Coaching Tools to help Coaches Get More Coaching Clients. Suzan Schmitt: The Coach Marketer

Coaching and Teaching by Creating a Safe Environment for Growth

February 10, 2010

Leading workshops gives you instant expert status and authority but only if you do them right. Conducting a dull or poor coaching workshop can destroy your reputation so it is important to understand how to conduct a workshop properly and what your role is as the leader or facilitator.

Creating the Environment for Learning.
Participants in a coaching workshop must feel safe in the learning environment before they will participate fully in the learning experience. We all know as adults we carry a great deal of armor with us into most situations especially business situations where we do not know exactly what is going to happen or how we fit in. Get more information about conducting workshops and attracting coaching clients with my eCourse “Coaching Client Attraction”.

Your goal as a facilitator is to make everyone feel safe and comfortable so that they will be open to participating fully and learning at a deep level. This is not easy task and it begins with you and how you approach the participants. Be sure that you are comfortable in your roll and be relaxed yourself. If you are anxious or nervous then the participants will sense this and be uncomfortable as well.

People like to know what to expect and are far more relaxed when they know what is going to happen next. It is always a good idea to provide participants with a course agenda or a daily agenda. Knowing what subjects will be covered and when breaks are schedule will help put participants at ease. Fear of the unknown is a barrier to learning so you want to eliminate as much as possible and that is easily done with an agenda.

I see many facilitators create barriers to learning with the things they say and they are not even aware of it. You will want to avoid any negative statements like “This material is a little dry so we will get through it quickly” or “We have a lot to cover and we may not get through it all”. Instead, be positive with statements like “We are going to learn so much today that I am eager to get started” or “We are going to make this a fun and interesting learning process”.

Let the workshop participants know that they will be learning a great deal and getting to know new friends and potential business partners in the process. Ask for participation because it will improve the learning experience for everyone when there are comments and questions.

Related posts:

1. New Year Is a Great Time to Sign Up New Clients
2. Networking for Coaches Who Hate Networking
3. Focus on Coaching Business Success
4. Do You Communicate in a Way that Attracts Coaching Clients?
5. Get Coaching Clients by Facilitating Workshops

Filed under: Workshops and Networking

Tags: coaching, coaching business, life coaching business, workshops