As a coach, asking powerful, positive questions is a huge part of your coaching journey. A successful coach is usually known for their ability to ask thought-provoking questions and to also show their clients a different perspective by asking these questions.
Another thing a great coach should be able to do is to get to the root cause of any issues their clients are facing by asking these thought-provoking and uplifting questions.
Most of the time, when a client comes to you, they are in search of changing something in their lives. If it’s not to change something, it is something that they want to achieve and they need your help getting there or understanding what they need to do to get there. Or what limiting beliefs they need to shed before they can truly transform and become what they foresee themselves to be.
This is why we believe that asking questions that are powerful and thought-provoking are extremely important to shape conversations with your client that will help facilitate that process.
Here are some reasons why we believe asking great coaching questions is extremely important for any coaching session.
It brings about a sense of ownership and empowerment
It Builds Trust
It Boosts Their Confidence
Today, we are looking at 22 coaching questions that we believe you can ask your client to uplift and transform any conversation.
For Life Coaching
For Business & Career Coaching
For Goal-Setting
For Overall Thought-Provoking
There are so many different variations of thought-provoking questions you can ask your clients. Always understand what part of their life needs the most help and start there.
What are some of the most important questions that you will need to ask your clients once you start working with them? We would love to hear your ideas!
Have you ever wanted to hire a business coach? But, your main concern was you had no idea what a business coach did or how they could help you? This isn't too uncommon. A lot of people understand the benefit of a coach, but since a coach works on your mental state and perhaps in helping you grow your business offline -- it might be hard to truly see and understand the benefits of your coaching sessions. So, how do you put a number to your coaching sessions? Or how do you choose a business or executive coach for a positive coaching return on investment (ROI) -- well, read on to find out!
How To Choose A Business/Executive Coach For a Positive Coaching ROI
Businesses are giving extra attention to Executive Coaching with the increased globalization and economic pressure. It’s a preferred tool for CEOs, CFOs, and executives looking to improve their leadership standing in a company.
Finding the business/executive coach with the right skills can be a daunting task. In this article, we discuss ways on how this can be made easier.
The most effective executive coaches are those who pay attention to the coaching interaction by:
It may seem obvious, but successful coaches care about their client’s achievements.
Also, they should use many types of information gained from different channels to provide feedback to the client. It’s the coach’s job to understand the complexities of the environment and the challenges existing for the client.
Effective coaches do not fear pushing the boundaries of the client to stretch their performance. Great coaches find different ways to challenge an executive in unconventional ways.
The feedback provided by the client should be direct, business-specific, and professional. Good business coaches know when to push the client and when to provide support.
Coaches make themselves available to clients at the right time. It is to help them get ready for specific situations like before an important meeting, for a specific business alliance, or team-related tasks. Business Coaches support clients with real-life situations to help them identify and apply the behaviors needed for success.
Coaches should:
Effective coaches are seeking data from different sources and apply it in a way that sets the client for success. A great coach wants to deeply understand the business context and strategy, leadership style preferences and motivations, emotional intelligence, problem-solving ability, and the perspectives of people surrounding their client. Coaches gain information to determine what factors play an important role in clients reaching their results.
The remaining process is the application. Some coaches make the mistake of using the same approach to all when creating plans. It is more useful and creates a lasting change if the development plans are unique to the person and tailored specifically to suit their challenges and environment.
The development plans are specific actionable goals not more than 3-5 unique to the person that will directly benefit the client or the organization. These goals then can be reached with small behavioral changes over time.
Just make sure to gauge the coach’s experience and approach before entering a coaching agreement. The best coach is who can guide you with the best communication and strategy, who is willing to stretch your performance and stimulate your mind for various alternatives never considered before. Coaches should use a combination of behavioral changes and mental mindset shifts to create higher performance and reduce derailing behaviors.
Successful executive coaches keep in mind the success of the company as well as the executive. An effective coaching process includes regular check-ins to make sure the executive is moving in a direction fruitful for his individual self and the company.
