What makes you an ideal coaching client?

During one of my own coaching sessions my coach asked me this question, “What does your ideal client look like?”

It’s a hard question to answer when you first begin your coaching business. You simply want to work with and help people based on what you learned in your coach training. 

But over time as you work with more and more people you begin to be able to articulate who your ideal client is. You get an experience of what that person looks like. 

I have had several ideal clients since I began coaching almost 7 years ago. 

Don’t get me wrong, I love all of my clients! If I did not feel a connection to them and an ability to be of help to them during our original sample coaching session, I would not have agreed to work with them. 

But for me that ideal client is the one that gives me a huge grin on my face after I finish a session. The one where everything just flows when you work with them and the one where you do a silent fist in the air when you hear the “ah ha” moments they get to in their sessions. 

IDEAL CLIENT ATTRIBUTES 

For coaching to really make an impact on a person there are several things that they need to be prepared to bring to the relationship. Such as:

• Always coming prepared to a session. They have thought about what they want to discuss and have brought a focus to each session. 
• Having goals, ideas or areas they want to focus on, a big picture. They have a general or specific road they want to venture down, with their coaches help. 
• Being open to shifting perspectives and diving deep into areas of discomfort.
• Doing the work between the sessions. Putting into practice, with no or few excuses if they did not, the awareness they created during the session.
• Are committed to their own growth.
• Bring with them a sense of humour, an ability to laugh at themselves at times, as well as the ability to face vulnerability head on. 

IF THIS ISN’T YOU

So now you are reading this and thinking, “Mmm, guess I’m not an ideal client. Guess coaching isn’t right for me. “  NOT TRUE!

You may have some or all of these traits present in how you show up to a coaching relationship. Some of these traits may be exactly WHY you want to start a coaching relationship! Because you want to be better at these things. 

No one is perfect. I repeat, no one is perfect. 

We all take steps backwards in life as we learn new things. We all hit big bumps in the road of life, sometimes even stop signs. 

DESIRE 

But if this description sounds like how you show up in your life, then you will reap the benefits of working with a coach and may do so in a short period of time. If these descriptions are not how you are showing up in your life you will reap the benefits of coaching but it may just take a little longer to get where you want to go, and that’s ok. 

As long as you have a desire to change the status quo in your life then you should consider coaching. 

Want to know more about what a coaching session looks like, check out this page on my website or better yet let’s chat!