I recognize the following essential components/levels/elements in coaching:
Soul/spiritual/emotional: Being a coach, doing the coaching thing, has to bring you joy and pleasure. It has to feed your soul to be a coach. Don't go there if it's not there.
Not only does it have to be there in the beginning, in the form of delight in learning about coaching, in interacting with clients or in some way that fits you in the coaching world, but you also have to maintain it, feed it, build it in, and renew your spirit so that joy and satisfaction doesn't diminish.
Freely adapt and innovate, retool, tweak and transform your coaching activities, areas of specialization or investigation, so it fits you. You may need to evolve coaching and/or your part in it or use of it for coaching to be continually a satisfying area to be in (not everybody needs to, but you may).
Structure/framework--the business part, and the routines. Neglect these at your peril. Establish your business framework and routines first. Tweak and improve them as you go along. Evaluate them at regular intervals. Put it on your calendar.
Interpersonal--clients and associates (other coaches, friends, fellow students, professional contacts). You have to enjoy being around the people in your field. Not all of them, because there are going to be irritating ones, incompetent ones, and just plain stinkers.
But, find compatriots you enjoy and interact with them. Partner, and if that partner, or those partners don't quite work, seek others and gently distance from the ones who aren't as satisfying. Do not take, or keep when you discover they aren't satisfying, clients who don't give you joy. If you feel drained after a call, it's a good indication the match isn't right.
Creation--Innovation, ideas, products, new ways of approaching coaching, client needs and your needs, evolution, importing from another field, educating yourself.
Coaching is a living art, it flows and evolves. Keep the good stuff you discover, and make it your own. But, keep the pipeline flowing, add to, innovate with, discover and tweak.
Satisfaction: Coaching can be very satisfying and energizing. And it can also be very dissatisfying and discouraging. There is nothing quite like helping a client make a wonderful life change, or to hear someone say with passion, "You changed my life!" But, from those highs, there are also the disappointments, disrespectful clients, ungrateful clients, liars and cheats.
Make sure you add, purposefully, five satisfiers for yourself, from some source, for every dissatisfying experience. You'll need that to keep your satisfaction balance in the black column.
What else is there? Want to share your experiences, tips, suggestions and opinions? If so, please comment below.
Prof Pat
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