Earlier when describing how selling our your clients is boring and ordinary, I laid out the rungs of why coaches generally do what they do. The lowest rungs are self-serving (got bills to pay, wanna keep clients happy enough to keep working with me). The high rungs are to do with clients genuinely living powerfully.
Naturally, you want to be fulfilling on those high-rung aims.
But that’s harder to do than the lower ones. Having someone take meaningful action and get life-altering results? That’s tougher than just being there to give that someone a thoughtful sounding board.
So whether or not what you bring is actually the stuff of coaching another human being to greatness? It’s an open question. The answer will vary from person to person, even situation to situation.
It takes a good hard look in the mirror to recognize when you can’t. An even harder one to call it off when the time is right, either up front or when you realize you can take someone no further.
But here’s the good news.
Whether you can or can’t has more to do with how you hold your client than whether you’ve got sufficient training. If you DON’T sell them out, and instead hold them as big and capable, you can skip the detour of piling on yet another certification.
You need only take the following stand: that playing for (and getting!) real results is the game, and nothing less will do.
What that means is telling us what you see and hear is possible for us next, earning our alignment that that is indeed desirable and within our ability, helping us distinguish the actions we need to take, and holding us accountable to follow through, supporting and cheering us on along the way.
And if you can’t do that, or there’s truly nowhere left for us to go right now, let us know. Part amicably with the door left open, until we are ready to take on whatever next climb.
CoachAccountable gives you the means to support your client with both.
