Business coaches serve as motivation and success partners, coaching you in the skills you need to be successful in your business and serving as a source of information should you ever have any questions about what you should do.
Much like any other coach, business coaches work to help you define SMART business goals that are specific and achievable, help you to define a game plan, refine your talents, support your decisions, help with stress and resilience to ensure that you and your business are successful.
Business coaches start by a needs analysis to understand the gap between where you and your business are and where you can and should be. They might also start by learning about your brand, business and company, from its value propositions to its target customers to the challenges it will face and beyond. Once your business coach has learned everything that they can about your offerings and systems, they’ll next want to learn more about your vision for your company and the goals that you have for it. Business coach will need to know whether you are planning to turn your business into a livable income for you and your family or a multi-million dollar corporation and/or planning an exit in the future.
Next, a business coach will work with you to set attainable goals for you, your business and your team if exists. Once a set of goals are in place, your business coach is there to help you meet them, aiding you in devising a set of strategies and action plans designed to push your business to meet desired results and coaching you navigate any challenges that come up or might come up along the way.
At FLOW Business Coaching Certification program, our business coaches are trained specifically in coaching through business analysis methodologies such as SWOT, Gap Analysis, Three Pillars of Strategic Creativity and many more. Therefore they will know how to approach your case and what to offer that will ensure that the best approach is in place for you and your business.
If you want to become a certified business coach through ICF (International Coach Federation) you can check our online business coach training information page here: https://flowcoachinginstitute.com/courses
If you ask any master coach what is one of the most essential things to bring to coaching they will say its Coaching Presence.
One of ICFs Core Competencies is Coaching Presence and they define it as an "Ability to be fully conscious and create spontaneous relationship with the client, employing a style that is open, flexible and confident", Not all coaches pay attention to having a strong coaching presence.
Research defines presence as being present in the now, no distractions of the past or the future exists and no distractions by one’s own personal needs. High awareness, curiosity about the next moment and a state of flow exists. Coaching presence is a state which we experience from time to time but it can be difficult to achieve by trying knowingly.
Coaching presence is highly likely to transfer from a person. If the coach is present it makes it easier for the client to be present as well. This kind of synergy encourages creativity, self-awareness and confidence. This helps find solutions and acting upon them becomes easy which is essentially what ones wants to achieve through coaching.
What Can You Do to Achieve Coaching Presence?
Practicing mindfulness and meditation daily can help your brain recenter and experience flow without thinking. Yoga and other meditative practices also help you gain presence of mind and body. A few deep breathes are your first start.
Additionally, self care and meeting your own needs first will help boost yourself and help you be more present. Along with this an effective coach training from an established coaching school, observation of coaching demonstrations, peer coaching, practicing your own coaching, mentoring, supervision and gaining feedback from clients as well as supervision & feedback from experienced mentor coaches will eventually get you where you want to be and you will be able to achieve a concrete coaching presence on your own. This will lead you to asking right questions at the right times and have satisfactory coaching outcomes.
If you’re looking for a program to enroll check out our course program schedule to find one that suits you the best.
5 Tips for New Coaches
Starting a new business is full of ups and downs, same goes for a coaching business. During the first years coaches may feel lost and therefore we developed a draft on what are the few things to do when starting out your coaching practice.
5 tips for new coaches:
There are still some old-school discussions or whether you should get certified or not. The answer is always yes, of course you should! Coaching certification helps you make smarter decisions, helps you become successful quicker and makes it less likely for you to quit in the future. Hence always choose to get your certification first before you move ahead.
Make sure you develop a business email address for your use rather than your personal one or even worst, a fancy one like missbeautiful@gmail.com or tomandjerry@hotmail.com. Make sure you look and sound professional when kickstarting your coaching business.
If you have a professional looking email address your next step is a professional looking website, but it can wait if you are not ready. Try to get your name in some of the coaching directories or create a professional social media page while you are working on it. Get to know your niche, your business, your clients and translate that into your website.
Find the right time to quit your fulltime job, doing so very early or very late both can have a negative impact. Coachestake about 3 months to 5 years to have a full-fledged coaching practice so it can be hard to go on a long time without a full-time income. On the contrary don’t be too late and don’t feel stuck with your job once you have a thriving coaching practice. Some people might find it hard to take the leap of faith. Therefore, find the right time to do it.
Everybody needs a coach. Don’t forget to get a coach for yourself you can help you become the best version of yourself with time. It can be hard to look at your own mistakes and weak areas and a professional coach can help you with it.
To get your online coaching certification with us check out our program schedule and sign up for your preferred course now.
There is a trait of people known as the Empath or a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP). These types of people are commonly found also as coaches.
