5 Tips For Fitness Coaches To Better Connect With Clients
- Paul Cleveringa
- Sep 26, 2023
- 5 min read
Are you new to coaching, interested in starting coaching, or a coach that's always willing to learn?
Then keep reading because the following tips will lay out information to keep in mind and implement with your own clients.
Coaching is a two way street. It's a connection, not a dictatorship.
1. Listen To Your Clients
We were given two ears and one mouth for a reason.
Coaching is all about understanding your clients. What are their goals, their problems, specific circumstance, and obstacles preventing them from reaching their goals. This information comes from listening to them and asking the right questions.
If you are meeting with a client in person or virtual, ensure you are giving them your full attention when listening. Face them, have eye contact, ask questions, don’t interrupt, pay attention to non-verbal cues such as body posture, and most importantly, listen without judgment.
Coaching should be a judgement free zone.
In my coaching, I typically spend the first session solely on discussing the importance of a goal and working with the client to determine one.
We also discuss why they want to achieve this goal, what it will do for them, and obstacles that may come up. Listening is imperative to obtain this information. Along with listening, ensure you are asking the right questions and leading the conversation where you want it to go. Specific questions could include:
What are you interested in?
What do you want to achieve (goal)?
Why do you want to achieve that?
What will achieving that goal do for you?
How will you feel working towards and achieving that goal?
What do you hope to learn from working and achieving that goal?
You should always be thinking, “what information is important to gather from the client at this time”.
2. Emphasize The Importance Of A Goal
As previously mentioned, I typically use the first coaching session with a client to discuss the importance of a goal and determine what goal the client would like to achieve (and why).
To begin anything, you must have a thought that leads into an idea, and then a goal.
Goals are anything that will help you physically, mentally, and spiritually that will progress you to your best, most authentic self. Goals must also create a positive feeling inside someone.
To find and set a goal, I suggest clients to think about what they really like to do or what excites them.
If they’re unsure what that is, I ask them what social media or YouTube videos they watch to see what activities excite them. For example, they may watch videos of people training for and finishing a marathon. A potential goal then is to complete a marathon. I also always make sure to ask them why they want to achieve this goal and what it will do for them. Will it improve their health? Lead to future opportunities? Improve their confidence? Inspire others?
The possibilities are endless but there needs to be a reason and outcome beyond achieving just the goal.
Another option to determine a goal is to ask your clients to identify a problem they have and set a goal to solve it. Do they want to lose weight, build muscle, or increase their confidence? Have them set a goal to solve that problem.
With any goal, it should be well thought out, have a deep meaning for the client, and feel right deep down for them.
Even if there is some internal resistance, that means the goal is worth it.
3. Be Kind, Not Nice
There is a difference between being nice and being kind.
Be kind.
Being nice often involves an auto-response of being polite but may lack authenticity and intention. If we are just nice to our clients, we may not do what is best for them. Doing what is best for them is our goal as coaches.
On the other hand, being kind is an intentional act and often is grounded in action. For example, being nice is being empathetic and saying, "it is okay that they didn’t complete your workouts for the week", while being kind is providing them actionable steps to complete their workouts the following week, so they don't make the same mistake. This could include changes to the workouts, when workouts are scheduled, or time management tips.
The difference here is that being kind includes an act of service. In this case, to solve an obstacle for the client.
As a coach, we are not there to please our clients, but to enable them to create results for themselves. This is part of being kind rather than being nice. We want what’s best for our clients and that often goes against what the client believes is best or is right for themselves.
This shows the importance of having thorough conversations with clients to explain suggestions and their benefits.
4. Help Clients Become More Self-Aware
Change often doesn’t happen unless there is self-awareness and a desire to change.
If a client is not self-aware of a problem in their lives, then they will not desire or see the need to change it. As a coach, it is important to understand the level of awareness clients have to a certain problem. Once we understand this, we can target conversations with clients to begin developing their self-awareness of the problem.
As self-awareness begins to form, it is also imperative that we discuss the need to find a solution to that problem. A tip to do this is to relay information in a manner that is easily understandable to your clients.
This can be in the form of analogies, real-world examples, or anything that explains the information in a way that the average person who does not understand the specifics on a topic can understand.
There is no need to “sound smart”. Just talk to your clients like a normal person having a conversation. This creates clients that enjoy talking to you and are self-aware of a need to change.
Without this awareness, they will not have the desire to change, and no changes will be made.
5. Teach Clients To Be Self-Sufficient
Another priority for being a coach is to teach clients to become self-sufficient.
This process includes providing them knowledge, solutions to overcome obstacles, and habit-building skills all so that clients can continue their new lifestyle on their own.
For clients, their goal is great to achieve, but often the skills learned along their journey of achieving that goal are more valuable.
Those skills create clients that are self-sufficient and can continue on their own. This is the ultimate goal as a coach.
To Sum-Up
Listen To Your Clients
Emphasize The Importance Of A Goal
Be Kind, Not Nice
Help Clients Become More Self-Aware
Teach Clients To Be Self-Sufficient
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Whenever you are ready, there are three ways I can help you:
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