15 min
Discover More About Your Business Coaching Clients Better Business Coach Podcast: Sales Training | Proven Education | Actionable & Downloadable Worksheets
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- Management
The "Get to Know Yourself" template should follow directly after episode 21’s ForceField Analysis, and should be completed as part of your first paid client sessions.
As a business coach, you need to understand your clients on a deeper level. To add to that, as discussed in session four, running a business can be chaos and your client may not have had time to truly understand themselves. The "Get to Know Yourself" template is designed to get everything out on the table, so you can start helping your clients where they need it most.
Episode outline:
I want to preface by saying: use your discretion before using this worksheet with corporate clients. While it is amazingly useful when working with them, many consider it life coaching and it can lose you rapport. When working with corporate, if I decide to use the worksheet, I like to add on the phrase, "when you’re working," to the start of each question. I find it makes them feel more at ease with the questioning. Small businesses, however, absolutely love it, so never feel you shouldn’t pull it out and get started.
This worksheet can sometimes take up to an hour to complete because it forces the client to consider things that in many cases, they have never considered before. You will be surprised just how often something pops up that highlights something neither you nor the client originally expected, changing your entire coaching approach or the desired direction the client wishes to pursue. Often, what the client says they are wanting at the start of the session is the last thing they would want by the end. This is the true power of this worksheet. Without it, you could end up coaching a client toward something they never actually wanted.
This worksheet works fantastically when combined with the homework, “Forget About Goals - Why Is The Key To Success”, covered in session 17, as it ensures you are always on point with all your critical direction and advice.
What do you enjoy doing?
This question may seem simple enough, but who truly spends time thinking about these things? Asking it in this session, like many of the other questions, will force the client to consider things they have, perhaps, never considered before, or at least not on a truly real level. Understand that these questions, as you progress, may take time to answer and for the best effect this is a good thing. Embrace the skills covered in session 9, "Listen & Succeed," and give them time to consider their answers on a deeper level. Very soon you will step past understanding the client and shift to assisting them to move forward. It’s vital that before you do this you understand exactly what they want and why.
That said, if you’re not careful, the client will go off on a tangent and time will fly. This may sound great since after all, they are paying you to listen, but consider what they will think after the session. The last thing you want them to do is go off on a tangent for too long and then feel they just spoke about themselves and you offered very little value. As a coach, you must balance between allowing enough time for expansive, well thought-out answers, and time wasting chit-chat, bragging or complaining.
What makes you happy?
The "Get to Know Yourself" template should follow directly after episode 21’s ForceField Analysis, and should be completed as part of your first paid client sessions.
As a business coach, you need to understand your clients on a deeper level. To add to that, as discussed in session four, running a business can be chaos and your client may not have had time to truly understand themselves. The "Get to Know Yourself" template is designed to get everything out on the table, so you can start helping your clients where they need it most.
Episode outline:
I want to preface by saying: use your discretion before using this worksheet with corporate clients. While it is amazingly useful when working with them, many consider it life coaching and it can lose you rapport. When working with corporate, if I decide to use the worksheet, I like to add on the phrase, "when you’re working," to the start of each question. I find it makes them feel more at ease with the questioning. Small businesses, however, absolutely love it, so never feel you shouldn’t pull it out and get started.
This worksheet can sometimes take up to an hour to complete because it forces the client to consider things that in many cases, they have never considered before. You will be surprised just how often something pops up that highlights something neither you nor the client originally expected, changing your entire coaching approach or the desired direction the client wishes to pursue. Often, what the client says they are wanting at the start of the session is the last thing they would want by the end. This is the true power of this worksheet. Without it, you could end up coaching a client toward something they never actually wanted.
This worksheet works fantastically when combined with the homework, “Forget About Goals - Why Is The Key To Success”, covered in session 17, as it ensures you are always on point with all your critical direction and advice.
What do you enjoy doing?
This question may seem simple enough, but who truly spends time thinking about these things? Asking it in this session, like many of the other questions, will force the client to consider things they have, perhaps, never considered before, or at least not on a truly real level. Understand that these questions, as you progress, may take time to answer and for the best effect this is a good thing. Embrace the skills covered in session 9, "Listen & Succeed," and give them time to consider their answers on a deeper level. Very soon you will step past understanding the client and shift to assisting them to move forward. It’s vital that before you do this you understand exactly what they want and why.
That said, if you’re not careful, the client will go off on a tangent and time will fly. This may sound great since after all, they are paying you to listen, but consider what they will think after the session. The last thing you want them to do is go off on a tangent for too long and then feel they just spoke about themselves and you offered very little value. As a coach, you must balance between allowing enough time for expansive, well thought-out answers, and time wasting chit-chat, bragging or complaining.
What makes you happy?
15 min