The return on the coaching investment can be measured both by the executive’s change and the organization’s change over a period of 6-12 months. Useful questions to ask during these times are “is the executive moving in a direction positive to the company?” and “Has the company benefited from executives change?” Choosing the right executive coach with the right approach will yield a positive return on coaching investment.
If you are looking to become an executive coach or a business coach, check out our latest schedule to see when's the next intake. Or send us an email at info@flowcoachinginstitute.com. We can't wait to see you!
Myths are stories that help us develop our beliefs, culture and help us understand our world but there are many types of myths one being the kind in which we think understand something new but in reality, we really don’t and those myths spread like wild-fire. Such myths can make people deprived of something truly great as with time these myths begin to sound very truth-like. Similarly, there are many myths about life coaching that we will discuss in this article.
8 Myths about Life Coaching
This is a common misconception that coaching is the new form of therapy however this is not true. A landmark case was won that established coaching as a separate profession from therapy. However, you will notice that many therapists join the bandwagon and became coaches.
This can be true maybe many years ago from now, just like any profession in its early days. Professions develop over time. Every profession starts with just a few practitioners.
Eventually, regulatory bodies like ICF come into being and standardize the process. Then coaching institutes came which provided this teaching to many others and coaching is now a legit profession.
You can get away with anything in coaching
Since coaching isn’t regulated by the government it causes some confusion and people think you can get away with anything in coaching. However, fortunately, there are regulatory bodies like ICF that have established ethical guidelines and best practices in coaching. If you are working with an ICF Certified Coach you can be certain that they are following the set ethics and ICF core competencies.
Training isn’t needed for coaching
This depends on how successful you want to be as a coach. The ICF has been surveying for many years and has found out that coaches who have received coach-specific training are more likely to be successful and less likely to drop out of the profession. So, if you want to be a successful coach, get ICF accredited coach training which can be a lifetime investment.
With a degree in Psychology, you’re okay to coach
This isn’t true. You need to invest in an ICF accredited coach training program, most degrees in psychology or social work won't work. There is so much more to coaching that goes past just a degree. There are scientific studies and real-time coaching hours we use to ensure that whatever we say or do in a session is beneficial and effective for our clients.
Clients don’t check if you are certified
Of course, they do, ICF surveyed actual coaching clients and asked them if they would prefer to work with a certified coach and 84% of them replied that they very much care if their coach is certified. Numbers do not lie.
If you would not go to a certified doctor, why would you not want to go to a coach who is also certified? Being certified also tells your clients that you are willing to take your profession seriously and that in turn shows them that you are serious about changing their lives too. It shows dedication and respect for the profession above all else.
Coaches have the answers for everything
It is a common myth that coaches know everything. But that’s not true. Coaches are skilled to ask important coaching questions that stimulate the client's mind and help them find the answers themselves.
Coaching is only for celebrities
As Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO once said, “everyone needs a coach” It’s a myth that only high-level executives, celebrities, movie stars, and rich people need coaching. As the profession grows there are coaches that focus on all types of clients. Coaching is for everyone.
In ancient times myths spread because there was too little information available. Nowadays myths are created for the opposite reason as there is too much information available and not sure which is true.
As a coach, it is your responsibility to spread the truth about coaching. Effective coaching can make a difference in this world where everyone has their own opinions about coaching. If you want to enroll in an ICF Accredited Coach Training Program sign up for one of our upcoming courses.
What are some myths you would like debunked? Let us know in the comments below.
Becoming a coach is not just something that you do over a weekend. For a lot of coaches, this is a full career change and the amount of dedication needed is extremely high. This is because a lot of people do not start out their careers as a coach. Most times, they are sick and tired of the monotony of their lives and have this passion to help people grow and evolve.
That is how a lot of coaches start their careers. This is why we feel that becoming a coach isn't easy because the grit, guts, and determination needed to change your career is extensive, and not a lot of people are willing to do it in the long run.
Let's break down if 2021 is finally the year you ditch your 9-5 and become a successful coach instead.
