Insights from Flow

Coaching
Top Leadership Coaching Skills To Have Post-Pandemic

We might finally see a light at the end of the tunnel with the vaccine rollouts in full force - however, so much has changed in the world of business and leadership that I believe that there is a need for completely new skills moving forward.

As a leader or as a manager or even as a coach, the world post-pandemic is already shaping up to be incredibly different. With this whole pandemic being the ultimate test of grit, determination, and patience, there is so much uncertainty going about that everyone needs to work on as a while.

This means that a lot of businesses and organizations need that support to make informed and smart decisions based on the current issues they are facing. This comes from a very strong leader that will steer the ship to success.

These are some of the top leadership coaching skills that we feel leaders need to have post-pandemic 

#1: The Ability To Build A Strong Team Culture 

When everyone isn't able to see each other and interact with each other the way we used to, there will be a disconnect. With that disconnect comes a lot of assumptions and perhaps even a lot of miscommunication. To ensure this doesn't happen or is lessened as much as possible, as a leader you need to be able to coach your team to be open and communicate well.

Over-communication is key here as people will need to constantly go back and forth to ensure that they have all the information they need. A good team culture is needed to ensure that all members feel like they are part of a team despite being apart from one another.

#2: Strong Goal Setting & Accountability

As a coach, you need to be able to work on setting goals with your clients for the short-term as well as the long term. Therefore, this needs to be translated to the rest of your team as well. With strong goals, your team will have something to work towards. This gives them a sense of ownership and it makes them feel like they have things under control.

With that, you allow your team to take charge of certain aspects while you work on steering the ship. In addition to that, good goal setting and a good coach makes up for incredible accountability. This is especially important when you are in a team that is remote due to the pandemic. Life gets in the way -- especially at home where you might have crying children or partners who are in need of some extra support that morning.

Being able to hold people accountable without pushing them over or making them feel like you are micromanaging is a crucial skill to have in the post-pandemic world.

#3: Reliable Listening Skills 

As a coach, you will be listening to a lot of people and most times this is one of the most important aspects of being a coach. This is also especially true when it comes to a leadership position. Being a leader means your team will turn to you and they will need you to listen to their issues, wins and concerns. Always listen to understand and not to answer.

A lot of people only listen to see what they will get out of the conversation. However, being a good leader means that you listen to understand the issue to ensure that your team feels safe and heard.

These are some of our top leadership coaching skills that we feel that every leader needs in a post-pandemic world. What do you think?

If you are interested in becoming a business or leadership coach yourself, head on over to our program schedule to book a call with one of our program advisors today. We can't wait to see you.

 

 

Talyaa Vardar

Coaching
Coaching Techniques That Will Help You Through Isolation

2020 was a hard year for everyone. It is stated that in the US 4 out of 10 adults stated that they were having mental health issues due to the pandemic. This is a huge percentage. And a huge chunk of them mentioned the depression that came from extensive isolation was what causes them to feel this intense form of sadness, depression, and helplessness.

How Does Long-Term Isolation Affect You? 

There's a reason why solitary confinement is a punishment for those who did something really bad in prison. It can turn even the sanest of people a little mad. And almost the entire population of the world had to deal with some form or another of extended isolation. When one is isolated for an extended period of time, this can cause severe depression because of loneliness. Humans are social creatures, without socialization and being able to meet others, speak to them and hang out, causes the brain to feel sad and lonely.

According to this study,

"...As the Greek philosopher Aristotle reminds us, man is a “social animal,” unable to live isolated from others, since the absence of relationships removes essential conditions for the development of personal identity and the exercise of reason".

What Do Coaching Techniques Have To Do With Getting Through Isolation? 

Coaches are trained extensively to be able to speak to their clients, find out what's wrong, and work with them through all of their issues. Life coaches also hold their clients accountable for their own growth. Coaching methodologies have been known to help those who might not have the money or the resources to get themselves a coach. And we wanted to share some of those with you today so that you can also use them on your own if you do not currently have access to a coach.

#1: Practicing Mindfulness

Coaching yourself is a big part of being a coach. And with that comes the ability to practice mindfulness. The main definition of mindfulness is to focus on the present moment. This way, you are able to let the rest of the issues, anxiety, and problems melt away when you only focus on the now and the thing that is directly in your control at this moment.

