Michael Korda says Success on any major scale requires you to accept responsibility… In the final analysis, the one quality that all successful people have… is the ability to take on responsibility.

Being a great coach is taking responsibility for ourselves but also encouraging our clients to take responsibility with regard to what they would like to achieve.  Coaches don’t have superhuman powers and without doubt don’t have the answers to their clients’ challenges, however great coaches do have authentic power through their expertise to aid individuals – and with it, the responsibility – to guide individuals in the direction of their success.  This is Real power that can be used to help REAL people in real life.  When we as coaches use this power responsibly we can help individuals create positive, sustained change in their lives.

Consequently, along with this power to coach our clients in the direction of realising their individual and/or business goals and becoming more as human beings, comes responsibility.  Great coaches assume them all as part of the professional responsibility. Including everything from listening with intent, developing trust, working together with the clients’ agenda and keeping our personal agenda out of the process, giving feedback when required, believing in our clients’ potential, having faith in our clients to discover their own answers and attempting to keep them responsible, helping them to celebrate every little win and always being present for them.

 Here are a few things we are able to do to become more responsible coaches.

How to develop the more Responsible “You” in Yourself as well as your Clients

#1 – Increase your self-awareness.

Learn and acknowledge your own abilities and failings in order to view your individual practices objectively and understand exactly what you value.  Recognize your own shortcomings, ask for feed-back, and make changes when necessary.  The more self-aware you become of all your characteristics, the more grounded you are going to become. As you become more grounded you will trust your own pure intuition more and so you will become more efficient as a coach.

Dr. Gerard Bell, business consultant and professor at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, advises us on how to expand our self-knowledge.  He said, “Study yourself closely and practice self-assessment techniques to learn how you behave, and the effects you have on others.  Ask others for their option, feedback, and suggestions to become a better coach.”

The lesson is simple: the more we develop ourselves, the more we can offer, and the more we are able to aid other people.

“Work harder on yourself than you do on your business.” Jim Rohn

#2: Distinguish Your Responsibility from your clients’ Responsibility

Whenever we hear the word “responsibility”, we quite often think that this should rest totally upon our shoulders.  In a coaching partnership this could not be further from the truth. As coaches we certainly have a obligation to our clients’ for being authentic, to have their best interests at heart and to help them achieve their objectives on their terms and the greatest gift we are able to give is to let them take responsibility for their own choices, their own journey and their own end results.

Carrying the responsibility of coaching should never intimidate you.  The opportunity to assist our clients is what coaching is all about.  Embrace the responsibilities that come with it and release the responsibilities that aren’t yours to take.

Absolutely nothing is gained by stressing about whether your clients realize their desired goals or not.  Concentrate on encouraging as well as inspiring them.  Be their partner in their development and on their journey.  Brainstorm together when it is called for, be their champion, pick them up when they fall.  But ultimately, it’s their own responsibility to assume responsibility for realizing their goals.  You merely enable them to observe and achieve this state.

#3: Take Calculated Risks and Learn from Your Mistakes

Albert Einstein said “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. “ Doing things differently can be very challenging and we need to encourage our clients to take the potential risks even if they can fail. A willingness to risk failure is a core characteristic of all successful individuals. As coaches we need to go ahead and take risks too and ask the hard questions.

Also, guide them to a more rewarding paradigm regarding failure.  What’s failure besides great feedback that our ongoing course of action isn’t the correct path?  Use this feedback for course correction.  Failure doesn’t happen until we quit.{If} we don’t throw in the towel, then failure isn’t an option.

#4: Own and admit our mistakes

We live in a society where mistakes aren’t tolerated; this is a big shame considering that the greatest lessons and development come through our mistakes and failures. Everyone makes mistakes and makes the wrong choices from time to time; it is part of life.  As coaches we make mistakes too and that is Fine provided that we learn from them and not make exactly the same mistake a second time. A trainer on a coaching course I attended “gave” us each a “mistake bank account” with a credit of five thousand errors and what he said was take advantage of this account and make the mistakes, simply don’t make the same one a second time.  What an amazing gift he gave us and what an amazing gift we are able to give our clients when we help them understand this, enable them to to draw the necessary lessons and take corrective action from these mistakes, rather than allowing them to beat themselves up.

Not only does owning our mistakes and failures help us to be more truthful and powerful in our own lives.  Owning and assuming responsibility for them lets others see the integrity as well as virtue within us, and hence further gain their respect.

 

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