Best Techniques For Coaching
Great coaching goes beyond asking powerful questions. You know to be able to create a deep impact with your clients, you might have to go beyond deep listening or asking powerful questions. You have to lean into some things that we call coaching techniques. While it helps to be able to listen deeply and ask powerful questions, it also helps if you have the right coaching techniques to help you navigate your client's success. Hi, this is Ajit Nawalkha and today I'm sharing with you four powerful coaching techniques that you can use in your coaching practice almost immediately. Let's get straight into it.The first coaching technique I want to talk about is called the perfect day exercise. Most of the clients that we get are clients that are living a routine life. They live the same life every single year,
year after year, as if it was Groundhog Day. The older we get, the harder it becomes for us to daydream like kids.We forget about our hopes and dreams, and we start to believe that what we have right now is all that we can have. But we all know that's not true.This exercise is perfect to bring out
the inner dreamer in your client. Go back to "what do you want to be when you grow up?"
and "how do you want to live your life?" type of questions.Ask your clients to visualize their perfect workday. It's got to be the workday because if it's not a workday, we know how that unfolds, we know how we are going to plan that out. So much time and so little I need to do. Make them dig deep to really tap into what they truly desire.What is it that would make that workday, the perfect day?
Ask them, what time would they wake up? What kind of work do they do? Would the work be the same that they're doing right now? Would it be a different type of work? How much time they would be spending with their family, with their friends, and learning and traveling? What kind of colleagues would they like to have? Ask your clients to write down their perfect day like a calendar schedule, hour by hour. This will allow them to have a detailed view of how they want their workday to unfold.
By writing it down, instead of just thinking about it, will help your client get more clarity and they will also be able to see how they can make this dream a reality. The idea of this exercise is not only to create a dream for what is possible in their future, but also for them to realize that they need to shift their behavior. After they finish, ask your clients as to what stops them from living that ideal perfect day? Asking this question might trigger a dramatic change in how your clients show up,
how they show up at work, what do they do, what are they looking for, and might cause a tectonic shift in their work life. The second coaching technique that I wanna share with you today is called the Coaching Journal. According to experts, the human mind has anywhere between 60,000 to 80,000
thoughts per day. That is about 3,000 thoughts per hour. Isn't that an insane amount of thoughts
that we process? But here's the thing. We forget almost all of these thoughts as quickly as they come.
So how do we make it a point that our clients remember the insights and thoughts they got during the sessions that could be vital for their lives? Well, the answer is a coaching journal. Okay, here's the deal. This is not a diary, it's a journal. This coaching technique allows your clients to have a moment. A moment to really think about the thoughts, the challenges, the perspectives, the insights that may have happened during your coaching sessions.Especially those thoughts and insights
that might be a little bit hard for them to process and express out loud. Another reason why you want your clients to maintain a coaching journal is because often they would want to revisit a certain conversation, ideas or insights. I took my deaf friend to the Sheila E. concert so she could really feel the music.She was so grateful. I didn't smoke pot because I was afraid there wasn't enough for everyone.Oh, come on. I miss those goddamn glory days. Well, clearly we had different experiences.
It can be transformative for your clients to see what their thoughts were when they started the coaching experience to where they are now and how they've grown. Here is one better. Ask your clients to share their coaching journal with you. You, as a coach, that way can see what are the insights that they really took away from the coaching session. It also helps them be accountable. Have you ever used the coaching journal technique with your clients before? If you have, share that with me in the comment section below and tell me what your experience was when you asked your clients to maintain a coaching journal.The third coaching technique I want to talk about is
check-ins and check-outs.This is such a simple technique and so obvious, but, often as coaches, we forget to utilize it. How you start your session and how you end your session can sometimes be the reason why you're able to create a transformation in your client's life. When you begin your session with a powerful check-in, it allows your client to drop in and be present with you during the session.
Give your client the space to put away any worry, tension or anger that they might be bringing to the session. A good check-in will allow you to understand where your client is coming from,
what they're feeling, where they've been, which will allow you to help them navigate those emotions and those challenges as the coaching session unfolds.I guess what I'm trying to say is that,
now that I'm married, I'm definitely feeling a little freaked out about the fact that I'm gonna have sex
with only one person for the rest of my life.In a similar fashion, check-outs are important.
