People are tricky beings and leading them isn't an easy job, but some leaders make it harder on themselves by ignoring a few simple principles of emotional intelligence.
You don't need to be an expert, or focus an extraordinary amount of effort towards emotional intelligence (also referred to as EQ) for you and your team to experience the benefits. By following a few basic principles, you can improve your emotional intelligence, and as a result, improve many things, from employee experience to organizational performance.
Business knowledge, technical skills, being result oriented and experience are important for nearly any business position, but they're not the only ones. As in his Emotional Intelligence book Daniel Goleman states: "It’s not that IQ and technical skills are irrelevant. They do matter, but…they are the entry-level requirements for executive positions."
So, what else these managers need to learn and improve to transform themselves into leaders with people skills?
1. Self-awareness
Self-awareness is about being honest and having a transparent relationship with the self. It is described as "the ability to recognize and understand personal moods and emotions and drives, as well as their effect on others." It is the foundation of becoming an authentic leader.
2. Self-regulation
Self regulation is our ability to manage and regulate our emotions. It prevents us from having ups and downs and regulate our mood. It also helps us to identify self goals and have inner discipline to take action towards achieving them. It is about valuing our own accountability without needing others to hold us accountable.
3. Internal drive
Internal drive can be described as "having an apetite for work that goes beyond money and status."
Leaders with strong emotional intelligence understand their internal motivations, and how those motivations correlate with their values as well as those of their team and the organization.
A leader with a drive knows how to energize people and usually their people are inspired by them. These internally fueled leaders are also resilient. They are marathon runners and they do not quit until they reach their target.
4. Empathy and communication skills
Empathy is the ability for someone to understand and the feelings of another person and have compassion about them. It's a key ingredient of trust and building fulfilling relationships.
Leaders without empathy, carry a high risk of being perceived as abrasive and toxic as they are ignorant of the emotional impact of their actions and decisions.
An empathetic leader however has a capacity to assess how their vision and decisions will be perceived and they communicate well to prevent future damage. They know how to relate their employees and visa versa.
Coaching leadership style is the opposite of knowing everything and telling everything. Instead of directing, coaching leaders ask their employees for their opinions and involvement. Coaching leaders want their employees to own their responsibilities and initiate their responses. They help their employees identify their strengths and weaknesses, and coach them on their personal and professional progress. Coaching leaders do not focus on past mistakes and failures, but rather on learning for future possibilities and increasing their potential. They encourage their people to establish goals and help them conceptualize a plan to attain them. These types of leaders are not afraid of providing constructive criticism as this information is beneficial to the recipient. When they facilitate performance evaluations, they always complete them with a personal and professional developmental plan.
Coaching leaders have a growth mindset; they would like to see their employees pushing their limits and skills, using their knowledge, and challenging their capabilities as this has a direct impact on business. Employees are given stimulating tasks and assignments and they are coached along the way to ensure greater success.
Many leaders believe that learning how to coach is a time-consuming luxury. To them, focusing on business and telling people what to do is better. In the day-to-day happenings in a business this approach may be easier, but in the long-run it can be detrimental. With coaching leadership, employees learn and grow to be quality contributors which in turn ensures success for future strategy and research that will have a positive long-term impact on business. It may appear contradictory, but the coaching leadership style is used more in corporations of fast-paced emerging markets than in North America. In many emerging markets, as the growth rate is high and population is young, they need their leaders to be involved with and responsible for the growth of their employees. In those organizations, coaching direct reports and supporting their progress is one of the top KPIs (KPI: Key Performance Indicator).
Bottom line? Leadership is not a title or position - it is a skill and as the world changes, the managerial requirements change. Coaching leadership style is another skill set that today’s contemporary leader must have in order to lead successfully and have quality relationships with employees. It is not a luxury.
It is no surprise that professional coaching has been one of the fastest growing occupations around the world in 21stcentury. How does one become a professional coach?
Going through a certified coach training program is the first step of becoming a coach. Not any program, but a program that has an accreditation from a legitimate organization such as the International Coach Federation. The International Coach Federation (ICF) is the most internationally renowned accreditation organization across the world. The International Coach Federation has different tracks that lead to certified coach credentialing:
ACC/ACSTH track can be considered as the entry level to becoming a credentialed coach through ICF. Whereas the ACTP Professional coaching accredition path can be considered as the gold standard in the world of coach certification training. The FLOW Coaching Institute’s coaching certification programsa have both ACC/ACSTH and ACTP accreditations. FLOW’s short track online ACC/ACSTH program provides Professional coach education with individual mentoring sessions to prepare our student coaches for their future coaching career. FLOW’s ACTP coaching accreditation program has everything that you would need to become a successful Professional coach and be able to coach holistically.
So, if you are looking for an online coaching certification program, make sure that the program has at least one of these logos: ACSTH or ACTP .
Flow Coaching Institute is mainly based on the science of positive psychology and the Flow Model. When we first started Flow Coaching Institute we wanted to make sure that everything that we taught was backed by science and is something tangible that makes sense to not just our students but their potential clients as well.
The science of positive psychology is something we practiced on our own before we even started Flow Coaching Institute. We know for a fact that using the principles of positive psychology will greatly allow you to recognize your full potential in all areas of your life. The fact that it is rooted in positivity will transform you into a much happier person by the end of it.
Positive psychology was introduced in 1998 by the founder’s Dr. Martin Selgiman and Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi. There has been a lot of back and forth going around in describing just what Positive Psychology is and the best way to explain it as well as the most commonly accepted definition is:
“Positive psychology is the scientific study of what makes life most worth living” (Peterson, 2008).
This means that it is a scientific approach to studying human thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. And we also then focus on their strengths instead of their weaknesses. To build good things in life rather than “fixing” the bad. The main focuses of positive psychology are centered around positive experiences, traits, and also positive thoughts and mindsets. Things like self-esteem, confidence, hope, gratitude, and compassion are all main ideas of positive psychology.
The foundational study surrounding positive psychology was published in 2000 with Dr. Martin Seligman and the “founding father” of flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. It is seen that after this, there has been a much bigger calling surrounding the focus on positivity in life.
When it came to merging the science of positive psychology and the Flow Methodology, we decided to focus on three main pillars. They are:
All ICF Certified coaching programs that are offered in Flow Coaching Insititute instill these three pillars of positive psychology. Which allows all our graduates to go forth into the world to spread happiness.
It also allows these coaches to show their clients the positivity of their futures and to also accept and see their past as a resource to then create their desired reality with grounded optimism.
These pillars are the backbone of all our programs here at Flow Coaching Institute and it has been the main reason why so many students from Flow flourish once they graduate.
Focusing on the good things in life is a given, but with the Flow model, we have structured it in a way that it becomes a grounding exercise. We accept our past, we learn from it and we apply the things we learn from it to better our future.
We have often said that the science of positive psychology isn’t that hard to understand, it’s not rocket science, but it is a science regardless. However, implementing it isn’t that hard and can be done by anyone after they have fully understood what it stands for and how we can use it to transform lives.
Creating a happier life is in no one else’s hands but yours, so how do you implement these pillars to create a happier life for yourself? Or rather how do our coaches go ahead and coach their clients with this methodology and see amazing results? Well, the focus mainly on:
We hope that this article has given you a quick and fun insight into what the science of positive psychology is and which parts of that are used in Flow Coaching Institute and that are taught to our amazing students.
Let us know what your thoughts are on the science of positive psychology? We would love to hear from you.
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.