … you have to act fast to get one of this month’s sessions!

To claim one of these FREE sessions, here’s all you need to do:

The first of two steps to booking your from Non-Coach to Coach Discovery session is to answer the questions below.

The second stage is selecting a time that works for us both, once you have submitted your answers you will be directed to a site to book a specific time for our call.

[si-contact-form form=’9′]

Identifying When Clients Need Counseling

 in Guest Post  tagged Antoinette Knights / business coach / business coaching / charging / client / clients / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching courses / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / coaching training / counseling / Dr. Jeffrey E. Auerbach / executive coach / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / Life in Process / nlp coach / performance coaching / personal coach / personal development / psychotherapy

In this week’s guest post Coach Toni Knights discusses what she considers to identify when it is necessary to refer clients for additional help.

Identifying When Clients Need Counseling

by Toni Knights

How do you know whether your client needs coaching or counseling? People sometimes come to us under the guise of coaching when they really need therapy/counseling. As coaches, we’ve been told a thousand times over that coaching is not counseling/therapy; but how do we know when our client needs which service?

Dr. Jeffrey E. Auerbach says, “The essential difference most often cited between psychotherapy and coaching is that psychotherapy usually focuses on resolving illness or trauma, whereas coaching focuses on enhancing achievement and fulfillment in a generally well-functioning person.” (Auerbach)

Albeit, whether we have been coaching for one year or twenty years, it is important that we be ever mindful of the differences; and even though coaching and therapy can occur simultaneously, one must not be used to replace the other. Blurred lines can confuse our clients and ultimately would not benefit them. Here are some tips which can help us steer our clients in the right direction:

  • During the first contact, clarify the following:

……………………• Why client thinks you can help.
……………………• Explain what coaching IS and IS NOT.

  • Review the initial coaching questionnaire carefully. The answers given on this form can act as a catalyst for ensuing conversations. (Note the importance of having a detailed initial questionnaire in your welcome package.)
  • Listen for key words/statements during the dialogue which may indicate the client’s understanding of the coaching relationship. His/her answers should cause us to ask ourselves one of two questions – ‘Why does he/she do what he/she does?’ or ‘What life changes does he/she want to make?’ If your question begins with ‘why’ then your client might benefit from therapy. If your question begins with ‘what’, it is safe to conclude that the client is ready for coaching.
  • In order to further confirm your assessment, use tact to find out about:

……………………• Drug use
……………………• Depression or feeling down within the past six months
……………………• History of mental illness in immediate family

As coaches, our helping arsenal should include contact information for myriad professionals including psychologists, therapists and/or counselors [and we must not be afraid to use them]. According to Daniel H. Pink, “It’s the coach’s job to help people clarify, to see through stuff and help them become who they really are.” Although there are many therapists who are also coaches, if you are not a trained mental health professional do not attempt to simultaneously counsel and coach your client. To this end, we must trust our judgment and know when it is necessary to refer our clients for additional help.

About the Author/Further Resources

Toni Knights is a Christian Life Coach who runs the coaching practice “Life In Process.” She also facilitates workshops that focus upon self improvement.

You can read her weekly blog at http://justthinking-knightstoni.blogspot.com.

Marketing and your Ideal Client 1

 in Guest Post  tagged business coach / business coaching / charging / Cindy Hillsey / client / clients / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching courses / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / coaching training / executive coach / ideal client / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / market niche / marketing / niche market / nlp coach / performance coaching / personal coach / personal development / target market / Virtual Partnering

How to market your coaching is a often requested topic, in today’s guest post coach Cindy Hillsey shares her expertise and knowledge in:

Marketing and your Ideal Client

By Cindy Hillsey

Ideal Client. Target Market. Niche Market. They all mean the same thing, right? Wrong!

And this, I believe, is where the confusion sets in for many business owners. How many times have you read an article, attended a seminar, and/or just had a conversation with someone where all three of these terms are used interchangeably? I’ll bet by now you don’t even hear those words anymore. And if you do, do you really understand what they mean and how they apply to your business? Unless you are clear about what these terms mean for your business, you will more than likely struggle with marketing your business.

I have a number of clients who contact me with what they call ‘marketing problems’. They are having a difficult time filling their practice. During our conversations, I find they don’t really have a marketing problem so much as they have an Ideal Client problem. They are trying to be everything to everyone. When I ask them who their Ideal Client is I am usually given a broad, vague answer such as: women, or women in transition, or Coaches, etc.. While that sounds great, it doesn’t tell me who your Ideal Client is and why she’s ideal.

If you don’t know who you are doing what to, how can you do it? And therein lies the real problem: It’s not about marketing, but about knowing who you are marketing to and why at a deep core level.

Let’s talk a bit more about Target Market, Niche Market, and Ideal Client. These terms do not mean the same thing. Please don’t confuse them as they serve different functions.