What are the exact action steps that your clients are going to take once the session is over?
Without a proper check-out, without those action steps, your client might leave the session
really pumped up and really hyped up,but, as life happens, they might lose the momentum and might not have the transformation that they could get if you had a strong check-out. So, instead of just leaving your client on a real high, ask your client what is it that they got out of the session?
What were some of the big insights? What were some of the action steps that they are going to take after that session? You can also combine this with the second technique that we talked about, coaching journal.Ask your client to summarize the session for you. Ask them what are the key takeaways they got from it and how will it translate into real action in their life.Ask them to write those steps down in the coaching journal and then send them over to you.
If you want to learn a little bit more about coaching structures, we have a video in this coaching series called how to hold a transformative coaching session.You can find that video on the link here,
you can go ahead and check it out for more coaching structures. Which brings me the last technique
that I want to share with you today.The fourth coaching technique
I want to talk about is what scares me list. This technique I first learned from a
phenomenal coach called Rich Litvin. He's also an author on our platform, Evercoach. This technique is simple but really powerful.Simply ask your clients to write down
all the fears that they have. We're talking about deep-seeded fears, not the fears that are more surface level like spiders or clowns. Hi, Georgie. What a nice boat. Do you want it back? Okay, maybe the creepy clowns can still make the list.Consider this technique as an assessment. An assessment of how much your life is driven by fear. You see, 95% of our life is driven by our subconscious which means you're mostly in a reactive mode. And if we are in a reactive mode and we are not aware of the fears,
we may not know what are some of the actions that we are taking that are essentially driven by fear,
instead of hope. To change our behavior, we must first understand what are some of those deep-seeded fears that are influencing our actions.And as Rich says, underneath every fear, there is a desire. Fear is just a mask to protect yourself from things like failure, embarrassment or even success.
So help your clients dig deep. Is it the fear of public speaking? Is it the fear of success?
Is it the fear of embarrassment? Is it the fear of standing up against something that you really stand for? Well then, how come you're still at a job that you hate? I mean, why don't you quit and get "the fear"? Because I'm too afraid. Once this list is done, once you have a list of fears that they may be experiencing on daily life, consciously or unconsciously, you can start to tackle these fears
one at a time. We can take tiny steps to make progress towards getting past these fears
and finding more and more courage.Soon enough, you'll find that your clients have more courage
year after year, as if it was Groundhog Day. The older we get, the harder it becomes for us to daydream like kids.We forget about our hopes and dreams, and we start to believe that what we have right now is all that we can have. But we all know that's not true.This exercise is perfect to bring out
the inner dreamer in your client. Go back to "what do you want to be when you grow up?"
and "how do you want to live your life?" type of questions.Ask your clients to visualize their perfect workday. It's got to be the workday because if it's not a workday, we know how that unfolds, we know how we are going to plan that out. So much time and so little I need to do. Make them dig deep to really tap into what they truly desire.What is it that would make that workday, the perfect day?
Ask them, what time would they wake up? What kind of work do they do? Would the work be the same that they're doing right now? Would it be a different type of work? How much time they would be spending with their family, with their friends, and learning and traveling? What kind of colleagues would they like to have? Ask your clients to write down their perfect day like a calendar schedule, hour by hour. This will allow them to have a detailed view of how they want their workday to unfold.
By writing it down, instead of just thinking about it, will help your client get more clarity and they will also be able to see how they can make this dream a reality. The idea of this exercise is not only to create a dream for what is possible in their future, but also for them to realize that they need to shift their behavior. After they finish, ask your clients as to what stops them from living that ideal perfect day? Asking this question might trigger a dramatic change in how your clients show up,
how they show up at work, what do they do, what are they looking for, and might cause a tectonic shift in their work life. The second coaching technique that I wanna share with you today is called the Coaching Journal. According to experts, the human mind has anywhere between 60,000 to 80,000
thoughts per day. That is about 3,000 thoughts per hour. Isn't that an insane amount of thoughts
that we process? But here's the thing. We forget almost all of these thoughts as quickly as they come.