Research suggests that 15-20% of all humans are born as a Highly Sensitive Person. There is a need for HSPs specially as coaches since they are more empathic, emotional, easy to sense when something is off and process information more intensely. Highly Sensitive Persons are in essence, sensitive and everything impacts them strongly whether positive or negative. All of this however, can bring exhaustion and burnout. It is both a blessing and a curse to be a Highly Sensitive Person as a coach.
As coaches are an active advocate of positive psychology, their self-care should be a priority. Many of the traits that ICF demands in a Master Certified Coach (MCC) comes naturally to HSPs. Such as deep connection and awareness, coaching presence, empathy, deep listening, intuition and so on.
12 self-care tips for HSP Coaches.
If you are interested in becoming a coach check our upcoming program schedule and get yourself enrolled in a coaching program that is based on Solution-focused Positive Psychology.
Professional coaches are educated change agents. Catalysts. World shifters.
Becoming a coach takes a lot of qualities, which starts with the character. A character that is;
All of these character qualities are related to each other. If we look from a systemic perspective, becoming a good coach is truly like becoming a Sufi master since one of the most important virtues of a coach’s character is objectivity and being non-judgmental. For a coach to practice such neutral presence takes a lot of patience and compassion.
Jumping into conclusions without listening with a neutral mental state will damage your coaching presence. Coaches who jump into conclusions when things do not develop as they expect them to- will not be able to support their clients to their maximum potential. Most of the time, people with problem orientation habits have a tendency to hurry in their conclusions. Instead start with inquiring first to understand the reality. Beware that reality has many layers and your perception of reality is based on your habitual perception filters- so it might not be right. Do not limit this practice with only your coaching sessions, but turn it into a habit-part of your character.
Keeping an open mind with an understanding that things may not be what they are as they look like. Therefore, investing in developing a neutral/objective mindset is a smart thing to do. According to our research, it takes at least three months and 20 different coaching conversations to develop such a neutral mind.
Unlearn what you have learnt about people.
Approach situations and people with an authentic curiosity and ask yourself: Who am I hearing? My inner habitual filter or the other person’s words. Each time you notice that you hear yourself more, remind yourself to come back with a neutral, non-judgmental mindset and listen again.
It will take a while, but eventually you will get that neutral space. Remembering Rumi’s poem will help you to come back to your core (while moving away from your ego) in developing your authentic coach presence:
“Come, come, whoever you are,
wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving,
it doesn't matter.
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vow a hundred times.
Come, come again, come.”
― Rumi
Rapport originates from the Greek word “rappoarte” which means “to carry back to another person’s experience of themselves” Coaching conversations that transform are the ones in which the coach and the client become aligned and purposeful. In transformational conversations we express our inner truth and feelings and support others in doing the same. Rapport holds the essence of these conversations.
People are attracted to people who are similar to them:
As a coach, building rapport means being open to understanding or experiencing another person’s view of the world as if you are experiencing it like the person itself. If you knew what the other person knows, if you had experienced what the other person had experienced, you would be able to enter naturally the client’s physical and tonal habits to the view the world in a new light. Through strong communication it is possible to build a rapport through understanding and respecting other persons view of the world. The key is to find common grounds. This leads to a successful coaching conversation by asking powerful questions as a coach and by active listening with curiosity.
Your emotional brain loves similarities. It feels safe and most comfortable when communicating with people who are like you. As a coach you can encourage a person’s emotional brain to open up and carry a transformational conversation by using basic skills of rapport. You can build a sense of shared value so the client can step into a coaching relationship with you.
Interested in becoming a coach? Discover Solution-Focused coaching skills which enable you to create transformational change in yourself and others. Learn about FLOW Coaching Methodology
Finding Common Ground Leads to Positive Results:
The use of behavioral and tonal matching develops strong physical rapport. With the help of behavioural matching you can mirror a part of person’s behaviour. For example in a face-to-face conversation you might want to sit in the same posture as the client. When the person shifts positions, you may want to follow gracefully. This is a form of respect and helps the client open up to you.
The strongest rapport is created when we value person’s core values. We become strong listeners when we actively listen and repeat peoples value words to them, words that hold true meaning and importance. On a personal level, you do not need to agree, but for transformational communication, it is important to respect where the other person is coming from.
Rapport building does not mean that you want to copy or mimic the persons behavior, if you do this they might feel like you are mocking them and breaks the rapport. Rapport is when we quietly track a person’s behavior and begin discrete sharing of the experience. Being “like them” is the doorway into sharing experience.
An Exercise for Coaches to Build Rapport:
One of the best exercises for rapport building to get in sync with the client. Try to match your breathing with your client until you get a sense of his rhythm. If the person seems distracted or disjointed you can slowly deepen you breathing and notice that the client will do so too. Usually, a person will do so, unconsciously responding to you. This will enhance contact and will also assist the person to touch deeper levels of awareness. If you relax, the person will relax, too. He will particularly appreciate you after this type of relaxation, although he may not consciously recognize what you have done.