Target Market – This is a grouping based on one or more common characteristics. For example, age, sex, location, occupation, product purchases, etc.

Niche – This is primarily an occupational grouping. For example, Sports Channels, Financial Planners, Coaches, CPAs, VAs, etc.

Ideal Client – This is the person (and yes I am going to refer to this as one person even though you will have several of the one person) who you connect with at your core. This is the person you know extremely well, so well, in fact, that you can list their problems as though they were your own problems. You understand their values, desires, beliefs, as well as you understand your own. It is because of this deep understanding that you are able to offer effective solutions and/or guidance to your Ideal Client.

Here’s a visual of the above:

Target market, Niche market and Ideal client by Cindy Hillsey

It is this concept around the Ideal Client that will allow you to address the problems of your Ideal Client, offer solutions to your Ideal Client, and create the content on your website that speaks to your Ideal Client. In turn, this will allow you to market more effectively and easily. Once you know who are doing what to the rest of your marketing becomes easier.

Let’s take a moment and review some essential elements of the Ideal Client:

  • It’s counter-intuitive in the sense that it is most effective when your Ideal Client is highly specific and narrow.
  • When you try to be everything to everybody, you end being nothing to anybody.
  • There is a common center of interest and/or lifestyle of your Ideal Client.
  • Your Ideal Client exists in a sufficient quantity.
  • Your Ideal Client has the ability to pay you.
  • (Hint) Your Ideal Client is really you on some level!

What does having an Ideal Client do for you and your business?

  • An Ideal Client provides you with a clear vision and an obvious focus.
  • It enhances your credibility and your reputation.
  • It increases the demand for your services because of the specialized market.
  • It greatly simplifies marketing and increases your return on investment (ROI).
  • It provides a firm base from which you can expand your business.

So, how do you go about determining who your Ideal Client is? One way I would suggest is for you to write a story about your Ideal Client. Give him/her a name, an education, a family life (single or not), a social life, a business, and write about the problems they have in their business that you can help them solve. Get very detailed. Let me repeat that…get very detailed. I want you to know this person like you know your family!

These questions should help you begin to craft your Ideal Client:

1. What are the basic characteristics of your Ideal Client? (demographics, age, gender, salary, education, location, etc.)

2. Who are your clients? Are they business executives, artists, small business owners, micro business owners?

3. What kind of values does your ideal client have? Do these values match yours?

4. What exactly do your Ideal Clients do? How do they need your help? (Be very specific in your answers to these two questions.)

5. How do your Ideal Clients treat you? Do they pay on time? Do they understand you are a business owner and treat you as such?

Whether you know exactly who your Ideal Client is or not, please take the time to answer the above questions so that the next time you are asked, “Who is your Ideal Client? You can answer them without hesitation!

About the Author/Further Resources

Cindy Hillsey, CPC, ACC, is a Creative Small Business Coach and the owner of Virtual Partnering, based in Grand Rapids, MI. Cindy has an extensive background in small business, both online and offline. By combining her experience, business skills, and her coaching skills, she is able to offer her clients a unique perspective to help them achieve their business goals. She coaches women entrepreneurs who wish to express their creativity through their business by helping them put a solid business foundation in place step-by-step so that they can grow their business while fostering their creativity.

Cindy holds a Bachelor of Science in Management from Davenport University. She is a certified coach through the International Coach Academy. Along with being a member of the International Coach Federation (ICF), she holds the Associate Certified Coach designation through the ICF. In addition, Cindy is currently working on obtaining her Certified Coach designation through the Creativity Coaching Association.

Cindy’s websites:

www.virtualpartnering.com

www.chatsondemand.com

Connect with me:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cindyhillsey

Twitter: http://twitter.com/cindyhillsey

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/cindyhillsey

Using quotes in coaching – remembering them in the first place

 in Coaching  tagged business coach / business coaching / career coaching / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching content / coaching courses / coaching qualifications / coaching session / coaching skills / coaching techniques / executive coach / leadership coaching / learning / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / memory / performance coaching / personal development / quotes / resource

In last week’s coaching post I asked “Do you use quotes in your coaching?” In that post I talked about why you may want to use a quote in a coaching session.

I was then asked a great question on twitter about if I had any tips about how to remember quotes. Many potential answers sprang to mind, all longer than the 140 characters I can use in a tweet so today’s coaching post was born. Feel free to add your own method and thoughts at the end of today’s post.

I will share some ways that I personally have used to remember quotes as well as offering some thoughts around this in general. As you read this, I invite you to notice which ones are most appealing to you.

Firstly, don’t presume that you have to remember them word for word to be able to use a quote. I know that may seem an odd place to start in a post about remembering quotes but I think it’s worth pointing out. There are several situations that can let you refer to a written form of the quote.

