Insights from Flow

It is a common assumption that managers have all the answers, but the truth is, management is as much about the questions as it is for the answers.“If you want the answer—ask the question.” ― Lorii Myers

Asking the right questions keeps the thought process active and helps you seek out new concepts and ideas. Knowing when to ask what question can improve management skills dramatically. Effective questions are the ones which promote growth, enhances interaction, increases knowledge and helps with choosing the right decision. There are some important questions that can help managers be more effective in their management skills.

5 Questions Managers Should Reflect On:

1. What is on my priority list in the next 10 minutes? 

Prioritization and managing time effectively are one of the most important management qualities. Questioning what to do in the next few minutes and what is important helps you get tasks out of the way efficiently and effectively

2. What can make the situation be clearer?

Managers often face scenarios when teams are struggling. Questions like this can help rearrange the situation and organize what needs to get done. Bringing clarity brings direction and vision and can turn the situation into a favourable one.

3. How would a great manager react to this situation?

If you have an inspiration or an idol you look up to, you can often ask yourself how would the particular person act if he was in your shoes. It opens your mind to new ideas and gives you the push to take the right step by re-enacting the situation in your head.

4. What went right today?

It is very important to reflect on what made you successful or what made you fall behind because it is the most common indicator of you and your teams’ strengths and weaknesses. Asking such a question can help you promote what is required and avoid similar negative actions for the future.

5. What are my areas of improvement?

Successful managers believe in continuous learning. They never stop learning new things and always look for new opportunities and ideas to adopt. Innovation is key. Finding new ways to do things promotes creativity and a manager should always be in its pursuit.

Management involves coaching which is asking the right questions to lead your clients/team members to effective solutions by themselves. If you want to learn more about coaching email to us at info@flowcoachinginstitute.com

The World of business has never faced multi-challenges as much as today;

• The level of diversity in the workplace has never been this much.
• The level of change through all industries has never been this fast and adverse.
• Technology has never been this complex.
• Global economy has never been this volatile.
• Perception management has never been this challenging.

And all of these challenges have to be managed simultaneously. You can not choose one over another. Today’s manager has to face them all and deal with all simultaneously.

How do you do that? There is one answer. You can’t do it on your own! As a manager in order to cope with such pace, in today’s business environment, you need to learn to energise, facilitate, activate and enable others to bring their most effective self to the work every day. All of these skills are captured in one tool: Coaching.

Managers become leaders when they start coaching their people. Coaching leaders know how to;

• Create self-awareness in terms of strengths and weaknesses
• Help their people to identify where they are in term of performance and identify where they can be
• Identify motivational barriers and help their people to work around intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
• Facilitate the energy of their teams and individual employees
• Create a collaborative culture by inviting others to co-create the desired atmosphere
• Energize people by coaching them on their values and strengths
• Invite others to create a respectful communication culture where diversity is perceived as a strength not as a threat
• Enable their people to learn and improve themself
• Inspires a growth mindset versus fixed mindset

A coaching leader has the confidence and wisdom that he/she doesn’t have to know it all. They have powerful questions to create a learning atmosphere where people are eager to learn from others and when not knowing, developing the right inquiry skills and growth attitude is the norm.

How one does develop coaching skills in order to develop coaching style leadership?

• Learning to actively listen with curiosity on what others are saying and not is the first step.
• Learning to ask and practice powerful questions that are what, how, who questions are the second step. Asking powerful questions allows leaders to accumulate more information about their people, culture and barriers that prevent employees from succeeding.
• Knowing how to help others to set effective goals, plan and identify actions also is part of coaching.
• Having courage to question the motivational habits of people also is an important coaching skill. For example: How do you feel about this project? What about this problem demotivates you most? Once you identify their motivational barriers or triggers then you’ll be able to coach them towards increased energy and motivation.

Establishing any business isn’t easy and a coaching business is no exception. Every newly starting coach wanting to create a business has once spent a considerable amount of time watching the coaching business growing to maturity and stability. We hope the information in this blog will help ease some pressure off you to build your coaching business from scratch.

For a healthy coaching business, patience and creativity is key. Screen your market and understand the needs of your target audience and market and act accordingly. Gradually and eventually your business will flourish and stabilize. Following are the key factors that can act as a catalyst for a strong coaching business.

16 Success Factors to Consider for A Strong Coaching Business

• Getting recommendations from past clients.
• Emphasizing on success stories.
• Gathering enough client testimonials.
• Creating a brand image through media and press publications.
• Encapsulating as much information as possible in blogs, videos and social media posts.
• Regular and recurring clientele.
• Clear understanding of needs and wants of your chosen market.
• Differentiating strategy to make yourself stand out
• Learning from your mistakes to turn them into opportunities.
• Price yourself accordingly, adjust fees according to market research and standard for your target market. Make sure you success to bag enough bookings.
• Never stop learning more about what you do.
• Try to make use of market automation tools.
• Formulize a methodical sales funnel where you know what makes your clients sign up.
• Keep track of client data, how many leads generated and how many successful conversions.
• Follow up with feedback.