A coach is someone who personally advises, mentors, and works alongside you to help you improve and become a better person. They are there to help you develop skills and reach goals that you might have.
Within FLOW Coaching Institute we focus on business coaching, life coaching, and even executive coaching. Being a coach is extremely fulfilling as you have the ability to make a difference. You can help improve someone's life and move them to become better versions of themselves.
A coach is also an accountability partner, they are there to help you stay on track and ensure that you stick to your routines and all the things you promised yourself to do.
Before jumping headfirst into filling out the forms to become a certified coach, think about the why. Think about what made you decide on coaching. What are the main reasons that pushed you into thinking about coaching in the first place.
These questions are extremely important and something you really need to look into if you want to this for the long run.
2021 is a year of exponential change. We just came out of one of the hardest years in modern history. This also meant that literally, everyone had to learn how to pivot their businesses online. Everyone had to learn how to work from home. We had to learn how to connect with one another through a screen. And that was tough.
But the benefit of it all is that everyone learned how to do things online. Doctors' appointments started being conducted online, people could buy groceries online, students were learning online and multi-billion dollar businesses were thriving online.
With that being said, here are my two main reasons why I think 2021 is a great year to start your coaching business.
With everything going online, you now have a never-ending pool of potential clients. You are not confined anymore to a certain section of your city where you can practice your coaching business.
You get to interact with the entire world and this means that you have a lot more people to reach out to and potentially coach. The stigma of doing things like these online has been wiped away completely and people are more open and understanding to having coaching sessions online.
After 2020, everyone realized the importance of mental health. Being stuck at home for over a year did a lot of damage to a lot of people and this caused an uptick in mental health issues and cases all around the world.
This means that so many more people are open to hiring a mentor or a coach to help them through not just the issues the pandemic brought but also to grow as normal human beings to reach their fullest potential.
With that being said, we believe that if you have the grit and determination to become a coach and you understand what 2021 means for coaches, you have the right concoction to starting your very own online coaching business.
What do you think about that? Do you agree?
We also curated a list of mistakes that you should avoid before starting your online coaching business as well so that you get the best start possible for your business.
If you are looking to become a certified coach, join our next intake at the FLOW Coaching Institute where we ensure that you learn how to coach the whole person. Take a peek at our schedule here to see which slot suits you best.
Do you like talking about money? I know when I started, determining my coaching fees was one of the hardest things to do. Looking for clients and setting up my sessions were the least of my problems. I always had issues when it came time to talk about money and how much I thought my services were worth.
The coaching fees you charge are one of the most crucial decisions when you are starting your coaching business. The amount that you will charge will directly determine how many people will buy your service. If you are looking for a good start to your coaching business, take some time to determine the correct coaching fees to charge.
When you are starting out a coaching business, you should start with a business plan. As part of the business plan, you should also determine your coaching fees. When coming up with a number it's important to ask the following questions to yourself.
It's not easy to answer these questions and does require some background work. According to a report from the Harvard Business Review, the range of coaching fees is from about $100 to $3000. Of course, it’s a huge range. The best way to determine your coaching fees is to ring a few coaches around your location and get an idea of how much they are charging based on the experience they have. This will give you an idea.
In all honesty, yes, when you are starting out your fees need to be near the minimum border. But it is important to come up with a feasible number because if your coaching fees are too low clients might assume you don’t offer a valuable service. Make sure to not undervalue your services. You need to know and understand what services you are offering and balance that with the price you are putting on the coaching services.
A very high coaching fee means you can discourage potential clients. It is only sensible if a client looks at both the experience and certification while comparing prices. If they call around and notice your fees are on the higher end but your experience or certification is low they are most likely to think you have overvalued your services. It is essential that you are confident in your services but that confidence shouldn’t hinder you from getting clients.
Your personal coaching fees should be simple and straightforward but should also have variety. Hence you should have some different kinds of fees such as individual fees, group discounted fees and also offer package discounts. Package discounts can include adding a specific group of sessions or adding an extra item in the package such as a book or videos.