Practice simple breathing exercises and make sure you leave the house for fresh air at least once a day. Clear your mind when you feel like it's becoming too much. Being mindful also means that you are aware of what you are thinking and that you are conscious enough to stop that thought and try to remove it from your system.

Breathe and start noticing your thoughts is super crucial in practicing mindfulness. As a coach, this is also a great way to get your client to disconnect from their harmful thoughts and self-sabotaging ways and to pivot and shift their focus on the now so that you can break them from the current vicious cycles they might be going through.

#2: Communication 

Coaches are known to be some of the best communicators. They can understand complex issues that someone is going through and be able to calm them down and communicate with them so that they feel safe and heard.

When it comes to the pandemic depression and anxiety that so many people are experiencing, we have noticed that effective communication helps lower the anxiety, concerns, and fears that may be present in the minds of everyone.

Always have a list of a few people that you speak to on a daily basis. It could be your partner, best friend or even your parents. Share with them what you did during the day. Don't stop there, you can also share things like your concerns with how you're feeling. Having a support system is great when you make sure that you constantly communicate with them as well.

These are our two main tips and coaching techniques that we believe you should use to help you in times of isolation and depression. Let us know if you've used any of these and if you did, we would love to know if it helped.

Talyaa Vardar

Coaching
How Much Do Professional Coaches Earn?

Professional Coaching is one of the fastest-growing industries globally, and if you are considering becoming a certified coach we have some information to share with you.

If you've been thinking about becoming a certified life coach, executive coach, or a career coach but you have been unsure about the income, you are about to learn! FLOW Coaching Institute has alumni and a group of professional coaches across the world working in the field of various specialties such as career coaching, executive coaching, life coaching, corporate coaching, parent coaching, team coaching, etc. We reached out to them and asked about how much income they earn to give you as much precise information as we can reflecting different a range of different specialties and geographies.

So, if you are the kind of person who enjoys helping other people and has always dreamed about doing that kind of work that makes a real difference in people’s lives, but at the same time worried about the income you will make, we hope that this information will give you an idea if becoming a Certified Professional Coach matches your financial expectations.

Based on this brief research, we managed to conclude that the key to earning a considerable amount of good salary lies in “professional commitment”. These FLOW graduates that we interviewed have a high commitment to keeping their practice aligned with professional standards. Therefore, they network on a regular basis, they develop their practice by listening to their clients and their feedback, they invest in mentoring and supervision, and they coach and are coached themselves on a regular basis.

So How Much Do Coaches Make? 

According to our survey and interviews with ICF Certified Professional Flow Coaches, we can say that full-time certified life coaches that work for 6-8 hours a day earn between a range of $50-$500 per hour and earn around the ranges of $70,000 to a whopping $600,000. (P.s: Note that this is calculated by working 6 hours per day with a 20-day working month).

Career Coaches 

Certified Professional Career Coaches stated that they make 30-70% more than this on average as they get a chance to work with a number of individuals from their corporate clients. Life Coaches' on the other hand have business models that vary from providing hourly in-person/live coaching sessions to monthly live group coaching sessions through online platforms like Zoom or through social media.

Compare this to the average full-time job. To earn $48,000 you need to work 40 hours or more per week for a job you might not enjoy,  maybe in a culture, you don't like, doing the type of work that doesn’t allow you to enjoy your every day.

Executive Coaches 

If your specialty is ICF Certified Professional Executive Coaching, things get even better. When we asked our executive coaches about how they charge for their sessions, they mentioned a range between $200-$1000 per hour, and their annual income starts with a minimum of around $200,000 and eventually reaches up to a 6 figure income. (P.s: Note that this is calculated by working 6 hours per day with a 20-day working month)

ICF Certified Professional Executive Coaches work with director level and above (C level). They either have 1:1 individual sessions or work with teams from the same organization or they might have a specific type of leadership retreats where executives from various organizations join. It is coaching in its most premium state and you will be working with some of the smartest minds on the planet.

This is just one of the reasons that becoming an ICF certified professional coach might be the ideal path for you to start a fulfilling and profitable career by doing work that you love.

