Key Skills for Effective Coaching

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of helping someone to succeed and achieve their fullest potential. This is the role that a good coach plays in another person’s life by helping them discover answers and use their strengths well. If you want to get involved in life coaching or want to know the skills an effective coach uses to guide others, this article will help you get a glimpse into it.

What is coaching?

Coaching is a form of conversation aimed at helping the person being coached to work out feasible solutions to particular concerns. Coaching takes place in various ways and settings, including at the workplace. Organizations might bring in a coach to help executives or other employees level up their skills or address issues like time management and stress reduction. In other cases, members of management can work as coaches with other employees.

When you seek out a coach, it’s important to remember that you’re not going to a guru who knows more than you, and whose function is to give you the answers to the questions you have. A good coach will help you by provoking you to think through the problem yourself and to workshop possible solutions to put into action. Coaching is about helping you arrive at the answers yourself, and not about telling you what you need to do.

The Effective Coaching Skillset

Each coach will have their own style for how they relate to those they coach (the client). There are a few key skills that most coaches will cultivate to help their clients. Knowing what some of these skills are may help you to know what to look out for in your coach and to understand the process of coaching better. It might help you reshape your expectations, making them more realistic, so you get the most out of your coaching sessions.

The skills typically used for effective coaching include the following:

Building rapport Coaching and being coached are easier when trust and clear boundaries are established. A good coach does this by having good follow-through on any agreements they make, exhibiting patience, and giving clear guidance concerning the development and learning objectives for the sessions.

Asking good questions Since coaching isn’t about telling someone what to do, a key skill is asking great questions. Effective coaching is about asking the right questions that draw the client to consider what they already know, and how best to implement that knowledge. Open questions, probing questions, and other kinds of questions can help get to the heart of the issue.

At times, the coach will provide information in those circumstances where they possess knowledge the client does not, but even then, the point of sharing that knowledge is to help the client reframe the problem or gain a fresh perspective on the situation they’re working through.

Being great at listening As much as great coaching is about asking questions, it is also about being a good listener. Great questions are of little use if you don’t listen to the answers given and then follow up with other pertinent questions. Good listening is active listening, which allows you to pay close attention to the finer details that go beneath the surface of things.

Active listening is about paying attention to things like the words the client is using, whether those words are accompanied by specific emotions or other non-verbal cues like tone or body posture. Sometimes there’s a disjuncture between what a person is saying and how they are saying it, and active listening allows one to pick up on the discrepancy.

In addition to the above, active listening includes summarizing and paraphrasing what the client said. This allows the coach and client to both get a clear picture of the conversation thus far. It shows the client that the coach has been paying attention, and it makes it easier to point out the next steps emerging from the conversation.

Being fully present While it is a part of active listening, being present is such an important skill that it deserves its own spot. A great coach will pay attention to their client so that the client feels seen and heard. Not only does being present and paying attention help to nurture trust, but it also helps to make the most of the sessions.

Being fully present may mean closing your laptop, switching off or silencing your phone notifications, and positioning yourself so that the client knows they have your full and undivided attention. Being present is also an internal disposition; it requires putting aside other thoughts and choosing to center your focus on the present moment and the person in front of you.

Putting understanding first and avoiding judgment When coaching someone, one may encounter ideas, solutions, and private information that may be personally offensive, misinformed, or otherwise problematic. The natural human inclination might be to judge the client, but a good coach will seek to understand them first without judgment.

Judgment can be implied by one’s tone of voice or in the questions one asks. Listening without judgment can be a challenging aspect of coaching, but a healthy dose of curiosity and inquisitiveness can help a coach approach their client with openness.

Promoting self-awareness Part of coaching is helping the client get an accurate assessment of where they are and where they want to go. Coaching is about providing constructive feedback and insight so that the client can see where things may not be going well and where changes may be helpful.

Challenging assumptions One of the main functions of great questions is that they challenge a person’s thinking and assumptions about how things work. Often, a person may be stuck in one area or another because of faulty thinking or unchallenged assumptions about themselves or their situation. Asking open-ended questions that allow for exploration can help unearth these assumptions.

During the coaching process, the coach may also help the client to think about alternative or creative solutions to a problem. In some cases, a client needs encouragement to consider taking risks and being bolder in approaching a given situation.

Focus on action Effective coaching isn’t just about having a conversation on a given topic. One seeks coaching because there is an issue that needs to be addressed concretely. Effective coaching thus focuses on action and results. Effective coaching sessions will usually end with addressing the next steps and actions that need to be taken. These steps need to come from the client and then be followed up on.

The coach can help the client set meaningful and achievable goals and discern what steps or behaviors need to be put in place to accomplish those goals. With clear measures of success and milestones set out, this will also ensure accountability so that the client stays on track.

Is coaching for you?

If you’re in a place where you’re feeling stagnant or you’re unclear about your next steps in a given area of your life, coaching could be for you. Coaches receive training through accredited institutions so that they develop the tools to be effective coaches. An effective coach will focus on the client and their needs, build rapport, develop trust and clear boundaries, and ask great questions that help challenge the client.

An effective coach will also be fully present for the client, indicating that their focus is on the client and their needs. Additionally, a good coach will also encourage the client to come up with bold ideas for moving forward, as well as listen empathetically to them without judgment. A coach can help you address issues as diverse as time management, handling workplace conflict, career goals, and so much more.

Coaching will help you gain greater clarity on the issues you’re facing and will help you find effective solutions to those issues. Reach out to our office today and talk to a certified and accredited coach to begin resolving a thorny issue in your life with practical and effective solutions.