In the absence of rapport, an effective coaching conversation is unlikely to take place. Take time to recognize your own authentic values and move on to approach the client with the understanding and acceptance of who they are. If a person feels safe and understood they open up to deeper realms. When you have integrity using a rapport-building approach, the person will see, hear, and feel it, and this makes a powerful difference in the transformative possibility of the conversation.
As the new year arrives the typical questions concerning new year resolutions come up. “What do you want to change in the new year? What do you want to focus in the new year? What is your new year resolution?” These questions might come as very overwhelming. It necessarily doesn’t have to be this way.
Only 8% of New Year’s resolutions are ever being met. Therefore, its time to have a new approach. Rather than creating big goals its better to choose a different set of choices that improve your lifestyle and state of mind. Its about simplifying your approach to life.
When you simplify, you give importance to things that are meaningful and eliminate what’s draining your energy. You start to say no to things that are not useful to you and yes to things that make you happy. When you start living your life on your own terms it becomes more fulfilling.
To get you started on this path here the three important questions to start your year in the right vibe.
Hiking? Travelling? Finding a good read? Cooking your favourite food?
It is a simple but a powerful question. Its even better to write the answer down, this way you acknowledge the things you enjoy and commit to do more of them. You can even schedule them and mark them in your calendar.
Evolve can mean a lot of things here. It could be improving a skill, getting better at something or exploring a new hobby. Actively put yourself in positions that triggers growth and it will make your life better, making you happier.
Stressing? Putting yourself down? Binge-eating? Being hard on yourself?
Believe that you can do less of what you dislike. You can quit it altogether if you wish. It could be an unwanted habit, a thought pattern, an activity which is draining you or something that you can delegate to someone else. Look for ways to do something differently if you can not delegate it. Life is too short to be spent doing something you dislike.
These questions should help you to develop a clear viewpoint and approach your year with a refreshing perspective that is more positive and empowering that fixing resolutions or goals. These intentions remind you what matters to you most and you can use these throughout the year to make sure you are on the right track for a happier, more fulfilling life.
If becoming a certified coach is your goal for this year check our program schedule now to select and enroll yourself in a Positive Psychology & Solution-focused coach certification program.
As the uncertainty and worry rises around coronavirus (COVID-19) and headlines take place all over the news we would like to remind you to take care of your mental health as it is as important as your physical health. With good mental health and a positive outlook you would be able to cope better with the threat arising from COVID-19.
There are many ways to take control of your mental health to ease the anxiety you might be experiencing:
Try to read information available only from official sources like World Health Organization (WHO) or any other governmental sources available to you. It is very important to ensure the credibility of the information you seek to avoid any misinformation.
Avoid too much exposure to the media coverage even though you maybe tempted to do so. Constant monitoring of the situation can intensify your state of worry and stress. Set boundaries on how much to follow the news. Seek factual information only enough to protect yourself and your loved ones.
Practice self-care which mainly means taking hold of things which are in your control such as practicing good hygiene, practicing social distancing and so on instead of focusing on things which are not in your control such as stopping the virus. Try to maintain your daily routine, maintain your nutrition, get enough sleep and spend time doing the things that you like. You can also try taking a walk in the fresh air while practicing social distancing, exercise or practice mindfulness which can contribute positively towards your mental well-being. You need to be even more careful if you are a health-care professional as you are high at risk of a burnout.
Staying in touch with your support system which may include your friends and family can help you ease the tension and stress surrounding COVID-19. Sharing your concerns and feelings may help you deal with them in a better manner. Receiving support and care from others bring a sense of calm. Remember even though you might be in self-quarantine or self-isolation there are many ways to connect with others digitally.
Divert your focus to things that are positive. Try to seek opportunities where you can gain access to positive stories and images. There are many positive stories of people who have recovered from COVID-19 or are supporting those fighting with the virus. Finding such stories and images will keep your hopes high.
It is very normal to feel stressed, anxious, upset or disappointed including many other emotions in the current situation. Allow yourself to let your emotions come in, recognize them and accept them. One way to express your emotions can be journaling or doing something creative with it like painting or drawing to let it out. You can also try working out.
Protect yourself with the recommendations provided by health care professionals. If you still feel overwhelmed seek mental help through coaching or psychological support. FLOW Coaches are always available for your support, do not hesitate to get in touch with us at info@flowcoachinginstitute.com
I became a certified coach in 2007 by completing an ICF ACTP certification program. Back then, I was already a therapist and I didn’t know what I was getting into. I transitioned to therapy, from a successful executive corporate career, and then to coaching. I wanted to become a certified coach because I wanted to work with corporate people and help them find and have more meaning in their work life, hence to help them find an increased sense of flow. I didn’t know that coaching would become a life-changing experience for me, and eventually transform me into the person that I wanted to become. A huge thing I realized in my career is that no matter how many people I coach and mentor, I always learn something new about myself along the way.