Please note that, at Flow Coaching’s ICF ACTP training program, we have special business and career-building sessions with our 6 figure income earning coaches, to help our coaches to work on their future coaching career or business plans individually.

What does FLOW Offer? 

FLOW Coaching Institute offers two paths to your ICF Certification:
1. The Fast Track path includes 5 modules. Both Core Foundations and Business Coaching ICF 60 ACSTH/ACC training programs make you eligible for certification.
2. Our All-Inclusive Advanced ICF ACTP Certification program has 6 modules carrying you all the way up to ICF ACC & PCC credentials.

To learn more about our programs, leave us a comment, just fill in our contact form or send us an email to info@flowcoachinginstitute.com to get in touch with our team today! Or, visit our latest schedule here to see when the next intake is for you!

We would love to hear from you.

Talyaa Vardar

Coaching
6 Ways a Business Coach Can Help You

Business coaching is another branch of coaching that mainly focuses on helping clients grow their business overall. There are multiple ways this can happen but as a coach, they will need to not only be great at coaching but would also need to understand how businesses work so that they can effectively help you and your business grow.

If you are willing to achieve their business goals and there is a gap between your current state and the desired state, then business coaching can help.

With a business coach, you can start to achieve business goals, give a new life to your business, increase sales and profits, design and implement a new plan and help out with similar challenges or opportunities.

How Do Business Coaches Help You?

By setting the goals you really want to achieve and are beneficial for you

Humans want a lot of things but not all are really beneficial for them. A business coach helps to distinguish what you can have and what you should have. He helps reach out to the depths of your desires and help you understand what is useful for you and your business in the long-term. Once you have the ideal goal you are much likely to move in a direction to reach it.

By helping you achieve a life with a work-life balance

A balanced life is essential as in the turmoil of business its very easy to get lost and overburden yourself leading to exhaustion. A business coach will help you learn how to think about yourself along with your business and how to act responsibly. It is important to get your needs met. You will build a strong foundation of self-care and also pay attention to your business at the same time with the help of the business coach.

By growing financial strength

You deserve to earn a lot more than you think. A business coach will help you with your financial plan, help you design a strategy to earn more from your business.

By expanding your business reach without burning out 

When you have a Success Partner with you whom you can trust and rely on you will have the power to expand your business’s reach and go for more opportunities because you will have a clear head and a specific direction.

By helping you make better decisions for yourself and your business

A business coach understands the value of sharing opinions and ideas for a client with them who understands where they are coming from. A business coach can help you clear your focus and help you make the best decisions for you and your business as the business coach will present you with views that are not biased or influenced.

By helping you grow with increased energy

When you will have a free mind and a clear focus you will be able to tackle challenges in a better way and be more productive. All thanks to your business coach.

No matter what stage your business is at, a business coach can help. They can make you work harder, be more accountable, progress faster than you would on your own. A business coach can serve as a Success Partner in your journey to achieving your business goals.

If you want to become an ICF Certified Business Coach view our upcoming programs now!

Talyaa Vardar

Coaching
Living Life In The New Normal – Getting over VUCA and Focusing On Yourself

When was the last time someone asked you, how do you really feel? And when was the last time you gave them an honest answer? 2021 is upon us and we know that 2020 was a different, challenging, and thought-provoking year for everyone. With that, we also know that everyone has felt so many different types of emotions. 

How Are You Feeling?

So what are some of the emotions you have been feeling the past year and even today? Are you feeling:

  • Calm 
  • In Control
  • Content
  • Alert 
  • Bored 
  • Stressed Out 
  • Frustrated 
  • Happy 
  • Hopeful
  • Depressed 
  • Anxious 
  • Relaxed

Regardless of what you are feeling, the team here at Flow Coaching Institute hopes that you have been feeling better since the start of the new year. However, with everything that happened in 2020, we realized that there is a name for the uncertainty and confusion during the pandemic. 

What is VUCA?

This is called the VUCA environment. VUCA stands for: 

  1. Volatility 
  2. Uncertainty 
  3. Complexity 
  4. Ambiguity 

The VUCA environment is known to badly affect our decision-making skills, it makes us question everything we do, it becomes harder for us to navigate our day to day as well as being able to see what the future should look like for us. Put that all together and we know that your brain will get incredibly stressed out when it has to deal with all that uncertainty. It also becomes paralyzing when you are needed to make a big decision or even work on something mundane. 