This may be down to the situation that you are coaching around. I used the example last week of coaching a customer-facing employee in a business where you may choose to quote a specific customer – is that a quote you wrote down at the time of observation, or is it a quote that you have taken from a written piece of feedback etc?

Can you incorporate reading a quote directly? Either from notes you use/take during a session or other methods.

For example, if you coach via the phone, can you pin some quotes within sight to glance at when needed? If you have written the quote down/it’s in a book, could you just reach out from where you are working and grab that so you can read out the quote?

Be prepared. Perhaps your client sent you a completed pre-session preparation/ exercise of some form in advance and a particular quote sprang to mind as you read it. What’s stopping you from having that quote to hand to use in case it’s still relevant when you talk to that client?

Last week I also spoke about using quotes to “borrow authority” to focus your clients attention or increase their willingness to answer a question or do an exercise. It can be used as a convincer to add extra-perceived credibility. If this is an exercise that requires you to print materials, could you add the quote onto the page in advance?

Make use of the strategies you already use when you coach – if you make a point of using the precise language and phrasing that a client uses, how do you do that? How can you use that same approach to use the same precise language and phrasing in a particular quote?

How much attention to quotes are you paying? It’s a lot easier to recognise that you are using quotes if you have acknowledged that they are quotes in the first place. 🙂 It’s also easier to remember to use “a quote” if you have mentally thought of that phrase/saying etc as a quote.

Over the years I have used various methods that have led to me memorising quotes. Some of these methods have been a conscious attempt to easily recall a quote. On other occasions it’s just been a by-product of another event/activity.

Some of the most popular tweets that get shared from this blogs twitter feed come from song lyrics, films and TV. Consider the quotes you already have in your memory.

When I was still in education, one of the ways I revised for my history exams was to learn various quotes to back up various historical perspectives of events. I had turned this into a game – I wrote each quote on it’s own card, the quote on one side and a brief description on the other. I could then use those as a memory aid and just play, often involving repeating what was on the card.

On other occasions I’d use them to play and draw “Pictionary” style representations of the quote that stuck in my memory (often because they just looked ridiculous, after all I was studying history not art 😉 )

I also remember learning one set of quotes stood in a different location in the room – so when I came to recall the quote I imagined standing in the location that I’d connected to that phrase. I was even known at one stage to replace the lyrics of songs with the quotes instead.

I’ve also found that I’ve learnt quotes purely because I’ve heard or seen something over and over again – maybe because it’s stuck to the wall in a prominent place. Perhaps I’ve heard someone else say it many, many, times over.

My suggestion would be if you decide to actively memorise quotes to use a method that appeals to you and is fun and easy for you.

What other methods would you add to these suggestions? Has something popped into your mind as you read this that you want to go and play with?

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.

Do you need a gallery floor plan in your life?

 in General life improvement  tagged business coach / business coaching / career coaching / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching content / coaching courses / coaching qualifications / coaching session / coaching skills / coaching techniques / executive coach / explore / floor plan / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / national gallery / performance coaching / personal development / plan / resource

This was originally published as a bonus article in the Coaching Confidence weekly email during September 2011. To start getting your very own copy each week enter your details under “Don’t miss a thing!” to the right of this page.

Do you need a gallery floor plan in your life?

Over the summer I visited the National Gallery in London with my sister. For one reason or another it’s a venue that I had never previously visited.

If, like me, it’s somewhere you haven’t set foot inside, let me briefly explain. The National Gallery houses the national collection of Western European painting from the 13th to the 19th centuries. It is on show 361 days a year, free of charge. I’m told you can see over 2300 on display.

Generally the art is arranged chronologically, geographically and by style throughout 70+ different rooms. Rather than using a map we thought we would logically visit each room and browse all the pieces on display.

The main building was opened in 1831 with extra wings added at later stages. Rooms are numbered and on a map appear to be relatively logically ordered. However, without the benefit of the floor plan, because of the building layout you may find yourself walking from room 25 into 28 with no sign of room 26.

We were not alone in standing slightly bemused in fantastic surroundings but in a spot where we could choose to go in at least four different directions.

Personally I enjoyed exploring and the unpredictable journey we ended up taking to visit each room. It also reminded me about this can often be the approach that we take when working on a project or goal in our own life. We may have established what we want but then not look at a plan for where to go next.

Some people will love that approach and exploring and yet others find it very frustrating. Personally, I think it’s whatever works for you and what you want, keeping the flexibility to use both approaches as you see fit!

This week I invite you to consider a project you have been working on – have you identified a plan?

If so, and it’s not working, what would happen if you allowed some time to explore?

If not, and you feel it’s not working, what would happen if you did find/create a plan to follow to the next stage?

Have a week full of exploring,

Love

Jen

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.