Through this process you will understand about your most important and valuable areas and resources and should choose to invest most of your time and money there to help support your coaching practice. Understanding the core of your business will help you set benchmarks and understand your competition as well.

Growing your coaching business will not be a straight upward peak, there will be ups and downs but with more attention to your business and strategies you will have more ups than downs.

Equipped with the knowledge that you have today start your list of important factors today to help take your business to the next step. Get in touch with us at info@flowcoachinginstitute.com if you want to become an ICF Certified Coach or need help to set up your coaching business.

I don’t recall where I heard it but once I heard a story proving that culture eats strategy. After years of coaching people, executives and organizations, I couldn’t agree more.

CULTURE EATS STRATEGY.

Maybe you already know maybe not but 70% of change management projects fail due to the current environment throughout the organization.

I am sorry but it’s true. The culture of your organization is more powerful than your strategy and more persistent than your vision for positive change. It’s the environment that enables vision, goals, strategic plan, performance or undermines it.

Every culture has many layers of the culture that starts with a vision. Then there are values and habits which are followed by skills, capabilities, and resources. Then there are daily procedures, routines, actions; hence results.

The BIG MISTAKE that leaders, human resources or organizational development experts do is to understand where the culture is in all of these layers of the environment. Then setting up SMART goals for each layer to close the gap between where you want the organization to be and where you currently are. After this gap analysis, the most difficult part follows.: Convincing and influencing people towards contribution. That can only happen through talking to people.

Coaching conversations are transformative. If nothing else, coaching teaches you to lead effective conversations. No matter the size of your organization, effective conversations drive business strategy outcomes and create sustainable change. Learning how to integrate coaching into your daily conversations will help you to tailor your message with each person-as each is unique- and provoke people’s thinking process towards betterment.

4 Core Skills for Effective Conversations

Listen with a Focus to Understand

Ask Creative Questions

Encourage to Generate Alternatives

Manage Progress & Accountability

FLOW Coaching Institute’s coaching philosophy and professional coach certification programs are designed to provide these core skills with an applicable and practical approach. We teach these 4 core skills and more to help to real workplace challenges and goals to build trust, foster collaboration and engagement, enable people to contribute to better performance and business outcomes and create a culture where positivity meets productivity.

To learn further about our certified coach training programs please Click Here

When I started my ACC-level coaching certification with FLOW Coaching Institute, my previous experience related to this field consisted mostly of volunteering work in non-profit organizations where I supported, through active listening, individuals overcoming mental-health and homelessness challenges. I had no knowledge of the structure of an ICF standards coaching session, until I was taught the FLOW architecture model in class. With the in-class coaching demonstrations and the weekly practices with other students, I had the opportunity to implement what I learned and guide others towards achieving their goals in the most efficient and non-resistant way. However, there were few moments where I doubted my capabilities as a life coach and let this affect my confidence while coaching other students and new clients. I am sharing with you some of the realizations I made during my learning journey that helped me overcome the fear of “not being good enough”, and expand my coaching skills. If you’re on the path of becoming a certified life coach, here are 5 reminders to boost your confidence while you’re a student:

1- You are becoming a life coaching expert

Each client brings a unique background and story to the coaching session. During the weekly practices, you will have the opportunity to coach and be coached by other students with diverse types of goals. These practice sessions will push you past your comfort zones and make you explore different fields of application of coaching. At first, it might feel awkward to coach someone in a field that you are not fully knowledgable in, but remember, you are becoming a coaching expert first and foremost. With the FLOW architecture model, you will be able to drive a client towards achieving all types of goals, whether those be financial, relational, emotional, career-wise, spiritual, and more.

2- Your presence is valuable

Some of the most valuable things you can offer as a life coach is your presence and support. Providing a safe and non-judgmental space enable others to be vulnerable, share their goals, and explore their inner-world, while allowing creativity to flourish. Once you overcome the tendency to overthink what questions to ask next during a session, the focus shifts to the person being coached and the true meaning behind their expressions. When you start listening with deep attention to their words and body language, you enhance your intuitive ability to ask empowering questions and bring a natural flow to the conversation. Powerful life realizations are then made by the clients and by you, the coach, as well.