Waiting for the VUCA time to pass does get depressing and stress-inducing. You are constantly worried about the future, you can’t seem to see past what is happening today, there is a feeling of helplessness and anxiety. VUCA cripples you. 

Relaxing As A Form of Moving Away From VUCA 

This is why all our coaches are focusing on letting their students and clients know that they need to take the time to relax and find meaning in whatever is happening right now. 

By relaxing and taking it all in while analyzing how it makes us feel and why we are feeling this way, will allow for a more relaxed mindset. We believe that you can see that as a meditation process or even as a spiritual practice - a cause to discipline your wild thoughts. It is also a good time to learn and explore what FLOW means to us and what being IN FLOW means to us. 

Questions To Ask Yourself To Calm Your Mind

In times of chaos and uncertainty, we believe that you should always practice asking grounding questions. These questions will not only help you find clarity but also help you to move away from the VUCA environment. 

  1. What am I learning? 
  2. Who am I becoming? 
  3. Who do I want to become? 
  4. How do I discipline my mind to become more resilient? 
  5. What does flow mean to me? 
  6. Where do I find the meaning of flow and resilience? 
  7. What does being strong mean to me? 
  8. What grounds me? 
  9. What can I do to ground myself? 
  10. What does peace mean to me? 

These questions are paramount in helping you find the light in your storm and for you to find what it means to be calm and happy in times of chaos. 

Here at FLOW, we know that as change agents we are responsible for making way for these transformations to be made. We have been busy inspiring and changing lives to move the world in a more positive direction. We have had our fair share of frustrating VUCA moments but we decided to rely on our collective strengths to use our platforms and coaches to be part of this positive movement. 

Getting out of the VUCA environment isn’t just another coaching session for us, it’s a life-changing event that we believe will carry on with you at every twist and turn of your life. 

How Flow Coaching Institute Has Committed to Helping People Out of VUCA Environments

Here at Flow Coaching Institute, we certified hundreds of FLOW coaches from our online ICF coaching programs, but we also committed to ensuring we brought about a bigger change. We chose to support our Toronto and international communities all year long. 

So, we partnered with the City of Toronto and Dixon Hall for the Wrap Around Support Program to provide emotional, mental and career coaching support to those who are badly influenced by the Covid-19 crisis. 

We also partnered with Schulich Business School to help future female leaders build resilience and leadership capacity through Women in Leadership Program.

We know that waiting for the crisis to pass is not the best coping strategy. We know that action creates momentum. And nothing could have been better than supporting the STEM Women of WSTEM TO group, as we partnered with them for the MentorSHE project coaching women leaders in the STEM industry.

  Along with these projects, FLOW joined hands with other renowned organizations like Henkel, ING Bank, and TEB to provide coaching to their management to help the organizations grow in the right direction during VUCA times.  

We believe that as coaches, we are change agents. We are put on the planet to support, help you build resilience, take you out of your limiting beliefs, build leadership capacities, and also help people transform their lives for the better. And also to help them find their purpose and their flow. 

All of us here at Flow Coaching Institute hopes that you find your flow amidst this chaos and VUCA. 

Let us know how we can help you and we would love to step in. 

If you have any ideas and suggestions on how to best ground yourself in trying times, please leave us a message as well! 

Happy 2021! 

 

Talyaa Vardar

Coaching
How Can Self-Awareness Help Leaders Succeed?

Is Self-Awareness a leadership practice? According to science, yes. Leaders with self-awareness habits have more resilience than others who don’t. Studies on leadership shows us that leaders with self-awareness are evaluated as more respected and inspirational leaders by their followers than others.

Having a self-check regularly is a practice that is applied by authentic leaders and many others. In our survey with workplace leaders, 50% of executives who are rated as having high self-awareness by their organization through engagement surveys stated that they have an executive coach.

With a good self-awareness habit, leaders are able to work out their strengths and shortfalls, and only by being aware of them, they can overcome their weak points by making use of their strong points.

If one is not aware of oneself it can lead to lots of trial and error based on what they can and what they can’t do. But not everybody has the luxury of making mistakes and learning through them, therefore, it's very important to know one’s capabilities especially when there is a lot at stake such as time, money, and resources.

