Become a Coach: Ten Ways to Succeed Quickly

Want to become a successful coach? Make sure your coach training includes everything you need...

Success at becoming a coach depends on your learning style and how committed you are to the process. For best results, combine at least several of the methods listed below.

1. Listen to coaching classes. Passive attendance in coaching classes is probably the most common method that people use to learn to coach and it can work - eventually. Problem is, you’re not really learning coaching, you’re just learning about coaching. (Big distinction.) School of Coaching Mastery has many classes you can listen to and we encourage you to do far more than that, as well. Read on…

2. Listen to masterful coaching demonstrations. Here, you’re getting much closer to learning to coach. You’re hearing what works. (However, sometimes hearing what doesn’t work is even more enlightening and actually practicing coaching is better still!) All our coaching skills classes include coaching demonstrations from some of the top instructors in the field.

3. Practice coaching other coaches. This is a fantastic way to learn, because it strengthens your coaching muscles and gives you a safe space to make mistakes. (To get full value, though, you need to be willing to screw up in front of your friends! ;-) SCM coaching skills Modules always include practice periods where everyone gets a chance to use what they just learned and we encourage you to practice outside classes and give you tools for finding practice partners, a.k.a. “coaching buddies”, easily. Join the SCHOOL OF COACHING MASTERY ON FACEBOOK to find coaching buddies now.

4. Get expert verbal feedback on your coaching. This is one of the best ways to learn. Get immediate feedback from an expert. Some coaches are afraid to experience this, but when done well, it’s inspiring, not painful. You learn what works, what doesn’t, why you got stuck, why you succeeded, and/or why the client resisted and how to do it even better next time. Great stuff! (Why struggle along, not knowing if you’re doing it right?) At SCM you’ll get frequent feedback on your coaching from your instructors in class and private email feedback after class. Without it, learning coaching skills can feel like target practice in a dark room! Click the link for upcoming coaching classes where you can get feedback are here.

5. Listen to recordings of yourself coaching. This is priceless! You’ll be surprised what you hear and what you learn. (Former President of the IAC, Natalie Tucker Miller, MMC, says she still records her coaching sessions for her own learning.) Your SCM classes are all recorded and you’ll receive those recordings by email within 24 hours, so you can hear everything you may have missed.

6. Read expert written notes about your coaching. This is even more powerful when you follow up verbal feedback with reading written notes and listening to the recording of your coaching session. Big “Aha’s” happen here. (As one coach put it, “Now I’m not flying blind, anymore!”) You’ll get frequent written feedback on your coaching if you take our Coaching Groundwork Advanced or Master Coach Training series. We don’t know of another coaching school that does this for its students. Check out upcoming Coaching Groundwork Advanced and Master Coach Training modules.

7. Listen to your peers coach and take detailed notes. This uses your brain in a whole different way. When you write down what you’re hearing, you’re imprinting what you’re learning. SCM classes use ICF and IAC scorecards to speed up your learning this way and you can use these scorecards to score yourself when you listen to recordings of your own coaching, too.

8. Give verbal feedback to your peers about their coaching. When you articulate specific feedback about what you heard (Not just “It was nice”), you take a stand for what you know and you find out quickly if you’re on the right track. You’ll learn how to deliver excellent feedback in our Masteries Classes. Learning to do this, while being in service to your colleagues' learning, is fun!

9. Meet in study groups with your peers. No “experts” allowed! Without the presence of a teacher or any other “expert”, coaches start to step up and take ownership of what they know. Often, this is a crucial final step to becoming masterful. (Peer-to-peer learning is powerful!) That’s why SCM has ongoing study groups, hosted by coach/students, like you, meeting every month and they’re free. Go here to find out more: Coaching Study Groups

10. Coaching real clients. (What a concept! ;-). This obviously is what you’re preparing for. Coach real people in real situations. Develop ongoing relationships with clients, because that relationship is about a lot more than one coaching session. If you can get feedback from your clients, that’s a hundred times better. This is one of the many reasons why the Coach 100 Revolution has been so successful. Coaches get written feedback from everyone they coach and find out what works from the client’s perspective. The Coach 100 Revolution is included in the SCM Full Coach Training program.

School of Coaching Mastery is the only coaching school that incorporates all of these methods into our coach training programs and that’s why our coaches learn so much, so fast. To get on the fast track to masterful coaching, join us here.

To talk to a real person and ask questions you may have about the school, call 877-244-2780

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Topics: coach training, School of Coaching Mastery, become a coach, coaching success, ICF, certified life coach, Julia Stewart, IAC, certified coach, Coaching Study Groups

The Secret to Coaching Success: Servant Entrepreneurs Unite!

Posted by Julia Stewart

I've been playing with the concept of the Servant Entrepreneur, a phrase that I coined when looking for the entrepreneurial equivalent of Servant Leader (http://www.greenleaf.org/). I'll be speaking about it at a new seminar titled, THE SERVANT ENTREPRENEUR: How to Become Irresistibly Attractive to Money, Opportunities and People.

In a previous post in the Coaching Blog, I wrote that the Servant Entrepreneur was probably the only business model that will bring sustainable success to coaches.

What is the Servant Entrepreneur business model?

1. Do service for others.
2. Leverage that service (and everything else) to grow your business and create value for your clients, yourself and the world.

In that order.

Simple, huh? Maybe you're already doing it. But maybe not.

Most coaches start out with this as their purpose, more or less, but it gets lost, easily. Especially while you're getting hyped by marketing programs that tell you how to make lots of money as a coach.

Are you making lots of money, yet?

