I’m so grateful that I work with many Ideal Coaching Clients, they’re often graduates/professionals, entrepreneurs, and business owners.
In the following I will describe the qualities of an Ideal Coaching Client from a life coach’s perspective.
Today we’ll take a look at Carl (not his real name).
Carl lives in London, he’s motivated, ambitious and well educated. There are a number of reasons why Carl is An Ideal Coaching Client which I’ll cover throughout this post. He comes from a loving home, has a devoted mother and 3 younger siblings. His mother and grandparents are proud of what he has achieved so far. This is because has always been a dedicated student. Also, Carl was the first in his family to win a good degree from a respected university. Since finding employment and enrolling on his employers graduate scheme Carl now has a promising career ahead of him.
Carl moved into his own apartment almost a year ago and although he misses living at home, he embraces his independence. He loves making his mother proud as she has worked hard as a single parent to raise him and his siblings. He wants to be an inspiration and role model to his younger brother and sisters who all think he’s the greatest.
Previously, Carl used to be very sociable and would visit his family and friends often. He also used to exercise regularly and follow his hobbies for building things (model cars, computers and the like), foreign travel and reading English literature and modern politics.
Whilst Carl enjoys his work (which is very demanding ) he is good at his job and often works long hours. When he does have some down-time Carl tends to sleep-in a lot. His life is on a cycle of work-sleep-eat-repeat. Carl senses that his health and social life need improvement.
Some of his other ‘pain points’ are that since leaving university and starting employment Carl feels that he has been drifting for some time. He feels that he does not have any significant goals for his work or personal life.
Carl desperately wants to re-energise his life for the better. He wants to establish and work towards motivating and challenging goals at work and in life generally. Unfortunately Carl also feels stuck and has tried several times on his own to ‘move‘ himself from where he is towards his ideals. He experienced few successes because he lacked following through and would stops easily. Before I started working with Carl he was wondering what was holding him back.
At work Carl is steadily advancing and ready to start planning for his future. He aspires to buy a house and have family of his own. However, he understands that he will have to make some adjustments internally in order for this to become his reality.
So what is it about Carl that makes him an Ideal Coaching Client?
Simply put Carl has made that all-important-decision to change and start living the fuller and more satisfying life he desires. Carl is very coachable, he recognises the value of working with a coach who will help him to tap into his own inner resources for achieving success. He trusts in the coaching process to help him design, create his purposeful life plan and to map out a path towards his goals.
Through coaching I help Carl to reveal and overcome his Gremlins (that inner voice some of us hear that tries to sabotage or work against us ..if we let it), Assumptions, Interpretations and Limiting-beliefs (GAIL’s) and envisage the life that he most desires. Carl and I put together SMART goals and purposeful plans for action. We identified success indicators along the way, which, I encourage and hold Carl accountable for taking the action steps. We celebrate each of his successes along the way. Carl respects and values the coaching sessions he’s always on time and committed to his development and continuous improvement. Carl is trusting and has an open mind. Also Carl works hard to complete the assignments we agree for him to do between our weekly coaching sessions.
Carl signed up to my 6-month breakthrough-coaching program with each session held weekly over a Skype call. Carl is reaping the rewards of his efforts and has made many improvements, he is focused, has clear goals and crucially a sustainable strategy for achieving them.
