{"id":87594,"date":"2022-12-27T14:53:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-27T18:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=87594"},"modified":"2022-12-29T11:22:17","modified_gmt":"2022-12-29T15:22:17","slug":"what-does-a-life-coach-do-exactly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-a-life-coach-do-exactly\/","title":{"rendered":"What Does a Life Coach Do, Exactly? Marcia Reynolds Explains"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What does a life coach do, exactly? What’s their role in helping clients to improve their personal and professional lives?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marcia Reynolds is a leadership and executive coach who has worked with a range of clients\u2014including corporations like AT&T and American Express, universities, and government agencies. Through her work, she discovered exactly what a life coach does to create lasting change<\/a> in a client’s life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read on to learn what exactly a life coach does, based on Reynolds’s coaching experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Marcia Reynolds on Coaching<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Marcia Reynolds is a leadership and executive coach who hit rock bottom in a jail cell on drug abuse charges at age 20. Upon release, she began advising people on how to make positive change in their lives, but grew frustrated when she discovered that people easily fall back into old habits. She discovered that lasting change comes only when people confront the underlying assumptions and emotions that have led them into the same, problematic situations time and again. So, what does a life coach do, exactly? In this article, we\u2019ll explain Reynolds\u2019s definition of coaching and the mindsets that clients and coaches need to have a productive working relationship, based on Reynolds’s book Coach the Person, Not the Problem<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Does a Life Coach Do?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

To explain exactly what a life coach does, Reynolds first claims that coaching is a partnership aimed at helping clients root out underlying reasons for why they feel stuck<\/a> and helping them to move forward in their professional or personal lives<\/strong>. A coach\u2019s role is to support clients in a deep investigative process to identify and challenge assumptions that underlie their beliefs and limit their progress\u2014not be an expert<\/a> who doles out advice or solves clients\u2019 problems from on high. She says that coaches view clients as capable of making change when given the proper support and tools. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: The coach-client partnership Reynolds recommends is broadly understood as best practice, but some coaches offer more detailed insight than Reynolds into why it can be challenging not<\/em> to take on a stronger, less balanced role of \u201cguide\u201d with clients<\/a>: Coaches are trained to take an impartial view of clients\u2019 goals and share insights and observations from a place of non-attachment. This essentially suggests that coaches should have no feeling about whether a client accepts, rejects, or ignores their feedback. But the truth is, coaches are invested in their clients\u2019 well-being and, like all humans, have egos and want to feel validated, so rejection of their feedback can hurt\u2014all of which is a lot to process.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note: In Coach the Person, Not the Problem<\/em>, Reynolds doesn\u2019t specify the type of coaching her book advocates, but her background is in leadership and executive coaching, so we can intuit that her strategies and recommendations are useful for people doing related work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Required Mindsets for Clients and Coaches<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Reynolds argues that coaching should only begin after prospective clients and coaches have established a clear, mutual understanding of the nature of their work together and their respective roles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before you begin sessions with a client, ensure that they\u2019re looking for a coach, not some other type of professional or non-professional relationship, for help. You can determine this by asking what kind of support they think will be most helpful to them. If the client indicates that they\u2019re looking for a shoulder to cry on, someone to vent to or fix their problems, or someone who will just listen to them, they\u2019re better off talking with a mentor or a therapist, not a coach. Sometimes clients aren’t exactly sure what a life coach does or can do to help their situation\u2014Reynolds says that clues that clients are looking for a coach include their saying that they need help making a decision or moving forward in a situation, but feel overwhelmed, don\u2019t know all their options or which steps to take first, or fear they\u2019ll make a bad decision.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once you\u2019ve determined that a client wants a coach, assess your readiness to coach them. You\u2019ll know you\u2019re ready when you: <\/p>\n\n\n\n