It has been remarked on a few times recently, that I appear very calm and gentle compared to other Business Coaches.

Being compassionate and nurturing in my coaching style has always come naturally to me. I see the innate human vulnerability in everyone (even the apparently really confident, high achievers), so it never made sense to give my clients a hard time if they haven’t completed an activity we’d talked about. It’s also never felt like it is my place to do so.

After all, it’s their time, their business, their life - not mine.

My role is to support and help them find their own strengths and work with the challenges in front of them in as positive a way as possible. The support can be emotional as well as practical. Whilst many of my clients want and appreciate having some accountability in their business, it’s essential to me that they don’t give themselves a hard time if it hasn’t happened for whatever reason. They aren’t going to perform at their best if they are feeling bad about themselves - so I am definitely not going to add to that.

What we may work on, however, is the reasons that the activities weren’t completed and see if I can support them to make some changes there (whether in mindset, or practical ones) if that is appropriate. I occasionally wonder whether people assume that coaches have it all together and never experience any difficulties, so it feels important to point out that I am a human too and sometimes my own to-do lists go out of the window!

Last Wednesday was a classic case of this. I had an hour or so in the morning before my first client of the day and I had written a to-do list that I wanted to get through as much of as I could. (I have a nearly 3 year old, so that childcare time is precious and whizzes past in a flash!) Bea had been a little under the weather and when my parents arrived to collect her, rather than marching off happily with them, with barely a backward glance, we had sobbing and her wanting to be held by me. My chosen approach to parenting means that I gave her what she needed and held her until she was feeling happy enough to go off with my parents, which she eventually did after about an hour. Gladly, I didn’t have to postpone any of my clients, but my to-do list was rather compromised! In that situation, I just have to pick what is the priority and what makes the most sense to do at that moment.

There really is no point getting stressed/upset with yourself if your to-do list doesn’t get done because life gets in the way. However, if this is a regular occurrence, you might feel instinctively that there is room for a little improvement – whether that is in mindset, or in practical application - and that some gentle outside help may help you with that. If that’s the case, get in touch. I’d be happy to discuss your options with you and see if I am the right outside help for you.