Coaches' Corner~Be

Coaches must control their mental input and this means making a conscious effort to carve out time for thinking about your specific client.  Thinking of them individually is preferred because thinking of your practice does not help your individual client although it helps you.  Helping you is accomplished easier if you make your client's success job one.  Expecting your clients to succeed almost guarantees it.  Behave as if you cannot fail and you won't.  This behavior is not limited to when you are coaching but is best done as this becomes who you are being.

A realtor was showing a home to a client who asks what the neighborhood is like.  The realtor asked the client what his previous neighborhood was like.  The client said the neighborhood was awful.  The streets needed repairing, the neighbors were unfriendly and there was nothing to do around there.  The realtor said this neighborhood was just the same and he might not like it here either.  Later that day he was heard describing the neighborhood to another client.  When he asked this particular how his former neighborhood was, the client said his former neighborhood was fantastic!  In fact, his eyes were sparkling as he made the statement.  The schools were great, neighbors very friendly and the children in the area were very well behaved.  He was sad to have to move.  The realtor told him that new place was just as nice and if he ever had to leave there, he would miss it too.  How, his associate wondered could he in good conscience give both men so different an assessment?  He replied that most folks were about as happy as they want to be.  Chances are the realtor lost business with the first guy but he probably did himself a favor.

As a coach, it might not be that obvious for you but the principal is the same.  You can be very effective if you imagine that you are a heat-seeking missile because they always find heat.  However it is that you see your self is how you will be.  However you see your client is how they will be.  The object is to take control of your thoughts in every situation and that means understanding that things happen because of you and not to you.  In the unlikely event that you get an unexpected outcome, make it your fault and not the clients.'  If you make yourself the problem, then you can also be the solution.