Important Qualities of a Life Coach

To become a successful life coach, you can enroll at The Coaching Institute of Australia and sign up for one of their several courses offered. But apart from getting your Diploma of life coaching (21647VIC), there are some inbuilt qualities that you need to have or develop to truly succeed as a life coach.

Let us take a look at some of the most important qualities or traits that you need to master while being a life coach.

Learn to Listen:
One of the most important abilities that you must work on is the ability to listen to your clients. Life coaching is all about helping people get to where they want or need to be. Whether it’s a personal goal that your client is trying to achieve or a professional or business related goal, first step in you understanding them, understanding their problem or current situation, through listening carefully to what it said and left unsaid.

It is not just about listening to what they are saying but in many cases you have to learn to listen to what they are not saying. What is missing from their words? That could be the key to you helping them succeed in achieving their goals. For example, a client may share that they want to succeed, but you hear the doubt in their voice.

The art of listening to someone can be practiced with your friends, family or anyone who you interact with. Listen carefully to everything that is being said during your interactions with people.

Don’t be judgmental:
As you interact with various people from all walks of life, you will encounter or experience a complete diverse range of views and ideas, how people live their lives, what is more important to them and what their priorities in life are. You may or may not agree with everything that your clients feel or think but remember – everyone is different from one another and as a coach we cannot be judgmental about views and ideas expressed by the person you are interacting with.

Remember you are there to help the person out. The main reason they have come to you is they want objective, impartial and un-emotional views. As a life coach you must learn to accept that everyone is different and what they want in life is different from one another. You need to do what is best for your client and keeping an open mind will help you in this regard.

Goal setting skills:
One of the most important skills that you require in order to grow and achieve your own goals as a life coach is the ability to set goals with your clients. You must not only listen to them very carefully but learn to recognise why they haven’t reached their goals as yet, what type of a person you are dealing with and what works best for them so they can achieve their goals. You must develop a plan of action for your clients to achieve what they are looking for and while the plan is being implemented or followed, you must again learn to assess the achievements, whether everything is according to plan or decide whether your client needs to re-think or change certain aspects of the plan that you have created together.

Sharon Pearson is a professional, accredited life coach, executive coach and business coach. She is the founder and CEO of The Coaching Institute, Australia’s leading accredited life coach training school, is a published author and an in-demand public speaker and trainer