top of page
Search
Writer's pictureGeraldine Gauthier

6 MISTAKES I made as a COACH

Updated: Apr 21, 2023

When I was just a newbie, I made many mistakes.


Today I want to save you some time (and pain) by sharing the 6 common mistakes I made and the lessons I learned from them.

6 mistakes I made as a newbie coach
6 mistakes I made as a newbie coach

Mistake #1 Trying very hard to sell coaching

No one wants wants to buy coaching. People want to buy results! The day I understood that my conversion rate shifted from 20% to 80%.


💡 Solution

Share the results you got with your clients, success stories, testimonials... Share you passion! Share WHY you are doing what you are doing (and not WHAT you are doing).






Mistake #2 Absorbing my clients’ emotions

I quickly became emotionally drained by carrying my clients' problems as if they were my own burden (without even realizing it).


💡 Solution

Get mentored and supervised with the 7-eyed model to offload the emotional burden, stay grounded and maintain professional and ethical boundaries.





Mistake #3 Just asking vanilla questions, not challenging my client nor sharing my intuition

As a people pleaser, I was too scared to hurt my client's feelings, challenging them or sharing my intuition.


💡 Solution

It is okay not to please as long as you put your client's interest above all: Think about the spinach in the teeth moment! Share what you observe, what your client is not seeing, make sure nothing important is left unsaid. Coaching requires courage.




Mistake #4 Letting chatty clients share long-winded tales

Sometimes clients want to give you many details and descriptions, but they don't learn anything in the process. I let one client do that during several sessions and came across as too passive. I lost this client.


💡 Solution

Intrude! Interrupt! That's okay to interrupt nicely as long as your intention is to create value for your client. Ask: "What is the essential question on your mind as you are telling the story?"


Mistake #5 Pressuring myself too much to get quick results

My clients are often leaders who work in fast-paced environments. They want results now or yesterday. Trying to get quick results often lead to mediocre outcomes.


💡 Solution

Stop forcing the results and manage your clients' expectations: Shift the focus on the coaching process, results will follow.






Mistake #6 Bringing in judgments

I kept on judging myself in the process ("we are going nowhere with this conversation") and sometimes my client ("she is not ready to change", "he is totally inflexible").


💡 Solution

The antidote to blame is curiosity. Be curious about your own narrative and acknowledge your judgement. Build a genuine relationship along the way.




Can you relate with some of these?


I strongly encourage you to reflect on your practice to identify the things that don’t really help (without beating yourself) and recalibrate to bring your coaching to the next level.


ICF Coaching Certification Program

Coaching for Startup Leaders & Founders




Recent Posts

See All

1 Comment


Unknown member
Aug 19, 2022

I can relate to #1 and #3

Like
bottom of page