As we grow into professionals and leaders, understanding our capabilities, strengths and areas of improvement is essential for long lasting success and perhaps the most vital leadership skill.

What Is Self-Awareness?

Self-awareness begins with paying attention to own thoughts, emotions and feelings. It is related to emotional intelligence which stems from honest self-thought. Self-awareness is monitoring the way we act and think and be aware of our internal voice. One must be willing to dwell deep and learn about oneself.

Once we understand our inner world, we make peace with ourselves along with our thoughts, behavior and actions. We are then able to consciously work towards the betterment of our life experiences.

How Can You Increase Your Self-Awareness?

  1. Ironically one of the best ways to heighten self-awareness is to practice keen listening to others. When you listen to others you get into the same frequency as them and understand their emotions and body language. Once you master listening to others it can help you to listen to your inner self as well.
  2. Another way is to open your mind to new perspectives. When you view situations and your surroundings from another perspective it can be refreshing to see how other people view things differently. It makes you ask for and accept other people’s honest opinions.
  3. Most executive coaches would agree that 360-degree feedback on a client is extremely useful during the coaching process as it will help them to recognize their areas of improvement and get a big picture leading to better self-awareness.
  4. Maintaining a journal is also a good way to increase self-awareness as It can help identify what triggers certain behaviors and emotions. It gives an opportunity to reflect on certain habits and actions.
  5. Most people find creating some “me-time” everyday use in creating better self-awareness. Spending time alone can give us a chance to know ourselves without the distraction of technology or other people. It can be a good way to connect with the inner you.

How Does Self-Awareness Make Leaders More Effective?

Most definitely self-aware leaders perform better than leaders who are not connected with their inner self. You must have heard of the Dunning-Kruger effect where people think they are better than they actually are. Sometimes people have inflated beliefs about themselves which results from ignorance of one’s limitations.

Self-aware leaders are in touch with not only their inner self but also have a better understanding of the situation as they have high empathy. Self-awareness plays a big role in the performance of the leader as he works on getting not only the best out of him but also from the team.

Teams that are led by self-aware leaders are less likely to be affected by internal team tussle as a leader who is self-aware also promotes the benefits and understanding of self-awareness to others as well.

For example, Authentic Leadership is a leadership practice where the leader values self-awareness and has a regular habit of self-reflection. Engagement surveys in workplaces show us that authentic leaders are more respected and trusted in their organization than others with lower self-awareness.

The majority of authentic leaders have a mentor or a coach, helping them to mirror their impact in the organization. From Bill Gates to Google’s former CEO Eric Schmidt, leaders with self-awareness agree that everyone-including the CEO- needs a coach.

Conclusion

Executive coaching focuses on working with leaders to help them fulfill their greatest potential as effective leadership is much more than just industry experience and the basic set of skills. Executive coaching is all about focusing on strengths, understanding areas of growth and improvement, and working on developing skills for overall excellence.

A self-aware person doesn’t make assumptions that other people will read his mind and team members will know how to handle the obstacles instead he identifies the factors for conflicts earlier on and addresses them.

If you are interested in becoming a professional coach yourself, or interested to know how professional coaching can help you get in touch with us at info@flowcoachinginstitute.com

Talyaa Vardar

Coaching
What Is Professional Coaching?

Professional Coaching, for FLOW, is a creative support and partnership construct that discovers and brings out the real potential of an individual turning it into meaningful performance. Life itself is a creative process that individuals can realize depending on the extent of their self-awareness. FLOW Coaching turns this creative potential into a positive life performance that nourishes the individual and simultaneously supports him/her to make a more conscious contribution to their surroundings. Coaching does not focus on past failures and mistakes, but on generating alternatives related to the future. The goal is to generate results that can be monitored and measured.  With the support and encouragement of the coach, the individual finds answers within themselves.

An example of the definition of Coaching:

“Coaching is unlocking a person's potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them” –Timothy Gallwey 

What is Professional Coaching?

ICF's Definition of Coaching 

The ICF defines coaching as the thought-provoking, creative partnership process that inspires clients to maximize their personal and professional potential. With coaching, someone can very easily elevate themselves to a level that they might not be able to on their own.

