What is that one quality that you can leverage to become a good coach? According to the International Coach Federation, one of the core competencies in a coach should be active listening. It is a primary aspect that the ICF considers when credentialing a coaching professional. Being a coach means you have to speak less, ask more, and listen the most. An intense, ICF coach training program will educate you on how to hone these skills and implement them while conducting sessions with the clients. A good training program will teach you how to hone these skills and implement them while conducting sessions with the clients.
Be an Active Listener Rather than a Level One Listener
A coach needs to be an active listener. He/she should have the ability to focus on whatever the client is saying or not saying, to understand the underlying meaning of the words and expressions, and to determine the person’s desires.
Level one listening is when one starts to frame their reply even before the speaker has stopped speaking. When you are too focused on your response rather than focusing on what the other person is saying, that just won’t do in coaching. It is a distracting form of listening, which can impact the coaching session and create miscommunication between the coach and the client.
Focussing on each word that is being said by the client and then thinking deeply, analyzing it while framing your response, makes you a better coach and the session a fruitful one for both. As a coach, your attention should be focused on what the other person is saying. Ask questions that drive the right answers. You have to avoid all distractions and pay attention to the words, the language, and the client’s body expressions when speaking.
The ‘Listen More’ of Coaching
Listening is primary to understanding the client, engaging, and connecting with them. It helps the coach analyze a situation and help the client reach the same outcomes on their own through the sessions.
A coach directs the client through riveting conversations that are driven by powerful and open-minded questions. Once the client reaches or answers their own problems, the coach leads the client using excerpts from the answers provided to make them detect the issues and reinforce their aim or goals.
To ‘listen more’ means that the coach has to make the client lead the conversation so that they can identify their flaws, outcomes, and aspirations. Then together, a blueprint can be created to achieve the set goals. Through active listening, the coach ensures that the conversation is focused on the client for positive outcomes from the session.
You don’t have to be a natural at it, good listening habits can be mastered through proper coach training through accredited coaching courses. While getting trained as a coach, the mentors will teach you the intricacies of coaching and the essential qualities that you need to practice and master, to be of assistance to the client.
The Coach Transformation Academy (CTA) is an internationally accredited coach training institute offering ICF coach training that ranges from foundational skills to advanced NLP training courses. They conduct both classroom and online coach certification training sessions, open to all professionals and individuals without any pre-requisite.
