Some Clients will be very open to trusting you early in your relationship. With other Clients it may take months. Without an environment of trust, your Client could put up barriers that prevent the benefits you want to happen from happening. Without trust, your coaching/training will not work to maximize your Client impact within the organization that employs your Client.
There may be times when your Client is being forced by your Client’s boss to go through executive coaching or coaching. But this would be rare. Typically your Client is working with you because your Client wants things to be different at work. In order to reach the goals that are meaningful to your Client and the organization that employs your Client, your Client will want your coaching/training to help him or her find what needs to be changed and how change can happen. Your coaching/training will help him or her make better decisions at work. While some decisions may be trivial, others may significantly impact on results at work and the fulfillment that your Client is receiving at work.
You need your Clients to trust you for them to open up their minds to the different solutions and/or new perspectives that you want your Clients to consider. Many of your Clients do not find it easy to trust anyone, not just you. But you will be able to establish the trust you need by using the three guidelines discussed below to create an environment that’s gives your Client a high level of trust in you.
The amount of time it takes to get to the point where your Clients trust you enough to be really open during your coaching/training sessions will differ with each of your Clients. However, it will certainly come sooner if you use your three guidelines below to work on the Client’s level of openness.
I would like to now share with you the following guideline for things you can do that will increase the level of trust your Client feels towards you.
Guideline One: Show Genuine Interest In Your Client
The relationship with the Client generally starts mostly focused on specific measures of work -related success. It eventually expands into a mutually trusting relationship. Trust doesn’t happen overnight; it builds over a period of time. There are things you can do to spead up this happening.
People are most likely to be open to trusting those that show genuine interest in them. So it follows that showing sincere interest in your Client helps you earn your Client’s trust. Show this interest in your Client by communicating in a way that shows your Client that you:
• Feel empathy and compassion for your Client
• Respect your Client
• Support and care about your Client reaching your Client’s dreams and goals
• Will hold the Client accountable for following through on checking out whether the Client does what the Client has committed to you to do and use a “light hand”, rather than trying to demoralize the Client, if the Client has not been accountable or has done the committed matter in a way that is not up to par
Later blogs will include additional guidelines for increasing trust.