A coach is there to supercharge your way into a much healthier lifestyle and they are also there to bring out the best in you. When you are looking for a coach, you should look for someone who shares the same ideals as you and someone with who you can also relate.

With that a coach is there to fundamentally provide coaching, clarity, encouragement, and accountability for their clients in a professional setting. Having a professional coach is a lot like having a professional trainer.

They are there solely for your benefit and well-being.

The Benefits of Coaching 

Professional coaching has many associated benefits. Individuals that experience the coaching relationship may gain fresh perspectives on personal challenges and opportunities, their reasoning skills in the decision-making process may become enhanced, they may achieve greater interpersonal effectiveness, and an increased self-confidence while fulfilling responsibilities.

Consistent with the degree of decisiveness and commitment to the will of increasing personal efficiency, they attain appreciable results in regards to increased productivity, satisfaction with life, and the attainment of personal goals.

According to the 2009 IFC Global Coaching Study, companies that made use of professional coaching services for business purposes increased their average initial investments, ROI (Return of Investment), seven-fold. Those who received personal coaching stated that this return was 3.44 fold.

When broken down, these are some of the benefits of coaching for those who need it in their lives:

  1. A strong support system who is there to walk alongside you to reach the dreams and goals you want.
  2. A sense of clarity about what you want in life and how to get there.
  3. The ability to overcome difficulties in life that you might not be able to alone and without support.
  4. Someone that will stand alongside you while you explore all your options, wants, and aspirations.
  5. Someone to keep you accountable for the things in life that you want to achieve.
  6. And someone who is truly there to look out for you.

If you are looking to become a professional coach yourself, click this link to go to our program page to find the next intake for yourself. All our programs are ICF Certified as well so when you graduate you will be a certified professional coach.

Talyaa Vardar

Coaching
The Average Salary of A Life Coach

The salary of a certified life coach varies between $100/hour to $1000/hour depending on the type of life coaching, education, confidence, clientele, and geographical location. The average fee for an hour life coaching session is around $230 USD according to the 2016 global ICF study.

Experience plays a big role in the life coach’s salary increase along with completing a professional coach certification training program.

The number of clients that a life coach gets at one time varies from 6 to 30. The same ICF study revealed that the average income that a coach makes increases over time:

So, what is the average salary of a life coach?

  • 1-2 years $150+/hour
  • 3-4 years $150-200/hour
  • 5-10 years $250+/hour
  • 10+ years $350+/hour

It is obvious that the longer you've been coaching and the more hours you rack up, the higher your salary can be, or rather the more you can demand. In addition to that, if you decide to zone in on a niche of coaching -- like business coaching or executive coaching, you are also able to earn more money that way.

Who are life coaches?

A life coach is someone who is a thought-provoking partner for their client who supports them by:

  • Realizing their true potential and maximizing it through self-awareness and developing new habits;
  • Getting them through a difficult period of their life;
  • Identifying meaningful goals to increase their happiness;
  • Finding a balance between all their priorities including work, finances, family, friends, personal development, self-love, romance, etc.;
  • Closing the gap between where they are and where they want to be;
  • Developing coping skills that will create positive change in life and at work.

If the life coach is a certified life coach this means that they are the experts in the field.

Some ideas for life coaches to create various streams of income:

  • Life coaching with individuals
  • Creating coaching packages
  • Training and workshops
  • Group coaching
  • Writing a book
  • Mentor coaching
  • Motivational speaking
  • Online courses
  • Video series
  • Apps

Choosing to become a life coach as a career path is not an easy decision to make as it's a job that requires a lot of time and dedication. You need to be someone who is extremely dedicated to wanting to help people change their lives.

A life coach has to be there all the time for their clients. And most times, the issues that their clients need to go through are some heavy issues that might take a chunk out of your own cup as well. This is also why a lot of professional coaches need to be mentally and emotionally strong so that they can stay unshaken when it comes to their client's well-being and growth.

You also need to be incredibly attentive and present when it comes to your client's sessions, conversations, and growth. You are there to be a change-maker in their lives. Someone that they can trust 100% that is there and has their back.

