by Annette Sharpe
As a newer coach, it had been both frustrating and disappointing for me to have a client declare that they were not making headway. Perhaps they had reached a small plateau in momentum, but I knew that over the longer term they had been making incredible progress towards their intentions and goals.
There will always be ups and downs in a coaching relationship, but I have found the key in measuring success is to look at the big picture. Explaining that to my clients often fell on deaf ears unless they were able to see their success for themselves, especially when finances came into the picture and they were questioning their return on investment.
So how do you tangibly measure your success with your clients?
That was a big question of mine when I began coaching almost 10 years ago, and the answer came in the creation of a simple, quarterly system that serves as a summary of the coaching work. With it, I can help my clients to effectively acknowledge their wins from the past three months, set new intentions for the upcoming quarter, track their progress over time and ultimately achieve what they are wanting in their life and/or business. Having hard copy materials for them to review later gives them something to look back on if and when they do plateau—and almost every client does.
You can create your own system, or there are turn-key, ready-made, professionally designed coaching systems that will save you the often time-consuming and frustrating process of going through it on your own.
Regardless of your past successes, glowing testimonials or engaging marketing material, once your clients choose to move forward with you, their only criteria for assessing your value is their own success, or their perception of it. So make sure you have a tracking system that helps keep your clients' perception of success in the right perspective.
Annette Sharpe is the founder of the Growing For Success multi-coach coaching company, and the creator of the Inspired Steps Coaching System. Visit Annette at www.growingforsuccess.com/inspiredsteps.html to learn how you can license the tools and system that will help you attract, engage and retain more clients.
IAC Member Benefit: IAC members save 40% on the annual licensing fee for the program (use the coupon code on the IAC Members page).
