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There are 4 types of coach. Which one are you?

Great coaches think upstream. They solve the causes of problems—or solve future problems before they happen. 

But they must sell coaching to clients who want to deal with emergencies and put out fires—by solving the effects of their current problems. 

Upstream thinking

Dan Heath tells an old parable: “You and a friend are having a picnic by the side of a river, when you hear a shout from the water—a child is drowning. 

Without thinking, you both dive in, grab the child, and swim to shore.

Before you can recover, you hear another child cry for help. You and your friend jump back in the river to rescue her as well.

Then another struggling child drifts into sight. . . and another. . . and another.

The two of you can barely keep up.

Suddenly, you see your friend wading out of the water, leaving you alone.

‘Where are you going?’ you demand.

Your friend answers, ‘I’m going upstream to tackle the guy who’s throwing all these kids in the water.’”

Stop solving problems

Clients often have ‘problem blindness’. Which means they want your help solving symptoms

Don’t do that. 

Clients will try to enroll you in the unconscious rules by which they run their business or live their life. Upstream thinking requires breaking the rules. 

The 4 Types of Coach

To think upstream, you need to know who you are—because there are 4 different types of coach.

Which one are you? And which one do you want to be?

  1. An Informational coach

You love to provide advice, based on your professional expertise. You love research, planning, strategy and execution. 

The challenge with this style of coaching is that the coach often talks more than they listen. Their advice can be perfect for one client but miss the mark for another. 

  1. A Motivational coach 

You love to share exciting ideas or tools, to move people to make changes in their lives. You’re great at pep talks. You are great at persuading and influencing. 

The challenge with this style of coaching is that it works from the outside in and creates only a temporary high. When motivation wanes, your clients need to come back for more. 

  1. An Inspirational coach

You love to share inspiring stories or insights that help people find their calling. You love to help them find what they really want, not what they think they ‘should’ want.

Where motivation works from the outside in, inspiration works from the inside out. 

The challenge with this style of coaching is that you can sometimes get caught in sharing inspiring stories and insights

  1. A Transformational coach

Transformational Coaching also works from the inside out. It requires a coach who has done a lot of their own inner work. A coach who isn’t afraid to go into the dark with their clients. 

You approach coaching from the inside-out. You are willing to be disliked for your clients’ breakthroughs. You are willing to push your clients’ buttons and to remind them what they actually want, not what they say they want.

Your greatest competition is never other coaches. Your only real competition is the status quo that traps your clients within the rules and limitations that they cannot see. 

This is why great coaches sell the experience of coaching, not the concept of coaching. Clients need to experience upstream thinking—and when they do, they know they want more of it.

Be a coach who is focused on prevention, not reaction. But learn how to talk to clients who are immersed in reaction, with little time for prevention. 

Teach your clients to focus on creating, not reacting. Help them to make tiny shifts that have a massive impact. Coach for insight, not for information. Serve your clients, don’t please them. 

Read The Prosperous Coach to learn how to sell the experience of coaching, not the concept of coaching. 

Learn to increase your comfort with doubt, uncertainty and ambiguity. And learn how to solve problems before they happen, by immersing yourself in studying people who think upstream…  

Read Upstream by Dan Heath, Alchemy by Rory Sutherland, One Plus One Equals Three by Dave Trott, Fat Loss Happens on Monday by Josh Hillis and Dan John, Slipstream Time Hacking by Benjamin P. Hardy, Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite by Paul Arden, First, Break All The Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Conflict Communication by Rory Miller.

Love. Rich

 

PS. Dramatically increase your confidence as a coach by mastering enrolling clients. Drastically increase your ability to raise your fees and up-level your clients. And learn to have fun making money. Join me on The 90 Day Money Game. There’s still time to join us…

 

PLUS, whenever you’re ready – here are 4 more ways you can drastically increase your income and impact as a world-class coach:

  1. Assess your current coaching level and learn how to get to your next level. Read – or remind yourself of – The Litvin Levels, from The Prosperous Coach.
  2. Watch me coach some of the top coaches on the planet, in order to drastically uplevel your coaching skills. Join me on How To Coach A Superhero: The 4PC edition
  3. Imagine joining a Deep Coaching experience alongside the members of 4PC, my community of high-level coaches… We only offer The 4PC Accelerator once a year and it always sells out in advance. Save $1,000 with early-bird pricing. 
  4. Learn how to enroll and coach successful, talented and ambitious clients – with power and impact. Join my flagship program, Project Kairos – for 8 months of guidance, challenge and support to master creating clients. 

 

Transforming world-class leaders into world-class coaches.
That’s what we do.

If this sounds like you, let’s talk and explore if working together is a good fit.

Learn more about ways to work together

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