The best way is to gain feedback. Periodically ask your clients for feedback including one for the pricing. Clients can have useful insights. If you don’t ask, you won't know. So be open to asking opinions and feedbacks from your clients regarding your service and your coaching fees.
We hope that this article helped you learn more about how to put a dollar value on your services. At the end of the day, being a coach isn't easy and it takes a lot of passion and sacrifice to do so. However, it is still a career and you should properly value your work and ensure that you are also getting what you deserve in compensation.
If you are looking to become a coach, head on over to our schedule page to see if there are any upcoming programs that you would like to join us for. We can't wait to see you!
If you have stumbled upon this article, we know that you're looking into becoming a coach. There are so many coaches out there today however, there is only one institution in the world that provides proper certification. And that is by the International Coaching Federation.
So, since you're here, I'm sure you're interested in finding out how much it might cost you to become a professional certified coach, well, we break this down in this article.
There are multiple factors that determine the price and cost it will take to become a coach. Basically, it depends on some of your answers to the questions below:
The training costs for a coaching certification program is dependent on several factors:
Check FLOW’s Program Schedule now to enroll in your coach certification program with us.
Break the cycle... How many times have you heard that in your life? We are all told to break the status quo but do we all have what it takes? A lot of people go their entire lives without making this change and without breaking the cycle. Only because it's easier to just do what we're used to as opposed to changing the way we look at things.
This also happens a lot in businesses. A lot of companies never go past a certain point because they are not looking to improve or change things because of fear and not having the right people there to help them get past it.
Why Do People Seem Fixated on Failure
Why do some people have consistent success while others miss out? Many institutions and directors seek the answer to this question.
If the person in question has no pathological conditions, or if the characteristic tendencies of the person do not prevent success in his/her performance (a combination of the wrong person and the wrong job), then coaching and mentoring are beneficial in up to seventy-five percent of cases.
However, sometimes there is a circumstance where you try everything you know how to help the person, but something is just off and it just doesn’t work. As a coach, you will feel bad and you will wonder why, but the answer rests within your client. Someone who is unable to carry the burden of responsibilities will miss an opportunity to grow – especially if s/he is constantly looking for someone else to blame.
In fact, an opportunity for success will be missed. If you observe people like this for any length of time, you will see a cycle where there is a tendency to self-sabotage by denying themselves and their actions. Instead of carrying the burden of their own responsibilities, these people regularly blame others or the circumstances surrounding them.
They need others to be wrong in order to be able to reassure themselves, even if just a little, because accepting the problem or mistake requires growth, and that growth needs courage and strength.
Man is born alone - he comes into this world on his own and leaves on his own. This is actually power, but only a few people possess the level of awareness that will allow them to face up to this truth.
People who regularly sabotage themselves avoid facing existential loneliness. When someone faces it once, “understanding” happens. Subsequently, understanding necessitates choice; they are either going to be strong or they are going to admit that they are knowingly sabotaging themselves. However, then it will no longer be possible to blame others or the circumstances. The easiest thing for such people is denial and avoidance – until the next sabotage. Unless these people break free of this cycle of blame and denial, they will be doomed to the repeated failure over and over again.
So What Do We Do?
At the end of the day, as a coach, there is only so much you can do. If you have tried your best and the client still seems like there is no movement from their end -- it usually suggests that they are not ready yet to change. And you can never change someone who is not ready and willing to change. If you try to you will just hit a brick wall.
Just be there and support them as much as you can and show them what change and success can look like if they choose to walk alongside you on that path. If not -- there isn't much more that can be done.
Have you ever been in a situation like this? How did you handle it?
If you are looking to become a coach to help people like these around you, check out our program schedule here to join us on this amazing journey of learning to coach the whole person.
Professional coaching is a very growing industry at the moment. It is pursued by people who want to create an impact in the lives of other people by helping them go beyond their potential. Especially in 2021 when the world has changed as we know it and a lot of people are in need of guidance and support in their lives.
The coaching profession has exploded over the past 2 years because of just how fast the world is evolving and the emphasis being put on personal growth and improvements in yourself. Coaching has turned into an extremely lucrative business and career today.
