Benefits of Proper Coaching Program Planning
Coaching program design is the foundation for progress and provides the template for clients to improve their health and wellness.
There are few aspects of life that are realized – or successful – without investing the required time and effort to develop realistic and inspiring plans. Think “the good is never easy, the easy is never good”. Our corporate wellness coaches, know all too well how proper program planning is the foundation for forward progress, change, and transformation. But planning and goal setting are also standards for individual coaches, with core coaching competencies to provide guidance. Plans that are realistic and inspiring provide the template for clients to improve their health and wellness.
Top-level coaches know that you have to deploy well-designed processes to intervene with clients. Their mastery use of vision planned and goal-setting processes for all coaches in the coaching profession can be used with virtually all clients. These tried and true strategies are well-suited for the journey our client undergoes toward mastery of their own health and well-being. Not only does it assist clients in establishing healthier habits and making behavioral changes that endure, but clients also learn new life skills that encourage change while building the confidence and capacity for future changes.
Coaches assist clients in developing well-conceived plans through the creation of a compelling self-vision over a period of time – be it three months from now or even weekly behavioral goals that support an overall change effort while boosting confidence to keep the client on track. It is very much a planned endeavor.
The Need to Design a Collaboration
Program design is normally viewed through the lens of a personal fitness trainer. But coaches use their own form of design thinking. In an abstract way, coaches have borrowed concepts from the world of architects, designers, and artists, to provide some important principles in the creation of plans for their clients.
Coaches support clients in creating a vision of clarity, including what they want to build, and then helping to make plans to create strong foundations to build upon. In the design process, the coach as a “designer” takes a solution-based approach, made from part analysis and part creative imagination. This intent to bring something new and compelling into existence represents a proactive stance that gets at the heart of the matter, by design.
Strategies for Designing Coaching Programs
This collaborative state depends on powerful, open-ended questions, active listening, and above all, empathy. The coach as a “designer” doesn’t come to the design stage with a predetermined idea of what the client’s vision and goals are to be. Instead, coaches honor the principles of design that rely on some very specific strategies.
Collaboration
The coaching design strategy observes the power and value of the collaborative nature of inspiration in its application. The constructionist principle of appreciative inquiry states that reality, as we know it, is a subjective state (not objective) and is socially created through language and conversations. This is what informs collaborations when they function at their highest level. Lessons we take from social cognitive theory suggest an acceptance of the power of two people working toward a meta-design, With coaching collaborations in mind, this can be one’s design for life.
Showing empathy
Having empathy requires that we view the world through the eyes and minds of our clients. To make this happen we use our skills to encourage our clients to share their own stories and we do one thing: we listen. We listen for the words used to describe their perspectives – but we also listen for the unspoken aspect, too. We confirm things by checking out intuitions, and at the same time, we are encouraging our clients to show us their creativity in their thoughts.
Optimism: required
Regardless of the challenges our clients are facing, we always believe that there is a solution we can work toward. We have confidence in our client’s ability to be successful; for this reason, we always work toward boosting confidence levels. Another tenet of appreciative inquiry is the anticipatory principle – this means that we use vision to create a positive image of the client at a point somewhere later in time. This can often become a goal, and thus becomes part of the strategy design.
Experimenting with Strategies in Your Design
Skilled coaches are less reluctant to try new strategies. We use good questions and explore our client’s constraints in ways that can take your co-active relationship in a new direction. When creating a client vision and outcome goals, the coach and client let go of the idea that the first idea is the best plan. This allows for more experimentation, evaluation, and redesign of your client plans.
Designing the Coaching Strategy
The first session with a client can set the stage for the overall coaching relationship. This means we work to establish trust and build rapport right away. This is critical to get right because the work we continue doing will be ongoing for the weeks and months that follow. The design of the relationship you create is enhanced when you can include empathy, positivity, creativity in your collaboration, and a transformative mindset through experimentation. When done at the start of working with a client, it is a best practice for transformation.
The Coaching Agreement – Designing an Alliance
The first session is an opportunity to ask a few simple questions to get to know your client and learn about aspects of their lifestyle. This includes the client’s occupation, family dynamics, interests, hobbies, physical activities, or just their daily routine.
During this time, look to find common ground with yourself and your client. The coach should obviously have a brief description to share of themself but should be kept to a minimum. The focus is always on the client – but it is also related to the client’s agenda for coaching positive outcomes.
Be sincere, but do not hesitate to share your philosophy about coaching; it is also a good idea to explain your education and maybe even a bit of your past experiences in coaching situations. Show your passion. Remember, a client can often tell when the coach is reciting lines, and this can put your authenticity in question. Before beginning the coaching session, ask “What is most important for you to know about me before we start?”
Of course, the underlying reason for these ice-breaker conversations is to establish a sense of connection, trust, and rapport between coach and client. We all have a need to feel like we are part of something, that we matter and that we are worthy of transformation. This is accomplished by showing genuine concern and long-term interest in working together. Clients need to feel connected to others and have a sense of belonging to others.
It is important for the coach to design the coaching relationship above all with deep respect for the talents, strengths, and skills that each client brings with them. This appreciation is also a cornerstone of great coaching outcomes.
Where Can You Learn More?
Spencer Institute and NESTA are here to guide each step of the process. Be sure you take advantage of our course, programs, CEUs, and career training opportunities. Be on the lookout for future articles about more ways to get an endless stream of clients for your training or coaching business. You will also want to search through the archives of our blog because there are many other articles that go into great depth about dozens of other ways to get clients.
Here are a few for you to checkout now:
- How to Break into Corporate Wellness & Create Impactful Programs
- Helping Ambivalent Clients Using Motivational Interviewing
- Using Coaching Skills to Overcome Client Ambivalence
- 7 Reasons You Might Not be Selling Your Coaching Sessions
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