Expert Series: Coaching Legacy: When, Why & How. Part 4
Coaching your clients through crafting their personal legacy is a sacred and honored process. In the first three parts of this series I’ve been encouraging you to explore your thinking around when, why and how to bring coaching legacy into your coaching relationships, and into individual coaching sessions.
I feel I’ve been able to debunk the myth that coaching a great legacy has to involve massive endowments to civic organizations, and I know as trained professionals that you can make the same case when if the need arises. I also feel I’ve highlighted the added focus and fuel it can bring to the client when they face challenging times. In part three of this series, I shared some of the questions and an imagining process to jump-start your conversation. All good things, but there is more!
When we take on new clients we’re often caught first by their situation or demographic. Is their ‘issue’ in our wheelhouse, is the essence of them in alignment with who we want to work with, etc. This is normal and necessary. The three determining factors that must be at least basically understood about our incoming clients are: Are we a decent fit for one another as partners, and do they appear capable of really partnering with us? Is their area of the desired coaching, and their desired results, within our scope of knowledge and experience? Is there anything about their situation, or desired goals, that feels a misfit for coaching as a modality? This is a lot for us to be considering, and more often than not, there is a lot there to coach on!
The idea of adding into the mix coaching their legacy can feel out of place or disjointed. If not approached properly, (as a source for them to rely on while evolving through their current situation and onto their goals), it can feel like you’re trying to add something else to their plate.
One of the game-changing mental shifts I’d encourage you to remember is that how your client shows up in the now, in the middle of their growth, in the middle of resolving their challenges, in the process of their evolution through coaching with you, can be guided and supported by having a legacy vision firmly in place. It’s not a separate process, it’s not a separate coaching issue. It’s an underlying way of being that shifts things at the source of the client’s being. Bringing legacy into your coaching relationships early, and revisiting it frequently, means you’re working on the source of your client’s evolving actions. When working on sources, versus chasing symptoms, our coaching can support even the most dramatic growth and change.
Look at your coaching process, the models you use, and see where legacy fits in. Be aware of strategic dominant processes that hold attention on action but overlook the clients thinking about themselves and ‘who’ they are or want to be. Seek opportunities to weave legacy-oriented questions into your processes and see what happens!
Who knows, coaching legacy might become part of what YOU are known for?
Terri Hase, PCC, MMC, is a 16+ year veteran in the coaching industry. She is Managing Director at Impact Coaching Academy where she teaches a variety of beginning and advanced coach training programs. Her private practice includes Mentoring and Business Development Coaching.
Terri’s direct, casual, and humorous approach has earned her top status among instructors in the coaching field.
>>> Click here to enjoy her teaching and innovative training through Impact Coaching Academy <<<
The Expert Series is brought to you by choice Magazine as part of our ongoing efforts to bring opportunities for learning and growth to the coaching community. Delivered in four parts every two weeks, each series covers useful topics for business development and coaching insights, serving the needs of leaders in all areas and walks of life. Archived copies of the previous series can be found here.
