As coaches, how we look at our lives and work is a little different. We tend to have done more work on ourselves and generally devour hundreds of life coaching books or ebooks on the human mind and self-improvement.
Given all this, we also have certain things we believe about our clients, the work we do, and human potential in general.
Do you have a coaching philosophy? You probably do, although you may not have thought about it per se.
Read on to find out more about how to formalize your coaching philosophy and use it to connect with your clients using Quenza’s 30-day coaching software trial.
What is a Life Coaching Philosophy?
A coaching philosophy is a statement or few statements about what you value and how you approach your role as a coach. It also addresses your purpose, beliefs, and principles.
Your coaching philosophy can differentiate you from other coaches and help clients trust you, especially if they have similar values and beliefs.
Your coaching philosophy can differentiate you from other coaches and help clients trust you, especially if they have similar values and beliefs. This can be likened to an elevator pitch or value proposition that details your service to clients without being too salesy. It’s almost like a longer tagline.
Once established, you will use your coaching philosophy when coaching clients, marketing your services, networking, branding, and other business activities.
Coaching Philosophies: 7 Examples & Samples
Examples of coaching philosophies can give you some ideas of what to include in your own statements.
However, never use another coach’s philosophy as is because coaching philosophies are unique to each coach. Because you don’t want to attract clients who will be better off with another coach, it’s always important to create your own.
These example coaching philosophies might inspire you: “I believe a positive, empowering environment is crucial for my coachees to challenge themselves and realize their full potential. Coaching means unlocking a growth mindset and embracing mistakes while consistently aiming for better.”
“Communication, honesty, and commitment are pivotal to success and I strive to cultivate these in all my coaching relationships. To me, coaching is both a lifelong journey and a two-way street through which people can achieve anything they dream of with the right support, motivation, and guidance.”
In the sports world, many coaches have explicit coaching philosophies. Here are a few for your inspiration.[1]
I am a firm believer that if you have knowledge, pass it on to those who do not. I also believe that playing sports as a child not only builds character and confidence but also gives a sense of accomplishment. It also prepares children for life, teaching them about working as a team or as a team player, not as an individual. I also feel it can bring a child out of his/her shell or shyness.
Coach George Hornung, Head Coach, Stafford Soccer Club
I am a Coach because of my passion for my work. I am able to foster the growth of my players through the numerous opportunities I am fortunate to provide. I will mold a group of individuals to communicate, to be responsible, and to hold themselves accountable. I believe in nurturing their dreams to be the best on and off the court. I developed this into words when I attended the Women’s Coaches Academy a few years ago. I look at it often and keep a journal for my own use during the season to help me grow and develop as a Coach.
Samantha A Lambert, Head Volleyball Coach, Rhodes College, Memphis
Moving into the sphere of personal excellence and executive coaching, note how the tone of the philosophies changes a bit, but the components remain the same.
When patterns are broken, new worlds will emerge. Coaching concentrates on where clients are now and what they are willing to do to get where they want to be in the future. I believe that coaching is an ongoing professional relationship that helps people produce extraordinary results in their lives, careers, businesses, and organizations. Through coaching, clients deepen their learning, improve their performance, and enhance their quality of life.
Barry Demp Coaching, Master Certified Coach (MCC)[2]
I am passionate about helping leaders become more conscious and purposeful so they can have a greater impact on the world. I believe that impact can only happen if we understand ourselves better. What impact do you want to have? What change could you make that would make the biggest difference? Which of your strengths could be further unleashed? We will start by working together to gain clarity on where you want to focus your impact, so you can become more intentional in how you are spending your time and notice what you are doing (or not doing!) that aligns with that focus. With that clarity, we can identify and work with mindsets or habits that are getting in the way of your declared purpose.
Eric Nehrlich, Too Many Trees[3]
Finally, I want to share my coaching philosophy with you. I’m an authenticity coach working with employees in the technology sector and career changers. My coaching practice is called Salmon-Run Coaching.
You will see how I connect my practice name to my philosophy here.
I believe that we’re born perfect, but then we get contaminated by fears and limitations. So, I’m all about questioning limiting beliefs that our societies have fed us so that we can access our truest selves. Like the salmon that swim upstream to their birth water during the fall season in North America, we come to coaching with the courage to swim against societal pressures and accept our true values and imperfectly perfect selves.
How To Develop Your Coaching Philosophy
Developing your coaching philosophy shouldn’t take too long. Here are the steps you can follow to develop a unique coaching philosophy for your coaching practice.
- Really explore why you coach. For many of us, it’s because we believe in the human potential to transform. But go deeper than that. What makes us believe in this human potential? Spend some time journaling about this. You can use Quenza Expansions like Values Vision Board and Strength Interview to clarify your values and strengths connected to coaching.
The ‘Values Vision Board’ expansion can help you align with your coaching values. - What do your past clients say? Clients may notice certain aspects of your coaching approach that you may think are normal to all humans. You can use the Coach Evaluation Form or The Session Rating Scale to collect feedback from existing or past clients.
The coach can receive feedback from clients about their coaching using the Quenza Coach Evaluation Form. - Write down 3-5 statements. It’s always best to tweak the sentences and see what feels right for you. When you have a few versions, you have options and can combine sentences as needed.
