“I don’t know where to start!”
Coaches, have you heard this?
Have you said it yourself?
I have heard this many times during my years as a coach. If your client says this, it’s likely that one of two things are going on:
First of all, your client genuinely may not know where to start. Coaches, take this as your signal to go back to the basics. Level up your listening and ask powerful learning and being questions! When a client isn’t ready for action, it’s because they don’t have the learning and being in the tank to fuel the doing. You’ll find that powerful questions and actively listening will lead to amazing coaching conversations.
Secondly, it may be time to build resilience! If your client has fear or low confidence, it could be because they need to work out their resiliency muscles. Coach your client around resilience from the foundation up and explore each of the elements of resilience. As a result, you will usually find your client empowered and armed with awareness! I’ve discovered that once a client is aware of resilience and what they want their life to look like in relation to it; they almost can’t wait to do something about it! When they do, they can use fear to propel them forward into bravery. As motivational speaker and coach David Schwartz said in his book, The Magic of Thinking Big, “Action cures fear.” Often, even a small action can boost your client’s confidence.
The next time you have a client who says “I don’t know what to do or where to start”, don’t simply move on. Instead, explore the “I don’t know” and especially, encourage your client to embrace the opportunity to grow.
For more thoughts on resilience, check out John Williams previous post “Resilience from a Front Row Seat”