If becoming a coach is a dream of yours, FLOW Coaching Institute offers ICF-certified coaching programs for you. You can tune in from anywhere around the world as our programs are online. Imagine that -- you get to become a fully certified ICF coach online. You will be part of an amazing family of world-class coaches who are there to help guide you and shape you to become the coach you are meant to be.

Click here to check out our latest program schedule for an intake that's best for you. We truly can't wait to see you soon!

Talyaa Vardar

Coaching
30 Business Coaching Questions Through Swot Analysis

Nowadays, everyone who is in the world of work is familiar with what SWOT analysis means. SWOT is one of the simplest and yet most effective analyses that can help companies, brands, and individuals to review where they are and where they can be from a holistic perspective.

Looking at the image below for a simple graphic of what a SWOT analysis actually looks like.

Image Credits

At FLOW Coaching Institute, our students learn how to coach through SWOT by using these business coaching questions that you will read below.

Before we come to these powerful business coaching questions, let’s remember briefly what SWOT analysis is about.

  • Strengths: Strengths are the things that you or your organization are stronger and better at in the overall marketplace. Examples of strengths include unique/better products or services, an established customer base, a good reputation in the marketplace, strong management, experience and know-how, experienced employees, ownership of patents and trademarks, or anything else that sets you apart from the competition.
  • Weaknesses: These are the areas that make you or your products/services/brand vulnerable to compete in the marketplace. Weaknesses might include slow agility in a rapid change environment, lack of expertise and market understanding, employee and management problems, high turnover, lack of capital, bad location, poor products or services, a damaged reputation, and so on.
  • Opportunities: Opportunities are things that could make your business stronger, more enduring, or more profitable — for example, the emergence of new technology or the expansion of an old segment; possible partnerships, acquisitions, or strategic alliances; or the recruitment of desired talent.
  • Threats: Threats are the things that could adversely affect a business. Threats might include changing buying habits, changing marketplace conditions, rising company debt, cash-flow problems, the entrance of a strong competitor in the market, decreasing profitability, regulations, laws, or taxes that may negatively affect the overall profit and business success.

30 Business Coaching Questions to Ask Through SWOT Analysis

Strengths

  • What makes your company or yourself attractive to your industry?
  • What are your inner strengths?
  • What are you more efficient at?
  • What can you do for less money?
  • What can we do in less time?
  • What do we do better than our competitors?
  • What makes you stand out?
  • What do your clients love most about you?

Weaknesses

  • Where do you lack efficiency?
  • Where are you wasting money?
  • Where are you wasting time and resources?
  • What do your competitors do better?
  • Where do you lack expertise/knowledge/skills?

Opportunities [keep in mind these are growth areas]

  • What do you know that others do not know?
  • What is missing in your market?
  • What could you create/do better than a competitor?
  • What new trends are occurring?
  • What openings in the market are there?
  • How/where could you grow?
  • Do your strengths open up new opportunities?

Threats

  • What changes are occurring in your market's environment?
  • What technologies could replace what you do?
  • What changes are occurring in the way you're being discovered?
  • What social changes could threaten you?
  • Are there any threatening government policies or regulations?
  • What outside resources and companies do you depend on?
  • Do any of our weaknesses expose us to additional threats?

To inquire about FLOW Coaching Institute’s ICF Certified Business Coaching program, please click here

Talyaa Vardar

Coaching
The FLOW Model In Professional Coaching

“Contrary to what we tend to assume, the normal state of the mind is chaos … when we are left alone, with no demands on attention, the basic order of the mind reveals itself. Entropy is “the normal state of consciousness - a condition that is neither useful nor enjoyable”. – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, 1990

What Happens to Your Mind In Flow?

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi discovered that when people's minds were in flow, they experience real (authentic)satisfaction. In this state, the person is completely absorbed by the activity. When they are in this experience, people feel powerfulawake, an effortless feeling of control, disengaged from their conscious state (still aware of themselves, however rather than through the ego, they are experiencing things through the unconscious), and that their skills are functioning optimally.

In Maslow's footsteps, Mihaly maintains that happiness is not achieved that easily. The person has to prepare themselves, and even develop the conditions, by specifying challenges that should be neither too demanding nor too simple.