3- Take care of your well-being

As an ambitious person who wants to see my coaching business grow and succeed, I can relate to the constant drive and pressure to keep being productive and always bring new innovative ideas to the table. What keeps me going forward is those little moments where I allow myself to relax, refuel, and find balance with the activities that bring me joy. For new students, remember to take a step back, once in a while, and focus on your own growth. Being a coach doesn’t mean you should be perfect: you are still humans with needs that are yearning to be honored. Give yourself the same level of love and support you would have with your clients.

4- Start building your support group

In your life coaching classes, you will be part of a group of students who share similar interests in coaching and who are also growing their skills. During practice, you will have the opportunity to be coached by these students and have the space to work through some of your insecurities, insights, and goals. Seeking my group’s support has personally helped me gain more confidence and continuously shift into a more positive mindset throughout the program. You may even learn from the new questions that resonate with you and then add them to your evolving question bank.

5- Be yourself

What distinguish you from other coaches is your unique set of experiences in life. Although the FLOW architecture model gives structure to your coaching sessions, your individuality brings the energy and dynamism to them. Captivate your audience with your authenticity, and don’t forget to add a touch of your personality and humor in your thought-provoking inquiries. Imagine a career where you can be fully authentic, help others, and bring financial abundance into your life: that is life coaching!

Our personal and professional lives are full of challenges and setbacks, but through years of professional coaching and counseling, I have observed that those who master high performance are the ones who are able to consistently rally their emotional strength in the pursuit of their goals—no matter what gets thrown at them.

So, if you want to succeed in the stage of life and go beyond survival 101, I would like to encourage you to cultivate new habits towards developing emotional resilience. Through working with your inner coach you will conquer your obstacles and build a fulfilling successful life. Here are the 8 steps to Conquer Your Obstacles:

1. Stay present to emotions such as anger, fear, regret, and sadness to understand how they trigger you and what do you do after you have them. Then do one thing differently at a time despite your fear or your anger. This will allow you to learn to start managing those emotions better.
2. Distance yourself from your stress triggers and ask what is the meaning of those triggers in your life? This will allow you to conquer your stress instead of letting it get in your way.
3. Analyze past setbacks and make a list of your learning to come back even stronger.
4. Pay attention to the feelings of others, but don’t let those feelings to burn you out.
5. Renew yourself physically, mentally and emotionally periodically.
6. Work on your conversational skills. Learn to express yourself in a professional manner.
7. Build a strong support system. It is important you have people that are willing to support you when the time comes.
8. Always make a priority to network no matter what your job is about. Don’t be shy in reaching out and connecting with people. Networking will enable you to learn what is going on outside your close circle and refresh your perspective.

You may also be interested in reading:

• Become A Professional Certified Coach In 3 Steps
• 5 Reminders to Boost Your Confidence as a Life Coaching Student
• Transform Your Culture with Effective Conversations

Recently light has been shed on what can go wrong during coaching. Coaching Institutes and programs must place their focus on what to do and not to do during coaching conversations and coaching relationships. An effective coaching certification is needed to equip coaches with tools and processes to mitigate the risk of mistakes and negative effects while coaching.

Negative effects of coaching can be defined as unwanted results for the client caused through coaching. These can have a big impact on the wellbeing of the client.

Coaches must be proactive with their approach to avoid the unwanted effects and take precautions during coaching so that it goes according to the ICF set standards and follow a structure.

5 Ways to Ace Your Coaching Relationship:

1. Think about long term influences of coaching on the client. Engage clients and find out about the goals that the client wants to set and paths to achieve them. Also, allot each coaching session it is on goal so there is clarity for the client.
2. Avoid having and imposing personal emotions during coaching. Be empathic and show compassion to your client but don’t get too carried away by emotions. Stay on track, be resilient and don’t let the client’s personal issues come in between your coaching relationship.
3. Be confident in your abilities as a coach. Gain your training, your certification and the required coaching experience and let your skills do the job for you. Coach with confidence as it is evident to the coachee and can affect your coaching connection.
4. Try to reduce the stress and emotional exhaustion that comes with coaching. Manage a decent number of clients so it doesn’t take you over the edge. Having an uncontrollable number of clients may lead you to burnout.
5. Excel at your communication skills. Develop and work actively on improving your communication skills whether it’s the use of open-ended questions or active listening. An effective coach certification program will equip you with the tools and processes necessary to hone your communication skills.

To become an effective coach with all the best qualities and to know more do’s and don’ts of coaching join our upcoming coach certification programs or email us at info@flowcoachinginstitute.com

You may also be interested in reading:

• Become A Professional Certified Coach In 3 Steps
• 16 Success Factors to Consider for A Strong Coaching Business
• 5 Reminders to Boost Your Confidence as a Life Coaching Student

21st Century has changed the way we learn. Not only we learn from many different sources, but also we have the luxury of educating ourselves or learning a new skill wherever we are and whenever we want. This shift is valid for coaching certification training programs too.    

