Effectiveness VS Effortfulness
by Thomas J. Leonard

Each morning as I wake up, I think to myself "What can I write about or do today that will move my clients forward easily?"

This is a pretty big question and it brings up the notion of what a coach can do to facilitate their clients' growth and help them to reach their goals in half the time it might ordinarily take. Some of the things that a coach can do to accelerate their clients' success are:

1. Spend time with their clients (coaching calls).

2. Make requests, big ones.

3. Be more of a model (not for the client, but for oneself).

4. Be with the client in such a way as to "transfer" wisdom, love, knowledge, attainments kind of like the way Spock did it in the Mind Meld on Star Trek. An ultimate connection, including mind, body and soul. (We're working on this technology at Coach U! Spock had too many headaches when HE did this.)

5. Say just the right thing in the right way at the right time to the right client.

TIMING

I think we all know what it's like to do linear consulting or linear coaching -- that is, when we offer advice, or work on the solution or support the client in their decisions in a traditional way. This process works and it can work very, very well, especially when the coach focuses on WHO the client is and needs to become vs (but in addition to) WHAT the client should/can do, which is the linear portion.

But I am seeing some senior coaches move more toward a "higher degree" of coaching where they are working with clients who don't need much of the linear approach. They respond very, very well to a light touch and the bond is so solid, the coach and client develop themselves in concert vs one having to push the other. They are both very, very light on their feet.

I think at some point, the senior coach will ONLY work with this type of client, which of course, means that the coach him/herself has "gotten there."

Does this make any sense at all?

The way I am attempting to tie this into the subject heading (Effectiveness vs Effortfullness) is that I think it's more important for the coach to be effective with their clients than trying to just do a great job. There is a subtlety here of language, behavior, modeling, style and grace here. I've seen it in a few coaches and I am working on it myself, where it all happens so easily and the results are extraordinary, yet both parties ain't sweatin' much.

And it ties into the notion that it's not how hard you work for/with a client or how hard they work; rather, it is how much value is being creating between both of you and in the client's life. Value does not equal effort, time or knowledge. Call it magic if you will, but that's what we're working on at Coach U.

In the meantime, you may need to work hard to get through what needs to be gotten through. It's kinda like: "Get a clue so you can be you." (Hey, it's the middle of the night.)