Professional coaching tools and exercises are a vastly underused resource in the world of coaching.
First of all, what are coaching tools and why use them?
When our clients come to us it is because they are not satisfied with their current situation. And whatever is bothering them, one thing that is common to all coaching clients is that they want change.
So the purpose of the coaching tools and exercises is to facilitate change, to get the client to look within, learn, reflect and act. And a coaching tool can literally be anything you use to help your client move forward.
Examples might be familiar like The Wheel of Life, Personal SWOT, and The Urgent/Important Matrix or they might be innovative training exercises like “Eat Your Elephant” (where clients brainstorm a large picture of an elephant to counter the overwhelm and give it a “bite”). ‘ at a time) or “Troll Travels” (where customers review their qualities and use a troll’s ‘gadget’ to decide which qualities they value most).
In short, coaching tools add a joyful element to the often challenging coaching process. And we all know that when things are fun, people are more engaged, achieve more, learn faster, and learning is harder! And of course, engaged customers recommend more and stay with us longer…
Training tools can be used over and over again:
Quality coaching tools can be used in session, as a client assignment, in a welcome pack, or to enhance your seminars as exercises and handouts. They can even help you shine at corporate or lead meetings by demonstrating what coaching is all about in a clearly tangible way. And when the tools have your company and contact details there, you want to use them as much as possible to get your name out there!
Who uses coaching tools in their practice?
Coaching tools can be used by any type of therapist or coach, whatever the specialty or niche. Simply choose, or create, a coaching exercise that works for the client or situation at hand. They are ideal for:
- Trainers just starting out, to give them focus and confidence in their dealings with clients.
- Established trainers, who will enjoy adding some pizzazz and new activities to their practice.
- Therapists of all stripes may enjoy adding some more light-hearted, workout-style exercises to their practice.
What kind of clients can I use the coaching tools with?
Well, the easiest way to answer this is to tell you about some of the types of clients I have used coaching tools with successfully. They are managers, lawyers, accountants, engineers, computer programmers, teachers, human resource specialists, marketing and sales professionals, writers, entrepreneurs and small business owners, dance teachers, construction workers, film industry professionals, and more. From home.
A large portion, but not all, of my clients are women. And unexpectedly, I discovered that men enjoyed tools just as much, if not more, than women. Coaching tools take potentially ‘airy’ conversations and make them more real and tangible, more practical.
Common topics for training tools:
While every client is unique, once you’ve been training for a while, you’ll no doubt have noticed common themes. The following ideas are great areas to add value to your customers with tools:
- Time management and prioritization issues
- Little personal care, too much effort, tiredness and/or lack of motivation
- Internal critics: limiting beliefs and fears that prevent them from moving forward.
- Focusing on your weaknesses or problems and not realizing your true strengths and opportunities.
- Feeling dissatisfied or trapped in their lives, and not knowing what to do next.
- Set meaningful goals or achieve goals faster, especially in the areas of business and executive coaching.
- Planning and reflection on themselves, their lives, relationships, careers and goals.
How training tools improve your training:
In the session we ask questions and explore, we seek insight, action and commitment, we consider new ways of seeing and doing things. We help assess, challenge and push our clients to be the best they can be.
Using the tools and exercises as homework helps the client achieve more as they continue to learn and grow between sessions. They help their clients identify blockages and generate new ideas, faster, which they then bring to you to dig deeper and work their coaching magic.
Coaching tools also provide continuity and a bridge between sessions β your clients stay longer in a coaching frame of mind. They also keep their training up to date, with a stream of new ideas and exercises for their clients.
Finally, the pre-prepared tools help the client to feel that he is not alone: ββhe sees that other people have the same problems as him.
Why coaching tools are great for business:
When your tools look good, they help you appear professional, well-structured, and organized. They provide a polished framework that adds tangibility and instant value to your meetings, training sessions, and workshops. And over time, your client builds a portfolio of ‘training work’ that demonstrates a solid progression.
Plus, because the training tools and exercises are reusable, they save you time and energy from repetition, allowing you to focus on growing your business.
All of this makes it easy for you to attract more customers, increase lead conversion rates, and keep your existing customers engaged for quality referrals. If you keep it fun and consistently demonstrate tangible value, your customers will keep coming back for more.
What to look for in a great training tool? Should:
- Be professional, well presented and clearly explained.
- Be fun and easy to complete: fast, colorful and with an immediate impact (graphics and color will attract your customers more).
- Be brief! So they don’t overwhelm their already busy customers.
- Address issues your customers face on a regular basis, so you get great value from reusing your tools.
- Solidify the learning with at least one ‘remove’ action or learning
Create your own training tools:
Try creating your own tools, and take off! It just takes time and a little thought. For a simple step-by-step guide to creating your own tools, check out the companion article “Training Tools 101: 10 Simple Steps to Creating Your Own Fabulous Training Tools and Exercises.”
I want your clients to love coaching and be excited about you! And if you start using coaching tools more regularly and consistently, it will save you time, impress your clients and improve your practice, as well as help you get your name out there. It’s common knowledge in sales that it’s cheaper and easier to keep an existing customer than it is to get a new one. Why not use the training tools to help you?