Beliefs, mind frames and coaching success (2)
Ability can take you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there” (Zig Ziglar).
Some people have erroneously likened , where knowledge and skills are transferred from the teacher or the trainer to the student or trainee. In contrast, there is no such thing as a teacher-student or trainer-trainee relationships in coaching. Rather than teaching or training, a professional coach actually works in a synergistic alliance with the client to jointly explore, discover, access and unearth specific truths about the client’s goals, desires, needs or situation. In this regard, the coach and the client are equal partners.
A professional coach thus works in an inspirational partnership with the client, during which the client is supported and assisted to identify, isolate and deal with every sabotaging and toxic beliefs, which can potentially inhibit performance and goal achievement. The primary role of an effective coach in this regard is to help facilitate the best medium and environment for clients’ enthusiasm, excitement and energy. The success of such an engagement is however hinged upon the belief system of the client.
Specifically, the client is the chief driver of every true and successful coaching engagement. True coaching actually starts with the agenda and goal(s) of the client, and ends with the desired outcomes of the client. In this regard, the entire coaching process focuses entirely on what the client wants, in terms of goal attainment and result achievement. That is why the attitude of the client, which is influenced by his belief and mind frame, either facilitates or frustrates the coaching process.
In other words, the client’s level of commitment to change via the coach’s facilitation is the key to coaching success. Without a doubt, every one that truly seeks coaching does so because they are seeking for something different. They desire a change in certain areas of life, and therefore engage a professional coach to support them, as a facilitator and change agent in bringing about the desired change(s) and compelling a difference. Coaching actually happens mainly because the client wants something different.
The belief system of the client must be such that there is a full understanding that the solutions to whatever problems are resident within the mind matrix of the client, and therefore within the grasp of the client. Furthermore, the belief system of the client must be expressed in the knowledge that every situation has possibilities and that people actually have the power of choice within them to explore these possibilities. As a result, the client must demonstrate the belief that he has all the answers to his questions within him, rather than look up to the coach or any other source for answers.
The above statement is what evidently distinguishes coaching from comparable impact-generating and solution-providing systems such as consulting. It is obvious that in the process of consulting, the consultant is the specialist and expert, who has all the answers and solutions with him. A lot of times, some clients have such a mindset regarding coaching. They make the mistake of looking elsewhere apart from within themselves to provide the answers to their questions and solutions to their problems.
The professional coach owes a responsibility to be truthful and honest about this fact in dealing with the client. The coach must therefore actively help the client to amplify his belief as a solution provider to himself, rather than being a person with problems that need fixing. As a matter of fact, one of the most important statements attributable to coaching is this: “Nothing is broken, hence nothing needs fixing”.
People do not go to a coach because they are broken and hopeless, needing a ‘saviour’. Rather, people approach a coach because they want to achieve more and do better in one or more areas of life. That is the belief system that works in coaching. This is what makes coaching the powerful personal transformation tool that it is. It is the belief that you can be whoever you want to be, and have whatever you need to have, in order to achieve your desired goals.
The belief that fires coaching success is expressed as a huge desire to access mind resources to solve problems and meet needs. It is the belief that, as long as you have the potential to realistically achieve certain goals, the role of the coach becomes mainly to help articulate the dreams, desires, mission and purpose.
This underscores the point that coaching is a powerful alliance between the coach and the client to find the best fit solutions together, thereby satisfying the needs of the client.
Coaching in this regard is far more satisfying when clients are helped and supported to come up with their own answers and solutions. Such discoveries would require the clients’ resourcefulness, knowledge, creativity, tenacity, openness, personal inspiration, enthusiasm and passion. The rallying factor in all of these remains the personal belief of the client, especially the belief system that drives personal energy. It is also what drives coaching success.
Emmanuel Imevbere