What skills are important for Life Coaches?
Communication
Coaching requires a back-and-forth flow of words and ideas between the coach and the client. Learning to evaluate a client’s situation objectively, without bias, and communicate suggestions effectively is crucial for a Life Coach. Clients are often in a place of weakness when asking for assistance, and gaining their trust through understanding and compassion can start them on their journey in a positive manner. The struggles that they are experiencing are at the forefront of their mind and extremely important. If they understand that you see it that way too, the client-coach team is already on a path towards success.
Listening
Listening is an integral part of the life coaching process. Coaches learn to listen with focus, attuned to the issues on the surface, but also with intuition as to other aspects of a client’s life that may be holding them back from success. Through the listening process alone, coaches provide support and compassion to the clients they serve, and provide a safe place to begin the building process.
Positivity
Maintaining a positive outlook on life can have a significant impact on those around us. Life Coaches know this as well as anyone, and use their positivity to foster motivation and inspiration in others. Those who hire Life Coaches often feel trapped and frustrated by their current situation, but being supported by someone who is consistently providing positive encouragement makes it difficult to fail.
Compassion
We all, at some point in our lives, face difficulties that can seem insurmountable. It is a part of being human. Life coaches provide compassion, understanding and a helping hand to those who are reaching out for guidance. Some of the greatest rewards of the coaching profession come from sharing the initial sense of vulnerability with a client and then walking with them step by step as they climb towards achievement through their own hard work.
What challenges do Life Coaches face?
Life coaching, like any career, is not free from challenges. In fact, challenges are inherent to the process, as coaching centres on helping the client overcome personal and professional set-backs to chart them on a disciplined course towards a solution. Though a very rewarding and important process, working through client problems can be difficult. Creating an understanding of what needs to be accomplished is critical to the work.
Comprehending these needs and developing solutions take patience, calmness and attention to the well-being of the clients. The clients are looking to the coach for guidance and to act as a “stable ship” in rough seas. Therefore, the ability to communicate well and build a working relationship with the client in which they feel trust in the coach is key to success in the profession. In order to build this trust, a coach must continually develop and maintain listening skills. The ability to listen with intention and develop empathy provides a platform where the client feels safe to discuss their hopes and fears. Through patience and understanding, achieving this level of communication can move the relationship to the point where the primary tasks of goal-setting and movement can begin.
A common struggle with coaching is the tendency to give advice to the client. Since coaching focuses on helping the client hear their own inner voice that will guide them, advice based on personal experience is not typically useful. It is important for the client to build up their own ability to know what is best for themselves, and let their intuition provide the “advice” required to complete the tasks they need to accomplish in order to meet their own definition of success.
Is Life Coaching the right career for me?
A career as a Life Coach is similar to other careers that involve providing services to clients. Success will depend on attitude, motivation and willingness to work hard. The life coaching profession provides many benefits, such as:
• Ability to create a positive impact in the life of another person
• Personal growth
• Wide range of client backgrounds
• Flexible work schedule
• Option to work from home
Ultimately, the decision to become a Life Coach is a personal one. The challenges of coaching come hand-in-hand with a lifetime of rewarding experiences and personal development.
How do I start working as a Life Coach?
Life coaching is a very personal profession, in that the coach works one-on-one with a single client to achieve their goals, similar to a piano teacher or a personal trainer. As such, the majority of life coaches are self-employed. They enjoy the freedom of being their own boss, the flexibility of setting their own schedule and the choice to run their business out of their home if they like.
Opportunities for life coaches have never been greater. We all face an increasing amount of stress from a world that seems to move faster on a daily basis. Add family responsibilities, health concerns and financial considerations to the mix and it can make for a lot of unhealthy pressure if not balanced properly. On a larger scale, corporations are increasingly interested in providing life coaching services for their employees. Increased productivity and enhanced morale are important to companies, and providing the employees with opportunities to balance their lives creates a positive situation for everyone involved.
Providing services to these potential clients is achieved by letting them know who you are and what you do. Once they have a chance to meet you and see that you are truly interested in making a positive, lasting impact on their life you can begin to establish a trusting relationship. Providing a workshop for businesses, creating a coaching blog and attending networking functions are all ways to reach out to those who can benefit from your skills. Once you start providing services to others, your clients will pass their positive experience on to their friends and colleagues, creating a referral network based on quality coaching.
How much can I expect to earn as a Life Coach?
Being self-employed, life coaches are free to set their own rates for services. In general, the majority of life coaches charge approximately $150 to $650 per hour for their work. Assuming that a 60-minute call is held weekly with a client, this is a range of $280 to $500 per month for one client. Assuming that a life coach has a moderate workload of around ten clients, that is equivalent to $2,800 to $5,000 per month or $33,600 to $60,000 per year. The salary average in Australia for life coaches is around $70,000, with a worldwide salary range up to a high of approximately $275,000, which can be typical for life coaches who coach for corporations. Life coaches who become involved in corporate coaching normally charge around $500 per hour and coaches can expect monthly reimbursement ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 depending on the length and frequency of the training sessions.
Overall, life coaches can earn very attractive salaries, depending on their target clients, experience and desired workload. It is a truly rewarding profession, where the satisfaction of creating a positive experience is combined with the potential to make a good living doing something you love.
Want more information?
Please contact me via my contact form at vCita:
© Copyright 2016. All Rights Reserved.