Coach Application:
Activities To Help Clients With the Process:
- Client as vehicle for action towards goal-realization: I usually ask the client to visualize that they are standing on a point overlooking far-fetched goals/ dreams. I highlight that if they want to get to those dreams geographically, what is needed is to make an action to get from A (Client) to B (Goals). So unless the client does not get inside a vehicle and move toward their goals/ destination, client may remain in the initial observer/ wishful status, represented as point A.
- Visualization board followed by a How-To-Get-There strategy.
- Action plan, accountability and follow up. Acknowledgement for baby steps is required in most cases, until client is independently capable of generating inner willpower to move on.
- Landscape view exercise: Client guided to visualize that they are overlooking a landscape. What they are seeing and how they can get there?
- What if & Yeah Buts exercise: Getting client to list all the Yeah But statements, such as “I want to do that but….”. Then, I would tear upthe initial paper with the What Ifs, and replace it with several What ifquestions, such as: “What if you really got there. How does it feel? What are you wearing/doing at that point?” questions.
Powerful Questions:
- How are you planning to get there without making an action?
- If you can imagine you are at cross-roads, which direction do you wish toditch, and which one you want to take?
How the two perspectives inform what we do:
Based on experience, it has been important to note that– despite helping clients gain awareness around the obstacles/ challenges that stand in the way of their progress, clients still were categorized in two separate cognitive levels in terms of evading making an action:
- Evading as a result of client not knowing (not fully aware), therefore,not making an action.
- Evading as a result of client knowing (fully aware) and yet not making an action.
The common factor between them is that they are both evading making an action, despite the fact that they generally know what their problem is.
Clients who do not know and are not making an action:
Client may seek the help of a coach around a certain problem, yet they maybe completely ignorant of its causes and its solutions. Here, the coach can help heighten client’s awareness around the entire picture of the problem,
i.e. all sides of the problem, and try to generate along with the client a strategy to tackle each side with appropriate solutions.
Example 1: Client may be a manager who witnesses a high turn-over in his/her department. S/he knows a change in the way they are managing their staff has to be made, yet s/he is completely oblivious to what is repelling their most qualified employees as well as the newly employed ones from the company. Coach may use role-play to help client gain more awareness around the behaviors and actions the client is choosing to tackle certain problems presented by those employees.
Example 2: A couple may seek the help of a coach in the amendment of theirrelationship with their teen. The parents may not be aware of the way they are repelling their teens.
Clients who know and are not making an action:
Client may come to the coach knowing roughly what the causes behind theirmain problem, yet s/he may not be aware/ knowledgeable of ways to solvetheir problems, nor how s/he can attain their goals.
These clients evaded making an action as a key result of ignorance in someor all sides of the problem, and may not have all possible solutions for themain problem. Also, lack of motivation or willpower may also be strong inhibitors.
Example 1: A client may seek the help of a coach to lose weight. A client knows they had to lose weight, and they knew they probably had to follow adiet and exercise to do that, yet they were not aware that the real problemwas their fear of making a change in their self-image, or that they did not wish to look attractive in public (due to previous harassment, religious reasons, etc.) Clients here know what they are supposed to be doing, yet they are evading making an action about it.
Example 2: A client may know that they look obese and are probably categorized as so, on the health chart and they may vaguely know that obesity is harmful of their health. Yet, they are evading making an action because change seems scary, and they may not seriously wish to get outsidetheir comfort zone.
However, if client exhibits signs of depression, or shows that s/he does not know why s/he is in denial/ resistance of the need for making an action, coach may consider referring them to a therapist.