As coaches, how can we ensure that former clients appreciate that our reason for wanting to stay in touch is based on genuine interest in their wellbeing and progress, and not simply a desire to develop more business? An early coaching experience of my own has stayed with me, and poses an ongoing question that I am sure will be familiar to others, and I would welcome your views.
My client was in career transition, and we had a series of thought provoking and seemingly quite fruitful sessions. As a bi-product of this process my understanding of how their world worked, what excited them and how they wanted to use their talents moving forward led to a genuine interest in their future. When my attempt to maintain contact several months later was met with a hostile response that implied I was merely trying to sell more sessions, I was genuinely surprised and taken aback.
Several years on, my way of processing this situation is now very different, however, it still puzzles me that some former clients appear to confuse my genuine interest in them with a desire simply to sell to them. Am I being over-sensitive? Clearly, they are all busy people, so maybe a lack of response is due to nothing more than overwhelm.
I evolved from head hunter to business coach because I have a genuine love for problem solving, and a keen interest in what makes people tick. Though I appreciate the obvious boundaries that exist between coach and client, I make every effort to engage genuinely with the coaching experience, and relish the opportunities that emerge to de-construct perceived thinking, find out what is at its heart and then put it all back together. As such, I am always curious to know how things subsequently turn out.
As a head hunter it was often easier to retain contact with former clients and candidates because the receptive ones saw a call from a head hunter as a chance to keep eyes and ears on a changing market. Therefore, taking a call from me was hopefully going to be potentially beneficial and a good use of their time.
It is important to stress that the above observations only relate to a small number of previous clients. The majority of people I work with slip seamlessly on and off the radar as we find our paths crossing for many different reasons. The opportunities to stay current are there in most cases, but where this doesn’t happen, I always find myself wondering why.
Do these sentiments seem familiar, how can we get the balance right? Many former client conundrums have made a genuine impression on me, and my keenness to retain contact simply reflects a desire to know how their circumstances evolved. Perhaps for some, retaining contact with their coach does not feel like a priority, if this is you, I gently urge you to think of it as an opportunity to take stock of your own wellness and psychological safety.
If you recognize yourself in this, and there are unanswered messages from your coach in your mailbox, why not consider re-appraising them in the knowledge that the primary reason for them being sent is likely to be a genuine interest in how things are going, along with the hope that contact can be maintained.