There to Help ‘Em Shake if Off – The CoachAccountable Perspective

Playback speed:

File this under the “things you can tell a prospect to have them appreciate what you bring”.

Okay, so you know how in coaching, you’ll often be guiding us clients to reach out of our comfort zone, to try something new, to dream big and take the (sometimes scary) action which big ambition invariably calls for? That’s an important part of the deal when walking the road to glory.

But it’s also confronting AF¹.

You can soften the blow by letting us know, if and when things go sideways, that you are THERE, in our corner, to help us shake it off.

Shake it off?

Yep, shake it off. If things don’t turn out, we’re apt to be all up in our head, ruminating. Maybe beating ourselves up about how we screwed up. Or wondering who do we think we are, trying to touch the sky? Retreating back into the comfort of lowered expectations, mentally settling into playing a safer game.

What we could really use is someone to get us OUT of our head; out of any sort of swirling, spiraling rumination that has us doubting our power and questioning our ambition. Someone to hear what happened (just once, just the facts), give us due props for taking action in the first place, and put things (back) into perspective. So we can think clearly about how to proceed, and get back on the horse.

Tell us you’re here to be that someone.

Though it smacks of tough love, and sometimes people are leery of receiving tough love, you could actually have us excited by and grateful for the prospect of you telling us to shake it off.

Because sometimes, that’s just what we need to do.

And knowing we’ll have that gives us more of the assurance we need to make bold plans.

When you schedule your client’s actions as Actions in CoachAccountable, the system gives you both some light-touch ways to keep in touch around the action.

They can get reminders via email or text, and reply to those to mark it done plus an additional comment (maybe something like “Ugh, that did NOT go the way I wanted it to.”).

You in turn would get a text or email notification of the news, and can yourself reply right back with whatever words of encouragement. Or better yet, take that as your cue to reach out directly. You’d be pretty certain they’d be happy to hear from you then and there, and what a powerful way to truly be there for your client.