The number of professional coaches in the world is growing rapidly and there is a growing demand for new professional coaches in different areas of life such as life coach, career coach, parenting coach, spiritual coach, business coach, and so on. People are getting more and more interested in getting certified as professional coaches.
The coaching industry is full of new opportunities as people are tired of routine and monotonous jobs and are looking to do something different and meaningful. If you find happiness in supporting others and helping them achieve their goals by aiding their thinking process you should think about becoming a coach. Here are some steps to become a certified professional coach.
Before you take the first step. Discover yourself and your ambitions before beginning. Are you interested in helping other people? Do you have the resources to sustain a coaching business? What can you do for people who are looking for coaches?
Many potential coaches start by getting coaches by themselves, this helps them get more knowledge about the process and the profession. You can start by searching ICF-certified coaches in your area and get in touch with them. ICF-certified coaches are not only very skilled but also abide by the professional standards of coaching.
Once you have made a decision to become a professional coach search for a reputable coaching school that has programs accredited by the International Coach Federation and enroll yourself. Being certified will not only increase your credibility but also create your reputation in the market. Make sure the school’s values align with the ICF and it emphasizes implementing ICF Core competencies and code of ethics.
FLOW Coaching Institute has online coach certification programs accredited from the ICF and has a basis of programs on the FLOW Coaching Method and Positive Psychology. You can choose to enroll in one of our programs.
Once you have completed at least 60 hours of coach-specific training that meets ICF standards you can consider completing other requirements for ICF credentialing such as ACC, MCC, and PCC.
ICF Global Coaching Study 2016 says seventy-seven percent of coach practitioners agree that clients expect them to be certified or credentialed.
To earn an ICF Credential, an individual must complete at least 60 hours of coach-specific training, attain 10 hours of mentor coaching, gain a designated number of coaching experience hours and demonstrate an appropriate level of skill in applying core coaching competencies. Applications are made directly to ICF.
To gain your coach-specific training and mentoring hours you can enroll in one of our programs or get in touch at info@flowcoachinginstitute.com
At some point in your life, you would have had someone in your life coach you and mentor you through some hard and difficult moments in your life. When you were younger, that person might have been your parents and when you go to school, it would be your teachers.
But, somehow, this kinda stops when you grow up. Why is that?
When you get older, why should you stop having that one person who is there to help, coach, and mentor you through your life? This is why we believe that coaches are incredibly important for you to thrive in life. An ICF-certified coach will greatly help you plan out your life, help you figure out which parts of it you want to focus and grow and what parts you would like to work on and improve.
Certified coaches can help you achieve your fullest potential in areas like your business, career, personal life, financial life, and just life in general. They are known to be masterful when it comes to achieving life goals as they are there to help ground you and walk alongside you to achieve your goals and wants in life.
Here at Flow Coaching Institute, we have worked with thousands of students and we have helped change and transform those lives for the better. With that first-hand experience, we have also continuously improved our coaching programs to put forth the best-certified coaches out there. Our alumni are known to be some of the best-certified coaches out there because of our direct feedback loops and our dedication to making the world a better place from coaching.
So, how does a certified coach help you transform your life?
Certified coaches are there to help you dig deep into your roots and find the causes of your main blockers and problems. These issues are usually the ones that are stopping you or holding you back from reaching your best potential.
Determining your issues is hard and confusing especially if you haven’t done that practice before. An experienced certified coach will be able to assist you with a better understanding of yourself, your ideas, your blockers, issues, and roadblocks. By working with a certified coach and by identifying these blockers, you will be able to stop holding back and move forward with the changes that you wanted to see in yourself.
Everything is moving at 100 miles an hour today, with the internet, everyone working from home and just how easy it is for us to get information, it can get overwhelming. There are always going to be a hundred things that you want to get done and that are important and urgent. But, with a certified coach by your side, they would have worked with you to find out what your blockers are, and then with that, they can create a path of focus for you. This path will help you focus on what it is you want to work on.