“The best moments usually occur if a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. “Optimal experience, where flow is realized, is thus something we make happen (in fact make possible)“ - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, 1990

Business Coach

For example, consider that you are skiing down a double black diamond slope of a mountain. You are high in the clouds and the view is breathtaking. You have skied down this slope before, but you did not feel fully in control - until now! In your every move you feel that you are in the zone, moving with precision and control. Your movements are frozen in time; you can feel every sound in your bones, including your breath.

In these moments you may feel that you are at one with the mountain and all that surrounds you. All the skiing classes, all that exercise, and effort are paying off now as you are prepared to traverse the challenges of the slope. This is the experience of a lifetime!

Enjoying Experiences in The NOW!

This type of experience can happen in a variety of different activities. Think of a time where you felt you were in the zone similar to the skiing experience outlines above. Maybe you worked on a hard project and accomplished it; maybe through a form of artistic expression; maybe a conversation with a friend that satisfied you mentally and emotionally.

In these moments, your mind is so completely absorbed by the activity that you forget yourself, and with an increased awareness of the "here and now" you can almost effortlessly experience your actions. This experimental state became the research focus for years of the very meticulous psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and with the purpose of defining this experience by an objective condition; he gave it the name "flow".

".....They concentrate their attention on a limited stimulus field, forget personal problems, lose their sense of time and of themselves, feel competent and in control, and have a sense of harmony and union with their surroundings... they cease to worry about whether the activity will be productive or whether it will be rewarded...  they gave entered a state of flow (they enter the flow mental state)”
            -Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

In a world where "serious" work may be regarded necessarily unpleasant but enables us to earn a good living; sooner or later we all enter a period in where we have the desire to make our lives more meaningful.

Whether we are front-line workers, white-collar managers, or CEOs of multinational companies, we may find ourselves trying to resist a state of boredom, anxiety, and alienation/loneliness to find more meaning in our daily lives. 

While the dominant environment/culture pursues money, prestige, and constant pleasure, some people pursue meaning and simple satisfaction. Some become curious about the source of unhappiness, lack of meaning, motivation, and dissatisfaction, but they cannot find the answer themselves.

According to the FLOW model, a life beyond boredom and anxiety is possible.

What is The FLOW Model?

FLOW: A focused action of which the individual is aware while remaining unaware of that awareness.  Here, motivation comes from within the person (intrinsic motivation). The FLOW Model shows how we can ensure daily flow by increasing intrinsic motivation.

Csikszentmihalyi’s flow model recognizes eight emotional mental states:

  1. Apathy - no interest, the person is apathetic to the subject and situation
  2. Boredom - no interest in the situation, bored, and maybe run-down
  3. Relaxation - calmness or lack of excitement
  4. Worry - focus with worry is negative; (fantasy) problems grow and are viewed as having no solution
  5. Control - the feeling of dominance. Automatizing skills by practicing; the activity is currently hard but the person feels that they have a command of the situation (risk: the person's skill is higher than the difficulty of the situation)
  6. Anxiety - could be the reason for someone freezing or shutting down
  7. Arousal - with the reinforcement of arousal, the person approaches their surroundings more attentively
  8. Flow - the mental state that ensures the person focusing completely on the task or activity - generally results in the action being completed successfully

In the process of experiencing and completing a new task/activity, dependent on the perceived difficulty level and the person's skill/ability, this model demonstrates the emotional state that the person is experiencing.

For example, providing the task is easy and does not require a lot of skill means we probably show an apathetic tendency towards the task. However, if the difficulty level of a task is high and the person does not feel that they are sufficiently competent, this can bring out anxiety and worry. In order to find balance and increase our performance, we need a difficulty level that attracts our interest, we believe is important, and feel that we have the capacity to do it. This feeling brings us to flow.

The state of FLOW can be seen in people who masterwork life, art, sports, or a hobby. From the outside it seems like they are doing the task with great ease, however, if you look at it from within, they have completely devoted themselves to what they are doing.

Reaching this state is not easy and sometimes people go through their whole lives never truly experiencing FLOW or only experiencing it in short bursts with no ability to recreate it when they want to.

This is why at FLOW Coaching Institute we always emphasize working on ourselves alongside learning to become a coach that is able to coach the whole person.

Have you found your FLOW?

Talyaa Vardar