So how do we make it a point that our clients remember the insights and thoughts they got during the sessions that could be vital for their lives? Well, the answer is a coaching journal. Okay, here's the deal. This is not a diary, it's a journal. This coaching technique allows your clients to have a moment. A moment to really think about the thoughts, the challenges, the perspectives, the insights that may have happened during your coaching sessions.Especially those thoughts and insights
that might be a little bit hard for them to process and express out loud. Another reason why you want your clients to maintain a coaching journal is because often they would want to revisit a certain conversation, ideas or insights. I took my deaf friend to the Sheila E. concert so she could really feel the music.She was so grateful. I didn't smoke pot because I was afraid there wasn't enough for everyone.Oh, come on. I miss those goddamn glory days. Well, clearly we had different experiences.
It can be transformative for your clients to see what their thoughts were when they started the coaching experience to where they are now and how they've grown. Here is one better. Ask your clients to share their coaching journal with you. You, as a coach, that way can see what are the insights that they really took away from the coaching session. It also helps them be accountable. Have you ever used the coaching journal technique with your clients before? If you have, share that with me in the comment section below and tell me what your experience was when you asked your clients to maintain a coaching journal.The third coaching technique I want to talk about is
check-ins and check-outs.This is such a simple technique and so obvious, but, often as coaches, we forget to utilize it. How you start your session and how you end your session can sometimes be the reason why you're able to create a transformation in your client's life. When you begin your session with a powerful check-in, it allows your client to drop in and be present with you during the session.
Give your client the space to put away any worry, tension or anger that they might be bringing to the session. A good check-in will allow you to understand where your client is coming from,
what they're feeling, where they've been, which will allow you to help them navigate those emotions and those challenges as the coaching session unfolds.I guess what I'm trying to say is that,
now that I'm married, I'm definitely feeling a little freaked out about the fact that I'm gonna have sex
with only one person for the rest of my life.In a similar fashion, check-outs are important.
What are the exact action steps that your clients are going to take once the session is over?
Without a proper check-out, without those action steps, your client might leave the session
really pumped up and really hyped up,but, as life happens, they might lose the momentum and might not have the transformation that they could get if you had a strong check-out. So, instead of just leaving your client on a real high, ask your client what is it that they got out of the session?
What were some of the big insights? What were some of the action steps that they are going to take after that session? You can also combine this with the second technique that we talked about, coaching journal.Ask your client to summarize the session for you. Ask them what are the key takeaways they got from it and how will it translate into real action in their life.Ask them to write those steps down in the coaching journal and then send them over to you.
If you want to learn a little bit more about coaching structures, we have a video in this coaching series called how to hold a transformative coaching session.You can find that video on the link here,
you can go ahead and check it out for more coaching structures. Which brings me the last technique
that I want to share with you today.The fourth coaching technique
I want to talk about is what scares me list. This technique I first learned from a
phenomenal coach called Rich Litvin. He's also an author on our platform, Evercoach. This technique is simple but really powerful.Simply ask your clients to write down
all the fears that they have. We're talking about deep-seeded fears, not the fears that are more surface level like spiders or clowns. Hi, Georgie. What a nice boat. Do you want it back? Okay, maybe the creepy clowns can still make the list.Consider this technique as an assessment. An assessment of how much your life is driven by fear. You see, 95% of our life is driven by our subconscious which means you're mostly in a reactive mode. And if we are in a reactive mode and we are not aware of the fears,
we may not know what are some of the actions that we are taking that are essentially driven by fear,
instead of hope. To change our behavior, we must first understand what are some of those deep-seeded fears that are influencing our actions.And as Rich says, underneath every fear, there is a desire. Fear is just a mask to protect yourself from things like failure, embarrassment or even success.
So help your clients dig deep. Is it the fear of public speaking? Is it the fear of success?
Is it the fear of embarrassment? Is it the fear of standing up against something that you really stand for? Well then, how come you're still at a job that you hate? I mean, why don't you quit and get "the fear"? Because I'm too afraid. Once this list is done, once you have a list of fears that they may be experiencing on daily life, consciously or unconsciously, you can start to tackle these fears
one at a time. We can take tiny steps to make progress towards getting past these fears
and finding more and more courage.Soon enough, you'll find that your clients have more courage
and more confidence, and tackle more of their fears, helping them live better lives.
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