Over the years I’ve had a few people come to me for business coaching
who didn’t want to come but were ‘forced’ to by their business or
personal partners. I never knew this until I had the person in front of
me, looking and sounding reluctant and resentful and who could blame
them. I’ve noticed that some people don’t realise coaching is a working
partnership between the coach and the client. And like any successful
partnership, it requires both parties to be compatible, comfortable with
one another and share a desire to work together. Forced participation,
on the part of the client, is seldom successful, I’ve found. It wastes
the client’s time, energy and money and isn’t that great for the coach
either! Successful client participation is characterised by the client
really wanting to work with someone to help them enhance their
management or business practises; the client knowing specifically what
they want to work on; and most importantly of all, they’re highly
motivated to learn, try new things and do whatever is needed, to achieve
results. When all these elements come together, with a skilled coach,
the effect can be truly transformational…