Coach-Client Application
In coaching, clients gain clarity on the areas of life that matter most so they can set meaningful goals. The coach facilitates this process by asking open questions that help the client articulate as honestly as possible her relationship to her life circumstances and goals. The following are some important areas where the coach-client conversations will focus.
What are your Strengths?
Many people, particularly women, feel social pressure to downplay strengths. However, in coaching clients are encouraged to talk frankly about their talents, skills, and abilities. It is a waste of time and energy to worry about being boastful or to downplay competence. Recognizing and marshaling strengths is essential to success for two reasons: first, it feeds healthy self-confidence; and second, it gives much needed energy for the journey.
What are your life roles?
Society offers people many roles, and sometimes we accept these roles without questioning them. Take being a parent for example. Most cultures have strong expectations for how women should mother and men should father. It may be frowned upon to consider other ways of doing it that might threaten the norm. In coaching, clients investigate these roles in light of the changing circumstances and opportunities of modern life. They can then identify roles they are comfortable with and that are in line with their values.
What are your values?
As with life roles, people often take on the values of others. These received frameworks for interpreting information and making decisions may come from families, educational institutions, organizations, churches, or the workplace. These values may serve them well; however, there are times when certain patterns of thinking can be detrimental to achieving one’s potential. In coaching, clients examine their values with a deliberate eye towards culling the ones that do not serve their best interests and cultivating the ones that they truly believe will help themselves and their community.
What are your goals?
Sometimes, clients come to coaching knowing they need change but are not sure about the exact goal. Other times they come with a specific goal and find that the process of coaching and gaining clarity causes them to question, change, or adjust the goal. This recursive process is normal. In coaching, clients get clear on a goal before moving forward. When this alignment happens, the goal is crystalized and lights the path forward.
With clarity of self, roles, values and goals, clients build a solid foundation to support them as they move forward into developing a mindset that will lead them to success and fulfillment.
Mindset
Our life always expresses the result of our dominant thoughts. – Soren Kierkegaard
What is mindset?
The Oxford dictionary says mindset is a “fixed mental attitude or disposition that predetermines a person’s responses to and interpretations of situations.”
Basically, it’s our thinking patterns. Most of us accept that our attitude affects what we experience. It’s the difference between having a good day or a bad day. But can we take this a step further and say that our mindset actually creates our reality? The answer is yes. This is what Kierkegaard is saying in the quote above. There are practical scientific and psychological reasons to explain why.