This post was originally an email I sent out to over a hundred coaches in late March, as the pandemic was picking up in the US. I had been talking with several coach colleagues and participating in conversations with my local ICF chapter, and decided to aggregate themes I had noticed and share them more widely with the coaching community. I decided to publish it here on the blog in case it is of service to anyone else in the coaching industry looking for some support.

Challenges Coaches Are Facing (Themes)

As you navigate your business during this uncertainty, here are some themes I’ve heard from fellow coaches of challenges they are facing in their work right now.

• Coaches who coach mostly in person, or at offices on location, are navigating switching to virtual and learning how to do that.

• Workshops postponed & conferences cancelled.

• Coaches who get most of their leads from conferences or workshops are having to re-think their funnel.

• Clients with job security challenges can mean disposable income for coaching is in question.

• Living abroad themselves. Some coaches who aren’t living in their home country have had to relocate during this outbreak, either to return to their home country or another country for a bit. 

• Being home and working from home and the crowded house. Suddenly the kids, significant other, etc. are around the house much more often. If you are used to having your home office just for you and your work during the day, the added number of people around needing things can be challenging to balance.

• Being home and living alone. Being stuck at home by yourself and missing community in person.

• Clients cancelling sessions on short notice because of unexpected things happening in their worlds.

Opportunities Coaches Are Facing (Themes)

Here are some themes I’ve heard from fellow coaches of opportunities this uncertainty is presenting for coaches to really shine and show up professionally.

• Companies are now switching to working remotely, and are faced with how to maintain company culture remotely. Coaches can find opportunity to help with that transition.

• Potential clients are now at home with more time on their hands and can consider other life transitions – do they leave their current job? Do they want to use this time to do something else? Coaching can support that.

• Many coaches are offering one, free 30-minute session to anyone in their network, often through a Facebook post, as a way to support their communities. Some are doing this as an open offer, others are creating this as a niche offer (e.g: for health care workers, or for parents balancing work & home schooling kids).

• Leadership. Thinking about and talking about wellbeing, holding space and big life questions are all things you as a coach are well-versed in, and are often more comfortable being with than most. Coaches are stepping in as leaders, and voices in their communities, circles, networks, etc. to talk about wellbeing, talk about the big questions, and communicate. This is an opportunity for you to be your authentic self, and allow your experience and profession to really shine and support your communities, as you share your voice and lend your ear.

Strengths as Coaches & How to Support Your Clients

I also want to share some areas I feel that coaches are well positioned to handle this, and ways to lean into those strengths to navigate the uncertainty. How can you support your clients as their coach during this time? Use your strengths as a coach, and really lean into those and trust those strengths inherent to coaches, now more than ever.

• Technology – Coaching is supported by technology already, and there are great methods to coach virtually already set up via phone and video conferencing. In 2019, only 32% of coaching was delivered in-person, and the rest virtually. Virtual is already the main method of coaching and many coaches are already set up that way. If this is an area you need to transition to or learn more about, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Talk to other coaches about how to get set up with phone or video calls with your clients (or email me).

• Listening – Committed listening is such a basis of our work as coaches, trust the power of that in your conversations with clients. 

• Working remotely – Coaches are often used to working from home. They often have their routine already set at a home office, and know how to find balance spending so much time at home between work and their personal life. So with everyone making the transition, coaches already know the drill. If you are used to working remotely in your work, you can support your clients in transitioning to working from home. What have you learned works best for you? What do you understand they are facing as they transition? Be in it with them.

• Modeling self-care – What are you doing to take care of yourself with this weirdness? Feel free to be transparent with your clients and share that with them. As coaches we are equals in relationship with our clients; you get to be your own human self with them. What do you want to share with them about how you are staying sane during this?

• Honest conversations – With your clients now spending much more time at home with their families, often with less alone time, or if they live alone and now are facing a lot more alone time, space for truly honest, unbiased conversations is incredibly helpful. As their coach, you hold that non-judgemental space with them. Let them breathe, let them experience that space carved out for them, and continue to be a place for honest conversations. 

• Existential questions – This uncertainty sure brings up a lot of big life questions for everyone. Powerful questions is the bread and butter of coaching. Go there with your clients. This coaching space is a powerful place for your clients to explore the big questions they are facing. Trust your intuition and get in that space of powerful questions exploration with your clients.

• Perspectives – The big life changes this situation is presenting for a lot of people can mean a lot of stress and anxiety. Without checking in with their empowered self, or their more aware resourceful side, it’s easy to slip into overwhelm. Coach, you are a pro at looking a perspectives, and trying things on. Trust that, and when needed, get into that experience with your clients.

• Experience emotions – As the range of emotions happens for us and our clients around this, remember that as a coach you welcome emotions, experiencing them, and exploring present emotions with your client. In coaching, emotions are always present. Trust that you are ready for the emotions around this – go there with your clients, create awareness, allow them to share and be in that experience of emotion in that safe space with you. 

• Comfort with not having the answers – As coaches we don’t have the answers. We hold space, get curious, and explore with our clients. So, in this time of uncertainty, lean into your strength of leading with curiosity, and trust that it is okay not to have answers. Be in that space with your clients, exploring their experience. There often aren’t perfect, well-baked answers to a lot of the things people are facing right now, so don’t put pressure on getting to answers. As a coach you aren’t paid to give solutions or predictions, and remember that. Just get in there, explore, be curious, and be in that unknown with your client. That is incredibly powerful.

• Your brand as a coach – Think about the brand you’ve created for yourself as a coach. Are you a calm, serene presence that really thrives in holding space and really actively listening to big emotions? Or, are you super vibrant and engaging and fierce with your clients? Are you a thought leader and love research and sharing information with clients? Take a few minutes to reflect on what your brand is. You have the opportunity to really come from that brand, that energy, and connect from that place with your clients. Be who you are, the coach your clients chose to work with, and trust that continuing to show up that way, is what is needed.

Supporting You As a Coach

I want to check-in with you about how you are taking care of yourself as a coach during this time. In a caring profession it can be easy to suddenly jump in and want to support everyone else, but it’s (of course!) so important to check-in and make sure you are taking care of yourself as well. Both because your wellbeing is important, and because then you can best support those in your sphere. Here are some reminders of things to check-in on with yourself:

• Not taking on client’s worries and stress as your own.

• Routines.

• Exercise, eating well, connected relationships, the basics of wellbeing – check-in and see how you are maintaining those and what might need more adjusting.

• Work with your own coach or supervisor. This might be a great time to check-in with your own coach or supervisor and take care of yourself and your own wellbeing.

• Not having to get it “perfect” right away. There is a lot to balance and figure out both personally for you and professionally, and for your clients as well. Here’s a reminder to not think in extremes of what getting this “right” looks like. Give yourself grace. This is a new way of working and living, and have patience as you figure out what works for you.

• Find community with coach colleagues. Local ICF (International Coaching Federation) chapters are doing webinars for their local coach members to find community and share ideas and support for coaching during this pandemic.

Take care, coaches. You are all wonderful people, be kind and take care of yourself during this strange time. Your clients are lucky people to have you in their lives as they also navigate this chapter.

Resources

International Coach Federation

Greater Good’s Guide to Well-Being During Coronavirus

How Social Distancing Could Ultimately Teach Us How to Be Less Lonely

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