SMART Goals Help Build a Successful Coaching Practice

Are you a coach working to build your coaching practice? Smart coaches recognize the need to spend time in goal setting. And, as Christian coaches, we want to be prayerful and seek God’s guidance to make sure we are following His plan, and not giving God our goals and asking Him to bless them. Goals are not carved in stone, they are open for review and revision.  God typically doesn’t show us the entire plan at first, and His plan unfolds daily.

“So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him.” 2 Corinthian 5:9

SMART Goals in Coaching – How to Set Them

SPECIFIC: As you are prayerful and seeking guidance in this area, here are a few questions to consider.  After you have identified your coaching niche, then specifically, how many clients will you be working with on a monthly basis? How many hours a week will you spend in coaching?  How much will you be earning each month from coaching clients? How many hours each week will you spend on admin, marketing, accounting, etc? Coaching is also a ministry for Christian Coaches as we seek to live the Greatest Commandment to love God and love others, so include the time for ministry, community and volunteer activities.

MEASURABLE: How can you track and measure your progress? What are some indicators that identify when you have reached the goal? Ex: Many coaches share the goal, “I want to grow my business/ministry.” How much, how many, and how will you know when you have grown your business?  When you measure your progress, you stay on track, reach your target dates, and experience the feelings of success that creates more momentum to take more action. And then, don’t be surprised when God expands the goal when the business is for His Glory, and not yours.

ACHIEVABLE: Sometimes the goal God has for us is much bigger than we imagine. So, by man’s standards, it may not look achievable but our God is a BIG, BIG God, and if He has given you a BIG vision then He will bring people and resources into your life to support the vision and help you.  If you are a new coach and establishing your coaching business/ministry,  start where you are and build.   If you have 2 paying clients today, it is realistic to set a goal to have 10, and adjust the number as you move forward. To go from 2 clients to 10 clients in 3 months for most new coaches is achievable.

REALISTIC: Are you willing and are you able are a couple of questions to consider around this SMART goal setting process. Yet, we know GOD is able when we are not; I feel that our willingness to be obedient to God is the most important posture of our heart. Think about when have you might have accomplished a similar goal in the past and reflect on that time. Although “realistic” is important, it is also a good idea to stretch the goal and step outside your comfort zone to add a little “risk” along with “realistic”!

TIMED: A part of the goal setting strategy is that a goal should be grounded within a time frame because it creates a sense of urgency. If you want to lose 5 pounds, when do you want to lose it by? If we hear the response “Oh, I don’t know” then most likely we know the possibility of losing those 5 pounds anytime soon is unlikely.  “Someday” won’t work. However, if the person gives an answer within a time frame, “by April 1st”, we sense a plan unfolding to achieve the goal. Keep in mind that God usually doesn’t give us a time frame, He gives us a vision, and patience in understanding that His timing is different from our and His ways are different from our ways. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

SMART Goals Help Coaches Walk the Talk

As coaches, we work with clients to help them achieve their goals, and we also want to “walk the talk” and set SMART goals for ourselves and our coaching business/ministry. Most importantly, as Christian Coaches, we want to stay in prayer seeking God’s guidance as we step forward boldly to work toward achieving goals that glorify God.

What SMART goals do you have for 2011? Who do you have to support you and hold you accountable?

Life coaching at its best is demonstrated when we connect fully and deeply with our client and we engage in active listening and powerful questioning while being fully present with our client.  Life coaching is about establishing trust and intimacy with our client where we create a safe place for our clients’ dreams to come to life.

Life coaching is “about relationship.”   And, Christian life coaching at its core is centered around our personal relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ who was, and is, the perfect role model for “relationship”. I believe Christian Life Coaching is living out God’s Greatest Commandment to love God first,  love ourselves and love others.  “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”  This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it, “Love your neighbor as yourself. ” (Matthew 22:37-39)

In secular coaching, the focus is about helping clients get from where they are to where they want to be. Christian Coaching is about helping clients get from where they are to where God wants them to be. What a great way to begin a New Year.. What does God want me to do for His Glory, for His Kingdom?

