Sometimes, all you need is a shift in perspective to set you on the path to more fulfilling experiences and relationships. A mindset coach specializes in providing the tools to approach things differently. This helps clients achieve a new lifestyle or goals, improve a relationship, or build leadership skills for career development.
What is a mindset coach?
Mindset coaching is a structured practice where you work with a coach to learn ways to change your thinking, challenge your beliefs, build new cognitive skills, and create better outcomes in your personal or professional endeavors. Mindset coaching helps you develop positive and productive thinking.
Mindset coaches can work with you to challenge beliefs that limit or restrict you from achieving your goals. Coaches provide guidance and exercises for developing a productive and positive mindset. And they help you get "unstuck" from old patterns and enjoy better life experiences.
7 benefits of working with a mindset coach
Here are seven key benefits of mindset coaching:
1. Objectivity: Successful coaches offer an unbiased perspective. They may challenge the assumptions you make about yourself or provide objectivity you can't often get from friends and family.
2. Self-awareness: Many clients want to understand their internal motivations and learn to overcome challenges. A coach helps you understand how your thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors impact your daily life. They help highlight patterns that hinder success and provide tools to create change. Coaching helps you explore new directions and embrace opportunities for growth and success.
3. Confidence: Coaching lets you practice being confident and setting healthy boundaries in a safe space. It may also help you make better decisions, build self-compassion, and practice acceptance. You may also learn how to control strong emotions, which helps you tackle challenges with objectivity and confidence.
4. Life balance: Planning skills are essential to work-life balance. Coaches help you outline and execute meaningful short-term and long-term plans to achieve goals while keeping other responsibilities and commitments in mind. You benefit from having an accountability partner and a guide for handling obstacles or stressful situations.
5. Resilience: Coaching teaches skills that boost adaptability and healthy coping strategies. By using these skills, you can face challenges or setbacks with more success. While coaching won’t help you avoid negative events, it can help you stay clear-headed when dealing with life’s stressors.
6. Communication: Coaching can help you learn how to express yourself in a healthy way to improve your relationships. It gives you the skills to navigate tough conversations and communicate with empathy and honesty.
7. Well-being: Coaching helps you develop healthier habits and mindsets that can improve your sense of well-being. As you change your thinking, you learn to recognize your strengths and embrace growth. Reframing situations and celebrating successes are practices that help cultivate peace of mind.
Types of mindset coaching
Mindset coaching applies to many facets of daily life. There are many types of coaching and thousands of qualified coaches to choose from. The coach you choose will specialize in helping you set goals and solve challenges in a specific area of your life.
Life coaching
Life coaches help you improve your daily experience. A life coach can help you identify your purpose, hobbies, and passions. Life coaching offers you encouragement, accountability, and perspective. Great life coaches listen actively and help you plan for, conceptualize, and achieve success.
Relationship coaching
A relationship coach can help you improve personal or professional relationships. With this type of coach, you learn to recognize the reasons behind interpersonal friction or conflict. You develop skills for stating your desires, communicating honestly, and being empathetic. Relationship coaching may focus on a romantic relationship, general interpersonal relationships, or parenting.
Executive coaching
An executive coach is right if you want to advance in leadership roles or are a leader wanting to refine your skills. These coaches help you manage challenging personalities to become better communicators, mentors, and team builders. Leadership coaching benefits mid- and executive-level individuals who want to work better with others as part of their career skill set.
Career coaching
Career coaching helps people succeed in their professional lives. Career coaches help you develop career plans, find your purpose, explore and define values, and play to your strengths. These coaches also work with you to identify and successfully navigate roadblocks to your success. They may focus on a specific area of your career, such as your performance, working at an executive level, or developing your career in the early years.
Finance coaching
If your goal is to secure your financial future and learn ways to make sound financial decisions, a finance coach can help. Money management combines technical skills — such as investing and savings strategies — with mindset. Finance coaches assist you in balancing future money goals while enjoying your day-to-day life.
