Now, Be a More Effective Coach

By: Beth Levin, M.A.

Word Count: 951 words
Time to Read: 3-4 minutes

Wouldn’t it be great to be more successful not only as a coach, but in your own career and personal life?

Most leaders have a key role in coaching others. Masterful coaches have the opportunity to make extraordinary results possible for the people they coach. And to consistently bring the best out of others, you must be continually growing yourself. By gaining increased self awareness and dedication, and engaging with your own development, you become a more authentic, potent coach. As a seasoned coach, here are 3 of my favorite tips for more effective coaching.

1) Raise the Bar on Your Own Success.

Coaching is about facilitating success in others. But when was the last time you raised the bar on your own success? If you are raising the bar for others, then raising your own expectations is valuable. Raise your own success bar and you will find a new field rich with opportunities for self development and discovery.

If you have your future success goals in your head, make sure you write them down where you can see them often. Research from Harvard Business School demonstrated that graduates who wrote down their professional goals were significantly more successful than those who did not. This is something you can even do right now or schedule a time to do this week.

To effectively help others expand their view of themselves in successfully accomplishing challenging goals, awareness of your own self-generated internal dialogue provides an important context for expectation setting and achieving. How you manage your own self-generated internal dialogue around success can richly inform your coaching of others. Competent coaches have high emotional intelligence and high self awareness. When you gain increased self awareness about your own personal beliefs around success and you dedicate yourself to your own development, you become a more authentic and potent coach.

2) Facilitate Building a Success Story Anchor or Reference Point
for Others.

Did you know that in times of extreme challenge, people who self identify as successful refer to a past success accomplishment as a method to motivate themselves in the face of the impossible? They refer to a self generated and sensory rich personally meaningful story which stimulates neuro pathways of positive emotion which can generate feelings of winning and self confidence. By setting the stage for success, the brain becomes “charged” and stimulated for creating this positive experience. This aspect of coaching can lead to significant changes in behavior and goal attainment.

Factors which contribute to a powerful success anchor include a) a powerful emotional connection to an important personal accomplishment and b) the ability to articulate the accomplishment in a way that will regenerate the variety of emotions in a specific context. Not only is the person telling about an experience, they are actually reliving a sensory rich story.
As a coach, I share examples to assist my clients in uncovering their success reference points.

Here is a simple but powerful anchor from a past client. When we reviewed challenges he had overcome in his life, one childhood example was filled with intense emotion. The challenge? Learning to ride his first bicycle. After watching his brothers and neighbors sail down the street on their own bikes, he too wanted to experience the power, freedom, and fun of bicycle riding. The bicycle his family provided was his older brother’s; it was a little too big and his feet could barely touch the pedals. He carefully studied how others did it. He would climb onto this oversized bicycle, struggle to get seated and barely touch a pedal, stay on for a brief few seconds, and then fall. He did this over and over in spite of scratched knees, fear, embarrassment, frustration, and disappointment. He revisited his pain of failure and of multiple bruises as he recreated this story. In spite of this, his determination, perseverance, and commitment were strong. He tried to ride that huge toy day after day until after several weeks he actually succeeded. He felt like he could fly as he joyfully and proudly sailed around his neighborhood. By articulating this story my client could revisit his enormous treasure chest of determination and perseverance, and reaffirm his commitment to his current challenge. This conversation fueled several critical actions towards reaching his goal.

3) Take Time to Journal.

Journaling keeps self awareness current. Self awareness is the beginning of growth and can stimulate the fire for implementing your values and priorities. Journaling can also help uncover unconscious motivations and facilitate creative solutions to daunting problems. Consider purchasing a special private journal that reflects you. Use it to write whatever you desire, including your range of feelings and thoughts as related to your goals. Consider not only writing, but using pictures and color. Pictures and symbols impact the brain’s creative, innovative side. This activity can lead to a shift in patterned thinking and lead to more productive functioning. Aim for a minimum of 15 minutes a week.

Here are some great questions for raising your effectiveness.

1. How do you feel about your success to date?
2. What do you say to yourself when you make a mistake?
3. What is it like to have you as a coach?
4. What will it take to have higher expectations of yourself?
5. What will it take for you to have higher expectations of others?

If you incorporate these 3 tips for a trial of only 30 days, you will notice not only progress in your coaching, but also in your own achievements. As you foster extraordinary results in others, you can continue to grow your own circle of extraordinary success. Happy Coaching!