Providing true value in coaching: Insights from Sharn Rayner

As coaches, our role is to be a catalyst for our client’s growth, guiding them towards success and fulfilment—personally and professionally. Providing genuine value requires us to build a partnership where we understand, challenge, and support our clients in ways that are meaningful to them. Here are some actionable tips to elevate your coaching practice and deliver exceptional value to your clients:

1. Understand their ‘why’

Dive deep: Before you can add practical value, take the time to truly understand your client’s personal and professional motivations. What drives them? What are their passions? Why are they in their current business or role? What does this mean in the big picture for them in life outside of work as well as leaders inside their business? Understanding their “why” and, indeed, the “why” of their company helps you tailor your coaching to align with their core purpose and core values.

Often, at the start of an engagement, clients are unsure of their purpose (the “why” not the “what”). Your role is to help them explore and articulate their vision. Facilitating exercises or discussions that illuminate what success looks like for them, both personally and professionally, can really centre them on what matters.

2. Identify challenges and barriers

Where are they now?: Identify where they are now, at this time, in life – again, both in business and personally. Are they stagnating, have they lost drive, or are they experiencing fear about ‘what’s next’? In contrast, are they excited to grow, ready for what lies ahead, and poised for proactive momentum? Whatever the challenge, work collaboratively to pinpoint real and perceived obstacles, exploring these together and using them as opportunities for growth and forward-focused, goal-oriented action.

3. Define their version of success

Embrace the whole person: As coaches, we work with individuals as complete beings, encompassing both their professional roles and personal lives. In today’s world, work and home life no longer function in isolation, each profoundly influences the other. By embracing this dynamic, you can guide your clients to define and achieve their version of success more effectively.

Focusing on the integrated person allows you to tailor your coaching strategies to better resonate with who they are as a whole, helping them reach their goals in a more authentic and fulfilling way – be this as leaders, partners or parents.

Part of defining business success is coaching clients as they create their annual business roadmap, define their core competencies/strengths, accentuate their competitive differentiators and establish pivotal strategic goals – these skills as a coach are crucial and truly show value. For me, coaching leaders is always about enabling the client to get where they want to go smarter, faster, and with more enjoyment, through greater confidence in their role.

4. Leverage your expertise

You are the expert too: While your client may be an expert in their field, you are the expert in coaching. Use your insights and knowledge to push them beyond their comfort zone. Encourage risk-taking and experimentation to unlock their potential. Our role is to take them to the next level, to challenge, and not let them accept mediocrity. Our clients engage us to better enable them to be the best possible version of themselves, and this is truly valuable.

Early on, help your clients achieve quick wins. These small victories build confidence and momentum, demonstrating tangible progress and again, value.

5. Focus on the future and results that matter

Focus on what matters: Encourage your clients to look beyond the present challenges and focus on future possibilities. This mindset shift fosters innovation and long-term success. Help your clients identify and agree on metrics that truly matter. Whether it’s personal growth indicators or business KPIs, align their efforts with meaningful outcomes.

6. Reflect and reinforce

Regular reflection: Engage in regular reflection sessions with your clients. Highlight their progress by tracking metrics that matter, acknowledge achievements, and identify areas for further development. This reinforces the positive impact of your coaching and keeps them highly attuned and eager to continue pursuing their passions and goals.

Seek feedback: This means asking your clients about your coaching and performance. It also helps you to ensure that you are staying clear about what matters to them and not pursuing your own aspirations by attempting to live vicariously through your client.

 

As a coach, reflect on your performance – if you were coaching yourself objectively – what piece of advice would you give yourself to help lift your capability, impact, and value one notch further?

Providing value as a coach is about creating a partnership where you deeply understand your clients, challenge their limits, and support their journey toward success.

By implementing these strategies, you can offer tangible value that resonates with your clients, elevating your coaching practice and enhancing the impact you have on their lives.