Life coaches have the responsibility to make the life of humans comfortable in terms of morale and the right direction. Life coaching is a noble profession developed for the betterment of society and its people.
There are so many principles of life that teach us to lead a successful and happy life. But not everyone is acquainted with the execution of these principles. Therefore life coaching is one of the most popular courses pursued by young adults.
Let me make this easier for you. Can you imagine the feeling you have when the next day you have an important exam? Don’t you feel stressed, nervous, tense, and frightened?
You will never want that feeling to stay for life long. Will you? Now consider this same feeling haunts the life of a depressed person. In such conditions, only an experienced life coach can make it easier for a depressed person to get out of depression.
Signs That You Need a Life Coach
Sometimes you don’t know that you need assistance, you can take it. People who are under anxiety and stress may believe that they are the only one who has to go through such a scenario. But, my friend, that isn’t the case anywhere.
A life coach will tell you that he/she is approached by similar people every day. It’s their job and they know how to do it.
Most people dwindle between situations like entrepreneurship, marriage, divorce, spirituality, self-esteem, self-doubt, and health issues. You may be finding it hard to socialise with people due to any cause.
A good life coach will assist and guide you out of the dark roads of loneliness. He/she can hold you back and give you a push to enlightenment. Obstacles are a part of life and not everyone is accustomed to dodging all that comes. But a life coach dedicates his/her knowledge to this purpose.
Read more: Reasons Why You Need A Life Coach
Qualities Of Great Life Coaches
1. Optimistic Behaviour
Optimism can save the world from wars and weapons. With optimism, every person hopes for a better present and a happy future. But on the contrary, we see youngsters, adults, teenagers, and even the old indulged in shadows of negativity. We want our destiny to be great but in the process forget that it is the present that we owe.
A life coach’s main character includes an encouraging thought strategy. You might find that people do this for money. Yes, it is but the knowledge that is disseminated through this process is priceless.
Spreading wrong messages in the name of optimism is not the job of a life coach. They make you look at reality with open bright eyes.
2. Passionate For Work and Help
If you aren’t passionate about what you are doing, you cannot fake it for long. Today or tomorrow, you will be fed up with the same. What after that? Don’t know? Let’s see.
The life coach as a part of his profession dons the character of many individuals. Sometimes he/she can be your friend while sometimes your greatest critic. Both of these are necessary.
Preaching a solution is easy. Anyone can do it. But making it happen by backing the process is the assignment of a life coach. He/she displays the best weapons and strategies to take you to unthinkable heights of excellence.
3. Great Listener
A great life coach is the best listener. I can assure you one who doesn’t listen can never be your problem. But as the client, you also need to show your trust in the life coach once assuming that he/she is all open to hearing from you.
Listening is a part of good life coaching skills. Bookish answers copied from autobiographies and motivational documentaries are nowadays the easiest way of preaching life coaching. But it’s not the real way how the job is done.
Such momentary spouts of motivation are variable and don’t stay for long if you don’t know the root cause.
With the help of a good life coach, you aim to remove the root cause permanently if possible.
Check out: Your Guide On How to Improve Listening Skills
4. Non-judgy
Decreeing hateful comments and shaming people’s situations is the easiest way of condemning self-confidence. But have you ever thought, the concept of, you can do it champ, can work wonders for a disheartened man?
A life coach tries his/her best to accomplish this only. They sit with no hate sentiments towards the person sitting in front. They have open eyes, minds and souls ready to accept anything that comes from forth. This is the way it works miracles. But it’s just the beginning. Life coaching can go on for months to years together. The duration varies from one person to another.
5. Non-opinionated
Forming an opinion based on how one dresses and presents is not enough. You can be yourself in front of a life coach. You can be the real you. Life coaches are simple people aimed at supporting people from scratch. The sense of accountability is never lost in them.
Most important is, whether the client is making progress after every session or not. Without progress, there is always a scope to try an alternative way. It is sometimes a hit-and-trial play but with mindful steps.
So never forget to take and give feedback on how you feel after and before the session. Progress is requisite.
6. Inquisitive
Inquisitiveness or curiosity or the zeal to know you better is the prime quality of a life coach. One cannot diagnose treatments, without the history of the ill person. This is how it should work.
A thorough understanding of what landed the client in such a situation, and how it started, progressed, and has been taking a toll on his/her life are the important questions mostly asked by life coaches.
This is named the queer questioning skills of an enthusiast life coach. Without this, no life coach can earn money. Keeping the questionnaire dedicated to the problem in a concern of the client is the craft of being a good life coach.