- Get feedback from others. We don’t see our potential, but neither do we see our flaws. Get others to read your coaching philosophy and poke holes in it.
- Finalize your coaching philosophy. You have enough information to pick a final coaching philosophy statement now. Congratulations!
5 Tips To Write Your Coaching Philosophy Statements
It’s important to keep the following tips in mind when crafting your coaching philosophy statement.
- Don’t be afraid to be creative. If you’re a naturally creative person and use a lot of metaphors and visuals, bring that aspect of you to your coaching philosophy. On the other hand, if you’re all about equations, throw in a few of them into your coaching philosophy.
- Don’t shy away from your real values. Some of us try to perceive what “good” values are for a coach and put in things like transformation, empathy, and service. You definitely have those values in you because you’ve chosen to be a coach. But if your top value is freedom or adventure, reflecting that in your philosophy could be a real differentiator. Quenza’s tool, The Scoreboard Metaphor, can help clarify the differences if you’re unclear of goals and values.
‘The Scoreboard Metaphor’, a free Quenza Expansion. helps you differentiate between goals and values. - Don’t be married to one belief or statement. We are complex human beings. So, there could be a web of coaching beliefs and approaches that you may need to explore before narrowing down on one.
- Check if the philosophy aligns with your life. Once you’ve picked a statement, verify if this aligns with how you live your life. If not, go back to the drawing board because clients will catch on soon enough if your coaching philosophy is not authentic.
- Consider hiring a copywriter if writing is not your best strength. If you are not a word wizard and want your coaching philosophy to have some rhythm and punch, you may consider hiring a copywriter to turn your ideas into catchy sentences.
Making Your Coaching Philosophy A Reality
Having your coaching philosophy written down is not enough. You have to embody it as a person and when you’re in your coaching chair. Your philosophy should be reflected on your website, social media, tagline, and other marketing material as it’s the essence of the service you provide.
People change over time, and so should coaches. When new information becomes available to us, or we complete a new training, our beliefs about coaching and our approach to coaching may change. If that happens, ensure that you update all communications and show up as a coach with the changed philosophy.
Best Digital Software For Your Practice
As your life coaching philosophy and your practice change, your need for coaching software evolves. Here are two of the best software tools you can use regardless of where you are in your coaching journey.
Quenza
As life coaches, our top priority is providing value to our clients and getting them to where they want to go in life. Client engagement and accountability are key here.
Quenza is focused on the value you can bring to your clients while cutting down on the administrative burden and providing you with life coaching session planner tools.
| Details | |
|---|---|
 | Quenza’s features include:
|
| Name: | Quenza |
| Price: | Starts at $49/month |
| Cons: | A relatively new platform, yet great features are constantly being added. |
| More info: | Quenza |
| Free Trial: | 30-day trial for only $1 |
Nudge Coach
In addition to saving you time, Nudge Coach is a coaching tool that allows for a high level of customization. This level of customization is desirable because each client is different, and we need the flexibility of customizing coaching engagements.
| Details | |
|---|---|
 | Main features include:
|
| Name | Nudge |
| Price | Starts at $30/month |
| Cons | Does not include payments or scheduling. |
| More info | Nudge |
| Free Trial | Available for the first three clients. |
6 Ways You Can Use Quenza
You can use Quenza to help provide more value to clients and bring your coaching philosophy alive.
- Activities: You can create exercises, meditations, assessments, and evaluations using our easy-to-use Activity Builder.
- Pathways: You can automate the frequency in which you want to send these activities to your clients using Pathways.
- Wheel of Life: Most coaches use our Wheel of Life template to create personalized assessments that can identify client goals and measure progress along the way.
With Quenza’s unique ‘Wheel of Life’ feature, you can design custom goals for clients. - Client Notes: This feature allows you to keep track of client sessions by taking notes electronically. The notes can be saved, searched, and retrieved with ease.
Quenza Client Notes lets you take notes after each life coaching session so that you can keep track of client progress. - Expansions: In addition to creating Activities on your own, Quenza provides a library of Activities designed by our expert coaches. You can readily reuse these Activities for your clients.
To customize Quenza Expansions in your Activity Builder, add them to your library and open them for editing. - Coaching Community: Through the Quenza community, you will meet other like-minded coaches and have a place to ask questions and share your experience.
The Quenza Community Portal is a collective of coaches that share expertise online.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, your coaching philosophy is an integral part of your coaching practice and feeds into every area of your practice and life.
We hope this post helps you with developing your life coaching philosophy. Please feel free to share your philosophy statements in the comments below.
To get started with Quenza, try out the Quenza 1-month trial for just 1$.
References
- ^ Athlete Assessments. (2021). Coaching Philosophies from Sports Coaches. Retrieved from https://www.athleteassessments.com/coaching-philosophies-from-sports-coaches/
- ^ Barry Demp Coaching. (2019). Philosophy. Retrieved from https://www.dempcoaching.com/my-coaching-philosophy/
- ^ Nehrlich, E. (2021). Executive Coaching: My Coaching Philosophy. Retrieved from https://www.toomanytrees.com/philosophy