As Professional coaches, we care about listening to demands coming from our customers. First we listened to our students... then our clients and people’s requests. As we listened we understood that we have to ease the life of our students and clients. We identified a few strategies to make that possible:

• Professional Coach Certification should be offered at a more affordable rate to enable more people from the World to have access to coaching certification 
• We understood that people need to learn in a flexible atmosphere. Since ICF (International Coach Federation) mandates that certain percentage of ICF Professional Coach Certification Training programs to be taught live we could not introduced a fully self paced learning package, but we made sure that certain percentage of the program (peer coaching practice, coaching performance evaluations, homeworks, etc) is still self paced
• Eventually we have decided that online coach certification curriculum will give more access to more people, so we switched from being an onsite coach certification institute to online coach certification institute. 

Before we made this switch honestly even we had doubts that online coaching courses would not be as affective and productive as onsite, traditional methods. However, since we started the online platform, we have been having a blast of our lives as the core FLOW faculty,  students and alumni. Not only that we have become a global community but also we have witnessed tremendous positive shift in skill development of our coaches. The online platform as well as the curriculum allows all stakeholders (instructors, students, trainer assistants) to engage fully without sacrificing the quality of coaching practice and skill development.  We are also very happy that  because through online coaching certifion at a more affordable rate truly allows people investing in their skill development. Surely our PCC and MCC credentialed senior faculty members and mentors; the FLOW Coaching methodology & curriculum as well as ICF Coaching Competenties; live coaching demonstrations and live coaching practice and exercises during classroom time adds to the quality of learning and skill development.

A lot of times we don’t even notice that we are connected to each other through a screen which means that we are in flow ☺

It is a common misconception that mentoring and coaching are the same things however there are a variety of differences in between them. The main difference is that a coach doesn’t have to be a subject matter expect however a mentor but be experienced in the subject in which they are mentoring. 

It is essential to keep the learning objective of the individual in mind in order to choose the right term to use. Mentors may use the same skills as coaching but the relationship that will develop will be very different from the one in coaching. Mentors are able to provide specific advice and feedback however the coach focuses on helping the individual find their own solutions. 

A coach has an ability to assist and encourage rather than direct and advice. Coaching is a partnership where the client works out what are their areas of improvement and how can they improve them. Most importantly coach also helps in the self-development of the coachee by increasing self-awareness. Unlike coaching, mentoring is more about providing directions and solutions. 

Mentoring is normally a relationship between two work colleagues where one is more experienced than the other. Due to this dynamic, the more experienced one can use their knowledge and information acquired at work to help the mentee at work.

In today’s fast paced world, technology has freed all boundaries. Online coaching diminishes all traditional obstacles between the coach and the client. Coaches are free to use online coaching as a medium and work as digital nomads i.e. the use of video and audio calls to perform their tasks online.

Due to changing dynamics of the online coaching there are some points to keep in mind when going for online coachingas it is different from traditional face to face coaching. 

Following are the few points to keep in mind when turning into a digital nomad online coach: 

1. Your environment can change:
   You have to keep up with your changing environment being an online coach. Believe in yourself that even though your environment is changing you are the same person. In changing environments, you would have to keep yourself self-motivated as your lifestyle changes and you might be faced with some distractions. You might find it difficult to work in a chaotic environment or even from a tropical getaway that is why it is important to maintain you focus.
2. Your clientele will expand:
   Think about your ideal clients, would they prefer working with you digitally? Being an online coach creates an ocean of opportunities where you can have clients from different cities and countries all over the globe. This will widen your horizon and give you a chance to have a bigger reach when it comes to clients.
3. You will be faced with unique challenges:
   Working boundaryless will bring you different challenges such as language difference, time zones, internet connections etc. It is up to how to tackle them and embrace the differences. Keep in mind to plan your daily routine to suit your client’s preferences.
4. Creating an online presence:
   Unlike impressing people with your looks and freshly ironed shirts you would have to put an effort to building your online presence. An online coach certification, initial coaching experience, an area to coach in and a fresh coach bio are just some things to start from. Select your target market and create your coach identity keeping them in mind.

Once you become an online coach your skills and talent are the one that will shine more. You have to believe in your skills and be flexible just as your clients are flexible with you coaching online. Being an online coach brings its own challenges and perks and it is up to you how you weigh them. Being a digital nomad, you can work from the comfort of your own home with your coffee in your hands and the client on your computer screen. Online coaching expands you as a coach in many unexpected ways where you find yourself expanding your own range of skills.