What Does A Life Coach Do?

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There are some weird ideas out there about what a Life Coach does and does not do with their clients and I think I have heard most of them (in fact I covered off some of the more bizarre ones in a Blog a month or so ago). 

I was talking with somebody this last week and got asked ‘What makes you think you are in a position to tell somebody else how to live his or her life?’ I get asked either this question or a variation of it on a fairly regular basis. Initially it irritated me but now I try and see it as an opportunity to educate somebody about life coaching.

My job or that of any personal coach is not to tell people what to do with their lives, it’s not even to tell them how to do whatever it is they want to do.
A coach’s job is to align with a client and help them see that they already have the resources to do whatever it is they want to do. More often than not this is done by using questions to shift they way clients think about things, because without changing old thinking patterns it is very difficult to invoke meaningful change. Any question that gets a client to tilt their head and say, “hmm, you know I’d never really thought about it like that before” is probably a good question in a coaching environment.

It isn’t necessary for me to know the minutiae of a clients life to be successful in working with them, I do not require a higher level of education or to be better than the client about whatever it is we are working on, I simply need to be able to listen, ask great questions and be supportive to be successful.

So if you are considering taking it to the next level by hiring a life or business coach don’t get too wrapped up in their background and credentials. Make sure the coach is qualified of course but more than that make sure that your gut instinct tells you that it feels right and that you could work with this person because that is what really matters if you are going to extract the most from the process.