If you're not, then you may be focusing on the wrong step. Most coaches either focus on doing service and leave out the leveraging piece, or they focus on the leveraging piece and only do service as an after thought, which comes across as manipulative to savvy potential clients. Or they flip back and forth, which doesn't work, either. Do you see yourself in here?

How do you consistently do service first and leverage second and become enormously successful (like say, Oprah Winfrey or Thomas Leonard)?

I don't pretend to have all the answers and yet, I've seen it in action and it works and I've seen coaches who don't get it, even "top" coaches, crash and burn.

Here's the tricky part: The Ego and the Greater Self need to kiss and make up.

If you've done your personal development, you know what I'm talking about. (If not, get to work!)

However, most PD programs encourage you to live only from the greater self and get the ego out of the picture. The ego is what has driven humankind for tens of thousands of years. Now some folks are giving it the boot; calling it "pathological" or "dysfunctional". Maybe it's neither. Maybe the greater self is just an upgrade, like from DOS to WindowsXP.

Ego is a source of energy, expensive energy maybe, like foreign oil, but useful at least for now. The Self runs cleaner, but it can use a boost in order to get things done in the temporal world - the one where business occurs. The ego can be placed in service of the greater self and visa versa, kind of like hybrid cars use two different energy sources and produce cleaner running cars. You're probably already doing that to some degree: It feels better to come from the Self and the ego likes to feel good, so it's willing to go there, right? That's why doing service feels good.

Why not let the Self support the ego, too? Having a greater voice in the world, having the power and money to do great good - wouldn't that serve the Self? So why not let the ego succeed at the things it wants, when those things can also serve the Self? For example, why not let the ego have all the money and success that it craves - as long as it's doing service?

If you ever visited thomasleonard.com while he was still alive (You can still go there by going to www.waybackmachine.org and typing in thomasleonard.com and choose the dates that you want to look at. Currently his URL just goes to a memorial site.), you know that his tagline was, "Ego is good." Ever wonder what he meant by that? He'd already discovered that ego can place the Self in service of the world. Without it, you may as well retire to your cave and meditate for the rest of your life. Not a bad thing, but if you're an entrepreneur, it's not your thing.

Thomas made SE work.

How can you start putting SE to work for you (and the world)?

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Topics: coaching success, Thomas Leonard, Servant Entrepreneur

This Prevents Coaching Success: Are You Suffering From the Kiss of Death?

Posted by Julia Stewart

death Should you get coach certification or fill your practice, first?

I get asked this question a lot by coaches that I'm mentoring, because these are two of my mentor coach specialties (the other is advanced personal development).

I'm a little mystified by this question. Why does it have to be either/or?

Most coaches aren't independantly wealthy, so getting clients quickly is important to them. On the other hand, they know that getting certified is important, too. Not so much because it's important to clients - most potential clients won't even ask if you're certified. The real reason certification helps coaches be successful is because it helps them get past feeling insecure, like frauds, like people who don't quite know what they're doing, yet.

That's the Kiss of Death for coaches who are trying to sell their coaching services!

So, the stamp of approval that certifcation brings is important to the coach, not the client.

However, coach certification can take years of hard work. How do you survive in the process? Well, fill your coachng practice, of course. But hold on! How do you fill your practice if you're still suffering from the Kiss of Death??

That's why the Coach 100 Program is designed the way that it is. To make it easy to sign on clients, even though you're new to coaching. There's something about being part of a program and having made a commitment to coach 100 people that makes it easy to ask people to help you out by letting you give them complimentary sessions. Each session you give is priceless practice for your coaching skills and your selling skills. Long before you finish coaching 100 people, you'll be excellent at both and getting clients and certifications will be a piece of cake.

Not only that, but you'll get the Certified Experienced Coach designation, too. With 100 clients under your belt, you'll have strong skills and certification, too. No more Kiss of Death!

Hmm, Kiss of Death or Piece of Cake? That's an easy one.

If you don't know the Coach 100 techniques to invite people to complimentary sessions, take Coach 100 classes #1 through #4. (a.k.a. C100 Module 1)

Find out more about the Coach 100 Business Success Program.

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Topics: coaching business, coach training, Coach 100, coaching clients, Coaching 100, coaching success, Coach Certification, certified coach

What Does Coaching Excellence Mean to You?

Posted by Julia Stewart

For me,

Excellence = Success.

Maybe it's not quite that simple, but when you take all the skills a successful coach has, from coaching skills to marketing skills, you find that the more excellent the skills, the more success the coach is likely to enjoy.

Yes, I know, even a mediocre coach with great marketing skills can be successful. But an excellent coach with great marketing skills will trump the mediocre coach in the long haul.

Too many coaches mistake getting clients with coaching success. That's only half the equation. Keeping clients is what gives us sustainable success. When a good percentage of your clients stay for years, rather than months, the time and money you need to spend on marketing is hugely reduced. And if you've got a reputation as an excellent coach, referrals will come effortlessly.

Getting Clients + Keeping Clients = Sustainable Success

Effortless Referrals + Keeping Clients = Less Marketing

See how excellence is the key to having sustainable success AND the freedom to live the great life that coaches love to talk about (even though they're working seven days a week at marketing)? Without excellence, you're stuck on that marketing merry-go-round of having to sell, Sell, SELL.

Phew! Wears me out to think about it!

Coaching excellence lives at the leading edge; the developing edge that's constantly transcending and including what has gone before, while creating what's needed now. Coaches who possess excellence are willing to move out of their comfort zones regularly in order evolve ahead of the masses. It's our job to lead.

That's why I'm asking what coaching excellence means to you. We're constantly creating it, so no one ever completely knows what it is. We need to keep asking.

When you think about it, every bit of information that exists in the world begins with a question.

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Topics: Coaching, coaching success, marketing, getting clients, coaching excellence