Relationships and Your New Year’s Resolutions

On December 29th, the Wall Street Journal published an article, “Making 2011 the Year of Great Relationships“, a timely and thought provoking one for me as I ponder my own New Year’s resolutions.  So, I ask the question “What if?” — What if we each made a commitment to making the new year about building and nurturing our personal and professional relationships, beginning first with our relationship with God and then extend outward?  What would it look like in our families, churches, businesses, communities?  What would the world look like if each of us are intentional about building stronger relationships?

The author, Elizabeth Bernstein writes “Increasingly, experts have been telling us how important social bonds are to well-being, affecting everything from how our brains process information to how our bodies respond to stress. People with strong connections to others may live longer. The quality of our relationships is the single biggest predictor of our happiness.”  I would like to add to this by saying, in my opinion, the quality of our relationship with God is the single biggest predictor of our happiness as it is the foundation for how we relate to others.

Relationships and Life Coaching – Improving Your Relationships

Christian Life coaching is about getting from where we are to where God wants us to be and for some of us, we have a gap in where we are in our relationship with Jesus. and where He wants us to be. Most likely, we have a gap in where we are in relationship with our families, friends, communities and business relationships.  What would it look like if we each made building stronger relationships a top priority for 2011, starting with the most important relationship, our relationship with Jesus Christ?   How can an improved relationship with Jesus impact the relationships you have with others? What is one action you can take today to improve a relationship with someone?  How willing are you to take that step?

Relationships, Life Coaching and DISC

Watch for my next post on how DISC can be used as a life coaching tool to enhance our relationships.

Looking for the  Christian Life Coach Training program that is right for you?

Thanks again to Linda Hedberg for the 2011 Edition of The Complete Guide to Christian Coach Training , a book that will provide you with unbiased information that will help you to make a well informed decision.  She gives the reader all the information in a consolidated and well organized, easy-reference list of  fifteen (15) Christian life coach training programs, with profiles on each program and a comparison table for quick reference. Yes, Christian Coach Institute is among the prestigious list of well respected training programs listed in this 3rd edition of the Complete Guide to Christian Coach Training.

Gary Collins, PHD, Author Christian Coaching: Helping Others Turn Potential into Reality says  “At least once every week somebody writes to ask me where they can get high quality, Christian coach training. Linda Hedberg’s unique and very practical book gives the answers. Concise, informative, relevant and easy to understand, this valuable guidebook says all we need to know about competent coach training from a Christian perspective. I am honored to recommend it enthusiastically. “–Gary R. Collins, PhD, Author Christian Coaching:  Helping Others Turn Potential into Reality.

What questions do you have about Christian Life Coach Training Programs? If you would like an unbiased comparison, be sure to check out Linda’s easy to download e-book.  And then you can spend your time in prayer and seeking  God’s guidance for the program that is right for you.

Sometimes I sit in awe of God’s love for me. He created such a variety of beautiful gifts for me to enjoy while I am on earth. Today, I want to look around and remember to say thank you for some of my blessings. How often do I stop to think how easy it would have been for Him to create only a few species of birds, or animals, plants and trees. And then I close my eyes and think of the joy that fills my heart when I picture my son and the joy he has brought to me in this life and I am grateful that God allowed me the privilege to be his mother. My cup runneth over with gratitude when I think of my husband planting flowers in the yard, my mom’s voice on the phone when she calls to tell me about last week’s Bible study with her “60 something youth group” (as they call themselves). No one is under 60 and they have such energy and joy to share with others. There are so many moments, and simple treasures to be grateful for today.

I am going to share a devotion with you from my favorite devotional, “Jesus Calling, by Sara Young”. She writes “When you focus on what you don’t have or on situations that displease you, your mind also becomes darkened. You take for granted life, salvation, sunshine, flowers, and countless other gifts from me. You focus on what is wrong and refuse to enjoy life until that is “fixed.” When you approach Me with thanksgiving the Light of My Presence pours into you, transforming you through and through. Walk in the Light with Me by practicing the discipline of thanksgiving.”

As you pause in a moment of reflection, what are you grateful for today?