After you have been coaching an individual client for a while, or you have a growing client base, it is important to pause periodically and reflect on the health of those relationships. You should look for patterns that may not be sustainable long term. These patterns may not be serving you well or may not be in the client’s best interest.
Examples of Patterns to Look for:
– The client shows up late or doesn’t show up but doesn’t call ahead of time
– Within the session, the client asks the coach what the coach thinks.
– Client sessions are going longer and longer.
– Coach starts “giving” more in the relationship.
– The coach begins dreading upcoming calls.
– As sessions progress, the coach becomes impatient with the client.
These are just a few examples as there are plenty of other patterns. The purpose of the above list is to give us a starting point to help us to consider – where might we need to make an adjustment to an individual client relationship or to our general practices in setting up and managing our clients?
What to do if you’ve noticed a pattern:
If a pattern has developed that we are uncomfortable with or appears unhealthy, we need to own that. Something has broken down. It may be something as simple as how we are setting up our coaching engagements. On the other hand, it may be something subtler and more complex as some type of avoidant behavior in us.
Consider blocking out an hour or two every 3-6 months to evaluate your practice and consider if some simple but crucial adjustments might make for more powerful and pleasant coaching engagements with your clients. Depending on the adjustment you want to make, you may not be able to change what you are doing with current clients, but you can adjust and be smarter with future clients.
Thanks for reading!
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