Sometimes, you might have to tell your client exactly what to do. Task management from you, the coach, might be the best course of action at that given point within the work you and your client are doing together.

Other times, you may simply help manage the process they are going through so that they can get to the point where they decide to make changes (or not) themselves.

Within a coaching relationship, the end goal is to get results. Initial results may look more specific to the client's initial goal (eg. losing weight). To achieve these goals, you, the coach may be more likely to prescribe a regimen that begins to shift the client towards the end goal. Experiencing results in a given arena is a great way for a client to build self-efficacy and confidence.

Over time, your coaching is likely to become more process-specific so as to help the client understand how and why such actions are valuable and help them work through how to synthesize them into a newly resilient lifestyle.

Coaching isn’t just telling what people to do, nor is it a journey built entirely on self-determination.

Matching and adapting our coaching skills along the client lifecycle spectrum is what makes good coaches great.

Sidebar thought;

You cannot change your clients. You can only change how you interact with them. Client change results from the interaction style between client and coach. Our clients change when they decide to change. To think that we have the power to change someone is a cognitive distortion in and of itself.

As coaches, we change how we interact with our clients in the hopes that it results in clients making decisions to change.

When coaches focus on how they are approaching our coaching, they empower themselves to make the needed adjustments when client resistance is encountered.

When you think about it, this is the only way to overcome client resistance/inaction/stuck-ness.

Thanks.