How to choose a mindset coach
A 2020 survey indicates that there are now more than 70,000 coaches worldwide, a 33% increase from 2015. This means there’s a coach for you, regardless of your location, primary language, learning style, or the kind of coaching you want.
The following steps can help you decide the best style of coaching for your needs and where to find a well-aligned coach:
1. Decide what style of coaching you want. Many clients benefit from a 1:1 coaching relationship. In individual coaching, you work directly with a coach and discuss your specific challenges and needs.
2. Think about how to meet with your coach. Coaching takes many forms. Do you want in-person support, virtual coaching, or messaging-based support?
3. Determine how often you need coaching. Whether via a weekly session or a monthly check-in, you and your coach will work to align your goals, schedule, and budget.
What to look for in a mindset coach
Finding the right coach is the first step to success. When looking at potential coaches, consider the following essential aspects of the coaching relationship:
Experience: The first indication of a quality coach is their track record in working with other clients. Look for a coach with mindset coaching certification and several years of professional experience. You can learn about their background in an online profile, CV, or resumé.
Connection: Rapport is important. In the first weeks or months of a coaching relationship, take time to reflect on the connection you have with your coach. Feeling comfortable and at ease with your coaching partner makes the process easier and often results in better outcomes. It’s beneficial to find a coach that aligns with your learning style, life circumstances, and personal preferences.
Tip: BetterUp understands that working with a coach is a personal experience. With thousands of highly qualified coaches, you can easily change coaches if you don’t gel with your initial match.
Availability: Look for a coach with time to meet on your schedule.
Tip: Connecting with a virtual coach like those at BetterUp is a great way to fit productive coaching sessions into your busy schedule.
Specialization: Find a coach who specializes in the type of coaching you want. All certified coaches have core coaching skills, but a niche coach can tailor these skills to your specific needs.
Questions to ask a potential mindset coach
Getting to know your coach at the start of a program is essential to long-term success. When meeting with a coach for the first time, consider asking the following questions:
The coaching experience
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What type and frequency of coaching do you recommend for me?
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How do you structure your coaching program?
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How long does your typical coaching agreement last?
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How and when are you available to meet for coaching sessions?
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Where and how will coaching sessions take place?
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Can I contact you through email or by messaging you between coaching sessions?
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Is there any reason you believe we might not be a good fit?
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What should I know about the coaching process before we begin?
Experience and qualifications
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What certifications, credentials, or professional development do you have?
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How long have you been coaching (either in years or in coaching hours)?
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What other roles have you held before coaching?
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How many clients do you see on average per week or month?
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Have you ever helped a client with my particular goal or challenge?
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What results have your clients achieved when working with you?
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Do you have any references or client testimonials I can read?
Philosophy and methods
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What drew you to coaching as a career?
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Do you also see a coach or a mentor for issues in your own life?
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What type of coaching do you most enjoy offering?
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What is your favorite and least favorite aspect of coaching?
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What is your policy on diversity, inclusion, and belonging (DIB)?
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Do you practice a growth mindset in your own life?
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What professional or personal development methods do you use?
What to expect from working with a mindset coach
The coaching process should feel empowering and uplifting. Many people put off coaching because they don’t know if it’s right for them. But a great coach can put you at ease, help you understand yourself better, and guide you on using your strengths to achieve your goals.
While the coaching process is individualized, the structure of coaching is generally somewhat set.
The coaching process
Every coaching process and relationship is a little different. By its nature, coaching is personalized, so your work with a coach will evolve as you do. In general, you can expect the following structure in a coaching relationship:
1. Discovery: You and your coach will have 1:1 conversations to understand your needs and goals. This process may take place over several conversations. During discovery, you’ll learn more about what you want, what motivates you, and the most helpful mindset shifts you can make.
2. Planning: Once you know what you need, you and your coach can build a plan to achieve your goals. Your coach may offer exercises to help you improve certain skills. They may offer strategies to overcome obstacles or challenges. Coaches can also help you develop timelines and provide accountability to keep the momentum as you work on your goal.
