Coaching Support: Helping clients manage stress

Prioritising Your Well-being as a Coach

As coaches we play a unique role when it comes to stress and stress management. On the one hand it's important that we first take care of our own energy and manage own lives and responsibilities in order that we can support our clients. Then on the other hand we can play a powerful role in helping our clients have a safe space in which they can explore their life and well-being. In the case of our clients, it's often the case that their work, relationships and circumstances may well be a cause or contributory factor to the levels of stress.  

Modern Life and the Need to Slow Down

Modern life brings with it many stresses. Many of us have busy lives and busy minds. The pace of life, the demands of work, our personal lives and the speed of change, our often-unhealthy relationship with 24-hour media and social media can all be contributory factors.  In the 20 years that I've been a coach I've seen these factors build rather than decline. For many people the economic climate and other uncertainties can add to their sense of stress: the speed of technology, the volatile world that we live in, political uncertainty and environmental challenges. Without deep self-awareness and conscious management of our day-to-day lives, health and well-being then these things can seem overwhelming.  So, the first step in managing the stress in our lives is to pause, breathe and in many cases slow down. Take a moment now to pause, take a few deep breaths and to check in with your body to see how you are feeling right now.  

Being a coach is incredibly rewarding. We're lucky that we do a job that we love and then we get to help people along their own life journeys. Running your own business is an exciting journey that brings growth and fulfilment - and learning to maintain balance along the way is essential for long-term, sustainable success.  Likewise, as with anyone who's playing a role supporting others, it's important to balance caring about our clients with not falling into the trap of taking on board the stresses clients face.   So, what's your wellbeing routine? How do you manage to ensure your own life balance is taken care of? Do you have clear boundaries in terms of the times of day that you work and when you switch off for example? Do these things need to be reviewed? 

Creating Safe, Supportive Coaching Spaces

What type of coaching do you do? What are the issues and concerns of your clients? What may be going on in their own lives relationships and in their workplace? Bear in mind that you're working with a complete human being so even though you may well be working purely as a career coach, executive coach business coach for example be aware that there are all sorts of other factors that may well be going on in their lives that may well be impacting on them, their confidence their stress levels and their effectiveness in the area that you are coaching them on. Where clients do have a lot going on it can be very powerful to start with a moment of silence and or a simple check in to see how they are truly and fully feeling. This can be incredibly empowering for clients to truly be able to open up in the safe space that you create - and then for you both to explore strategies to help them navigate the challenges and take care of their well-being. 

How attuned are you to what's going on below the surface what a client may present you with? The more still you are the more grounded you will be and the more able you will be in spotting the signs when a client may well need to take extra care of their well-being. Sometimes a client may directly raise these points with you. Sometimes they may well casually highlight that there's a lot going on in their lives at the beginning of a session for example. If so, it can often be very powerful to just gently ask a little more about how they're doing and what's going on for them. It may well be that taking a little bit of time to address this issue may have a major impact on the substantive issues that you're working with them on as a client. If you're able to help a client build their self-awareness so they spot the signs of when they themselves occurring through difficult times and to explore strategies that they can take to take care of their well-being, life balance and boundaries it can be something that can serve them for their whole life. 

Building a Strong Support System

Support and resourcefulness are among the things that we coaches help clients to explore that can be immediately and radically impactful.  Do they have the support they need? Do they have a good circle of friends, family, and other professionals that they can turn to when they need to?  This is important; a person's network is priceless. Sometimes the things that cause stress or distress are practical and so having people with the expertise that your clients may well need can be invaluable to them.  For extreme stress and burnout, this may well be in terms of healthcare and visiting a doctor or GP.   Having a conversation with our clients about their support network what they have what they additionally need can be so valuable.  

“Your well-being must never become an afterthought. It must be your first act.” - Rasheed Ogunlaru. 

In conclusion, above all develop your own self-care and wellness routine so you have a strong base of the health and energy that you need in order to continue doing the amazing job that you do.  As an action why not write yourself a short 1page self-care plan or wellbeing routine.  When it comes to your wellbeing don’t be afraid to have fun, be creative, experiment, mix things up and see what works for you. 

About Author:

Rasheed Ogunlaru is a leading life coach, motivational speaker and leadership coach. He is author of the books Soul Trader and The Gift of Inner Success, and he is an associate trainer for The Coaching Academy. 

Join Rasheed for a Transformative Workshop!  

If you would like to learn more from Rasheed, you can join him for an inspiring live virtual workshop Mindfulness and Coaching later this year. 

Explore how mindfulness can reduce stress, enhance cognitive ability, and transform both your well-being and coaching skills.   For more information and to book your place visit our CPD & Workshops for Coaches page.