Focusing on these little steps is the main way to help you reach your goals. Without focus, nothing really changes and this is where a certified coach can help you.
Once you’ve figured out your main blockers and roadblocks and you’ve honed in on your focus areas, another great benefit of having a certified coach by your side is that they will work with you to curate your goals.
The reason why having a certified coach by your side is so that you can make sense of all the work you want to get done with yourself. After identifying your issues, blockers, and what you want to focus on, that is only half the work. The other half is putting that on paper and actually creating a plan to help you reach those goals.
Certified coaches are your lighthouses, you can go and explore and try new things but they will always be there to guide you back to where you need to be to achieve your goals.
How does it feel when you have someone on your side, supporting you through it all? It feels extremely rewarding, doesn’t it? It also gives you that confidence boost in knowing that someone is in your corner at all times. A certified coach will help you see your worth, your strengths, how to leverage your weaknesses, and also ensure that you realize that you deserve the best things in life.
Certified coaches will also make sure that you are empowered and fueled to get what you truly deserve in your life as well. That overall confidence boost is critical in ensuring that you really change your life for the better.
Have you ever been a victim of the new year’s resolution issue that happens every year? Where everyone is super pumped to change their lives and they create this list of resolutions that get forgotten after a month? Well, having a certified coach will help you curb that.
Regardless of your goals, they are there to make sure that you are accountable to yourself, and that you are constantly working on improving yourself and making your life a better one every day. They are there motivating you and picking you up when you are down.
At the end of the day, a certified coach whether it’s for your career, your business, or even your personal life is someone that you need in your corner if you are seriously thinking about changing things in your life. They are there to give you that extra push, to mentor you, and to be there for you when things seem like they have hit a plateau or a brick wall.
If you have a personal coach, let us know what makes them so special? We would love to hear about your experience as well!
And if you are looking to become a coach, head on over to our schedule page to see if there are any upcoming programs that you would like to join us for. We can't wait to see you!
Here at FLOW Coaching Institute, we choose to celebrate women every single day. Women are incredibly powerful and without women, the world would be a sad and boring place. This is why, whenever we are asked to do any CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) activities for women, we say yes almost immediately all the time.
In this article, we wanted to take some time to showcase some of the awesome things we've been doing for the community of women around us. As women, we need to ensure that we help each other constantly and whenever we can.
Women are still being oppressed in 3rd world countries and even in places like Canada and the United States. No woman will ever be able to say that they haven't been looked down upon or made fun of in their entire life. This is just the reality for a lot of women across the globe. This is why we need to be able to ensure that we help women wherever we can.
So here are a couple of the fun things we did in 2020 for all our amazing women.
In Partnership with WSTEMTO to offer to coach to women in STEM
This was my first post last year to commemorate the launch of the MentorSHE meeting.
We realized that there were so many amazing women in STEM that are extremely smart and talented. That is why it was such an easy decision to make when we were asked to partner up with WSTEMTO to help women in STEM with our coaching and leadership sessions.
Our first round was extremely successful.
These were the results we got for the first cohort! We are so proud and happy to see these numbers from all participants and it makes our hearts sing.
Our next cohort starts in March and we cannot wait to see how that goes then!
Last year, COVID stopped the world in its tracks. A lot of us were forced into isolation, people lost jobs, families were forced apart and people lost jobs. As a team, we knew that we had an arsenal of great coaches, and the ability to give back.
We are so proud to share another snippet from our girls from the Kizlar Sahada Project in Turkey. We trained and coached a group of amazing girls that were part of a local soccer team.
Here is one of the testimonials for one of the girls we coached.
Our coaches focused on:
- Building their confidence
- Empowering them for the future
- Teaching them how to curate goals for themselves
- Creating a positive environment for them to truly be themselves
We are so proud and humbled to be a part of their journey.
What do you do to give back to your community? Is there any way you think we can help. Leave us a comment or email us at info@flowcoachinginstitute.com to share or learn more about these programs. We would love to hear from you.