Clients are hesitant to speak about personal details about their life and profession. They may tell you their problem but leave loopholes or make false stories to make their story look real.
A great life coach looks into the details of each crossroad and makes sure that they connect to an expected point.
7. Transparency in communication
Confusion is like black clouds that can bar the rays of sunlight from reaching the earth. Similarly, if you are perplexed during or after the session then there is no point in attending one.
A good life coach establishes a transparent bridge between the speaker and the listener. He/she takes every step towards the client and nowhere else. The conversation exists because the client stands for it.
They follow a systematic approach to how the client was before he entered the space and how he is present. The objective shouldn’t be to make the person uncomfortable with arching questions. While the matter of fact should be to make the client believe in the life coach and be open to all types of questions.
8. Vigilant and open-eyed
Integrity, transparency, probity, and clarity are the words that can describe a successful interaction between the listener and the speaker.
You can not make a dumb person speak. Similarly, you cannot make a resistant person open to you in the first go. It tests the patience and dedication of every life coach.
Life coaches should eye upgrading their skills through empirical skills and certification courses. Every person is unique and even his problem. You cannot impose radical solutions like handling a dose of paracetamol on every fever patient.
Examine the case closely before passing implications. An open-eyed demeanour means examining the client’s hand movements, facial expressions, lines of wrinkles, and even speech. Is the client brought in force or is he uncomfortable before relatives and unknown persons?
Can You Become a Life Coach?
Getting the position of a life coach is no easy deal. It is a profession and includes the same amount of time and endeavour in pursuing one. You should be ambitious, passionate, and dedicated towards your professional goals.
Yes, you can become a life coach if you have acquired a good certified degree and engage your professional skills in actually solving a problem.
As said, bookish knowledge can’t be trusted unless you have practised them in practice. You cannot run a horse after reading a book. Similarly, you cannot solve a real-life problem by reciting the answers from your books.
Steps to Attain a Life Coach Degree as a Profession
- Know Your Niche
Life coaching is vast because people and their problems are vast. So for clarity, life coaching subjects have been classified into headings. You can choose your domain and specialise in any of them.
These domains will help you know your target audience. It reduces the transition from one problem to another. Hence focussing, studying, and researching on a specialised class of customers.
Some of them are currently asked domains are:
- Pre-marriage, Marriage relationships and Divorce
- Family Planning
- Business and entrepreneurship
- Employment choice
- Job transitions
- Balance in work and profession
- Health
- Spirituality
- Academic issues
- Enter a professional training program
Alleviating mankind from problems of daily life needs you to be trained holistically. It is a big responsibility for a single person. During the time of specialised training, one has to learn from his/her seniors and prospective coaches who are already in the field training.
The teachers can impart psychological training and teach the activities to be conducted during a session. One learns how to successfully conduct psychological assessments to learn about the client’s mental thinking stamina.
Lastly, it is ethics that must be kept in mind. One cannot breach the distance that has to be maintained between a coach and a client.
An aspiring life coach should aim for getting accreditation from industry associations as they help you get better employment opportunities. The duration of life coach training is between 18-24 months. The fees are variable.
- Obtain the Certification
Getting a credential for portraying your soft skills is a must to go a long way. People will come to you by seeing the amount of work you have done, the experience gained, and most importantly the institute from where you achieved your degree.
Try to go for certificate courses from the International Coach Federation and the International Association of Coaching. There you have to fulfil 400-500 hours of training with 25+ clients. The membership fee starts from 169$.
- Set up your business profile
Life coaching is as well as a business as it is imparting support to humans. There are chargeable legal proceedings that you have to pay for to protect your business and give it a legal name. The process of setting up a business profile may vary from state to state. The charges can be less 300$ including attributing a business name, licence, and website.
- Start the Work
People in need often fall into the trap of fake life coaching. So as a responsible life coach, you should go for true ad-making. Your promises should not be overwhelming but statistical. There should be a helpline where clients can easily contact you. Objectify your advertisements by placing them on targeted populations.
Attending webinars and public get together will make you stand close to the public attention. Your niche starts operating smoothly, once you start the work and set positive examples of excellence. The preaching then gets diversified.
Your customers will spread the word for you. So all it matters is the quality of your services. Urge your clients to write testimonials on your website and public page. This brings the feeling of openness.
Last but not the least, if you are a life coach or seeking help from a life coach, don’t stop. You can easily find one by checking on useful websites related to your query. We hope we have solved most of your queries through this article. It is meant to make life coaching easier and accessible for all.