3. Action: With a plan in place and the support of your coach, you can begin to work on achieving your goals. If, for instance, you want to improve your fitness, your coach may work with you on eating habits, exercise routines, and tracking health metrics. Your coach can also help you review your progress and refine the strategies you identified on your timeline.
Common coaching exercises
There are many helpful techniques and strategies to change your mindset. Your coach may suggest one or more practices to help you achieve mindset shifts:
Journaling: The regular practice of creating a written record can help you reflect on your thoughts and feelings during the coaching process.
Conversation: Open discussion of relevant stories can enable you to understand your goals and motivations by sharing and developing your personal narrative.
Visualization: Using future-thinking techniques helps you envision success, build confidence, and create new possibilities. Visualization helps you see your future goals and success in concrete terms and detail.
Role Playing: Practicing the language of conflict resolution and boundary setting helps you tackle real-life challenges or obstacles with more confidence and awareness.
Mindfulness: Meditation, breathwork, and other grounding practices aid self-awareness and reflection. These practices also reduce stress and help you put your experiences and reactions to challenges in context.
Reframing: Addressing situations using different language helps you contextualize your experiences. For instance, a coach may ask, “Is there a different way to look at this situation?” If you, for example, made a mistake at work, your coach may suggest that you look at this not as proof of poor performance but as indicating a knowledge gap you can address and improve.
How to get the most out of your coaching relationship
Learn how coaching works: Coaching isn’t therapy or mentorship. Knowing what to expect from a coaching relationship is the best way to get what you want from it. Read about the coaching experience to understand your and your coach’s roles in success. Communicate with your coach about your expectations to be sure you’re on the same page.
Build trust with your coach: Working with a coach can make you feel vulnerable, so building trust is essential to success. Take the time to select a coach that matches your values and needs. Doing this work upfront will set you and your coach up for success together.
Practice honest communication: Share your concerns, thoughts, and potentially limiting beliefs with your coach. Your coach’s role is to support you and provide objectivity, but they can only do that if they have all the information. If you’re struggling to communicate something with your coach, reflect on why this is. If something is blocking your progress, talking about it with your coach is the best way to move past it.
Know what success looks like: It’s difficult to know you’ve reached a goal if the particulars are fuzzy. Use some of your reflection time to gain a detailed view of what success looks like. Outlining a “perfect day” scenario may help you picture how success will look and feel. It’s okay to get specific about your ideal outcome.
How to become a mindset coach
Are you a professional interested in sharing your experience and background through coaching? Becoming a mindset coach is a great way to share your experience and talents with clients to help them achieve their goals and lead happier lives.
Coaches come into the profession through a desire to share their specialized or interpersonal knowledge and skills. In general, professional coaches start their practice by following these steps:
1. Begin your own mindset journey: Effective coaches practice what they teach. Take time to learn about the different mindset coaching practices, your responsibilities, and your desired rewards from coaching. Reflect on what draws you to coaching and what you want to offer.
2. Learn about the frameworks: Get familiar with popular coaching frameworks. Two common options are Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP).
3. Seek guidance: Getting coach training through a mentor is a great way to start your professional journey. Apprenticeship builds deeper confidence and knowledge about coaching.
4. Learn the business side: Consider the mechanics of a mindset coaching business. Read about running a small business, marketing, promotion, and administration.
5. Certify and grow: A certification program like those offered through the International Coaching Federation (ICF) will give you the skills and credibility needed for coaching clients. Choosing a certification program also allows you to specialize in areas that interest you and can build your professional network.
Are you a certified coach interested in growing your business through a proven platform? Learn about becoming a BetterUp coach.
Shift your mindset and open up new possibilities
If you feel stuck or uncertain in an area of your life, accountability and perspective are your best allies. Working with a certified mindset coach gives you access to the skills, support, and motivation to move toward your ideal future.
Ready to find a certified coach to support you on the journey? Start your assessment and match with a BetterUp mindset coach today.
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