"COACHING DIFFICULT CLIENTS 3Section 1- ResearchMeaning of Life CoachingAccording to Neenan & Dryden (2013), life coaching can be defined as a synergisticrelationship between an accredited life coach and a client. The purpose of life coaching is to tapinto the full potential of clients. They can be considered as a part consultant, part therapist andpart motivational speaker, who helps the clients define and achieve their goals that may bepersonal, career-related, or even both. Life coaching is a profession that is different fromcounselling, mentoring, therapy or advice. The life coach possesses the right tools and techniquesto empower the persons in finding answers within themselves. The people are increasingly usinglife coaching focus realizing the benefits they would have for reaching their greatest potential.There are different areas of coaching such as parental coaching, executive coaching or attentiondeficit disorder (ADD) (George, 2013).Coaching Difficult ClientsDifficult clients are the ones who may be resistant, stubborn or unmotivated. The coachesmust not give up on such clients and deal with ways it shall help in benefitting them. The clientsare considered difficult if nobody has succeeded in understanding them, or they have not openedup properly with other people. A few skills that an effective coach possesses are goodinterpersonal skills, confidence, honesty, kindness, flexibility, respectful, courteous and manymore. This combination of traits and characteristics help a coach in dealing with difficult clients(de Haan, Culpin, & Curd, 2011). COACHING DIFFICULT CLIENTS 4For instance, there is no clear link and connection between the coach and client. Nomatter how many times a coach addresses their issues, nothing changes. The theories andpractices state that coaching the clients can be successful if the right things are said in the rightmanner and at the right time. It may not always be intuitive, but a coach can learn and put it intopractice. The coach must work on the coaching style, language and listening skills. In case offitness coaching techniques, there are two kinds: ‘awfulness-based and awesomeness-based’(Precisionnutrition.com, 2015). In case of awfulness, the coaches may be loud, adversarial andaggressive that may not be good for client’s long-term progress. In case of awesomeness basedcoaching, the technique is client-centered. The coaches can help the clients understand theirinner motivation that would help them in making own decisions to change. Their decisions canbe solidified with clear and actionable solutions (Bacon, 2012). Another scenario may be where the clients complain a lot. The coaches may find that theclients say how sad they are. Despite the efforts made by the coach to keep things positive,things only keep getting worse. Such as condition is called ‘The Positivity Trap’, in which theclients only dig their heels deeper into their own misery. The relentless positivity kills the rapportand understanding between clients and coaches. The coach must acknowledge and relate to whatthe client is going through; it shall appear as oblivious and uncaring attitude if the situation is notwell-acknowledged. The coaches must possess active listening and patience to hear out theambivalence of the clients. It is necessary to embrace the emotional spectrum of the changeprocess (George, 2013). There may be some clients who do not follow instructions provided by the coach. Theremay be clients who struggle to follow the program and have low compliance. There are otherclients who follow the program with high compliance, but do not get expected results. The COACHING DIFFICULT CLIENTS 5coaches may be giving the clients expertise and guidance, but the clients may end up hittingroadblocks and would be falling off the track. The clients must schedule their day so that theycan manage time and tasks effectively. As a coach, one must not jump straight into things, butaddress the building blocks (McKenna & Davis, 2009). After repetitive failures, the clients tend to lose motivation. The clients may be attentiveand ambitious in the beginning, but after crashing several times, they end up losing motivation. Itis important for the coach to tackle a stack of emotions together regardless of the excitement theclients are going through in the beginning. There is a chance that even the most ambitious clientsmight be overwhelmed, have an imbalance and might give up (Korotov, 2012). The coachesmust try and change the clients attitude one by one, and not all at once. The coach shall breakdown changes into strategic steps that shall be built by the client over time. Certain clients maypossess a feeling of ambivalence in which they want to do or not do things at the same time. Thetougher or bossier the coach gets, harder the client shall resist. Instead of cajoling and persuadingthe clients, the coach must help them sorting out their ambivalence and make the right choice forthemselves (Neenan, 2009). The coaches also come across clients who believe that it is not the right time to do things.The clients are distracted and avoid the risk of doing things. The clients may use avoidance andperfectionism as tools against embarrassment or criticism. The coaches must help the clientsunderstand that they must act at the moment. The coaches must enhance confidence among theclients and getting failed in the process is normal (Neenan & Dryden, 2013)."