Coaching, that is aligned with ICF (International Coach Federation) code of conduct and competencies, has its roots in the science of solution-focused and client-centered psychology. Therefore, as a therapist that was educated in client-centered therapy, ICF coaching wasn’t totally unfamiliar to me. However, what I wasn’t aware of was the tools and skills that are taught are life-changing. So, once I realized that I disciplined myself to use them on a regular basis towards re-inventing myself.
Eventually, based on my personal experience meeting, coaching and mentoring so many of the amazing individuals who have shaped me into who I am today, I created a curriculum with my partners-in-crime, based on Positive Psychology and FLOW model, to help others to learn these life skills in their search for meaning, hence our innate inclination towards having more flow.
These tools and methods have helped me to find meaning and flow in my search for authentic happiness. Using them, I have been able to rewire my brain cells towards more solution-focused thinking and flow mindset.
Mastery doesn’t come in a day. It is a journey of ups and downs. You need to say yes to its challenges as you say yes to its rewards. You need to embrace the full experience and see it almost as a spiritual practice, similar to the one of a Zen master or a Sufi.
Looking back to my coaching career of 14 years now, I can say that not only coaching others and teaching these skills but also mastering these skills in my own life has been adding to my sense of meaning and flow. So, I want to share with you, my 5 personal practices that helped me to get here and enjoy the journey while becoming a master certified coach.
These are my top 5 practices that I do every day to ensure that I am always centered and know my meaning. This has been a huge help in being able to do everything I do and succeed in all the projects I set my eyes on.
What are yours? I would love to know more.
Love,
Talyaa.
As 2020 comes to a close, we will all be looking back at 2020 and seeing how what we have achieved. With the new year upon us, there will obviously be a need and want to craft new resolutions for 2021.
2020 was a hard year for everyone, and it seems that it might not get as much easier as we have all hoped it would be. But the team here at FLOW Coaching Institute would like to first congratulate you on getting through one of the craziest years of modern history. With pandemics, natural disasters, political unrest, and even racial unrest - it has been an exhausting and trying year for a lot of people, around the world.
When it comes to the New Year, the one thing you will hear about the most is - Resolutions. Especially with the year we have had, we can see that everywhere on social media and on the news people are praying and hoping for a better year in 2021. Everyone is also doing their part in creating goals and resolutions for themselves so that they can create and transform 2021 into a year of abundance and growth.
We are all guilty of creating resolutions, that secret list of things like exercising more, being more mindful, meditating more, checking off that things off your bucket list and so much more. Then, January hits, and things are awesome for a few weeks and then, life happens. And somehow, the cycle starts again where work takes over, or family priorities take over, and somehow all of the awesome plans you had will have taken the backseat.
So, what is this resistance we all feel when it comes to focusing and staying on the bandwagon of achieving resolutions? According to a study by Franklin Covey, it’s because sometimes we might get a little too excited and overzealous when we create them. Almost 40% of us then blame our busy schedules for the serious lack of follow-through which is why it seems that a lot of people break their New Year Resolutions.
Non-commitment, busy schedules, and a serious case of over-optimism seems to be the main causes of not being able to maintain resolutions.
Flow Coaching Institute has coached and mentored hundreds of people and we find that there are a few things and questions that you can do and ask yourself to pick the best resolutions for you and be able to stick with them.
Most of the time, we don’t ask ourselves the right questions and we tend to follow what everyone else is doing without looking internally and realizing what are the best goals and resolutions for us in our current time and being now.
2. What are the three main things you like doing and would love to do more of?
3. Which three main areas do you want to evolve in?
With these questions, now you can curate a resolution list that resonates and works with what you want to achieve. This way, you are more inclined to want to see it through because is it deeply rooted in the way you want to grow, be, and show up in the world.
We have put together 4 simple steps that we think you can use whenever you want to when you feel that fire dissipate or when you need a bit more motivation, use these methods to help get that fire back.
Picking resolutions that resonate with you.
Create your anchor image or vision board
Set Guidelines
Plan Your Goals Out
So there you have it - our thoughts on New Years Resolutions, keeping them, maintaining them, and thriving at them.
We wish you all the best and for a much more eventful 2021 ahead for you.
How do you maintain your New Years Resolutions? We would love to hear from you!
Written by: Tashya Viknesh
Approved by: Talyaa Vardar (author mentioned in this article)