Series: Understanding the role of a coach and a client is vital to doing effective work within the container.
The energy you bring as a coach is many things… it is valuable and magical. It is so needed.
In a world where most people do not have access to a wise guide in their lives, the fact that someone has chosen to work with you is both a beautiful gift and an awesome responsibility. They are bringing you their hopes and dreams, their fears and heartbreaks. They are, often, looking for guidance. I believe it’s our job to reflect them back to themselves and show return them to their own wise inner guide.
Think about the reasons why someone might hire a coach… Let’s put ourselves into the shoes of a client for a moment.
- Do they have someone in their world they can trust with their deepest truth?
- Do they have anyone in their lives who will be honest with them?
- Do they have people who will understand them and their dreams?
- Do they have someone to whom they can be vulnerable without fear?
- Do they have anyone neutral who can listen without judgment?
- Do they have someone who can listen and really hear them?
- Do they have a single person who will let them share without dispensing advice?
- Do they have anyone in their lives whose advice would be applicable?
To all those questions, for most people, in my experience, the answer is no. That’s why they clicked around and found you. That’s why they filled out the form to schedule with you. That’s why they are paying a stranger to listen to them. Let me say that again… your coaching clients are paying a stranger to listen to them. Even if they have followed you for a while online and you have done a good job of sharing information, education, and entertainment to grow your know-like-trust factor with your audience… even in a para-social relationship… you are still a stranger on the internet the first time they click on that Zoom link in their calendar for your first meeting.
I know all of this may sound like I’m stating the obvious. But I think this gets missed or forgotten as we flow along with the current of marketing and doing the business of being coaches.
To remember that the people who hire us are taking a leap. Even if your coaching is all about action and accountability with high net-worth individuals… they are still in a vulnerable position. They need something they cannot find in their world as it is. They need someone trained in the unusual art of… listening.
We would be wise to bear that in mind.
