Chapter 5: Coaching Analytical vs Bottom Line Clients

One of the most common mistakes that new coaches make when they begin working with wildly differing personality types is to assume that the basic coaching model is a one size fits all package. As any experienced business or life coach can easily tell you, this simply isn’t the case. Instead, successful coaches use their solid understanding of the four major personality types in order to design the best coaching style and approach for each particular clients.

In order to keep things simple, let’s use the examples of two very different types of clients: Client A and Client B.

• Client A is an very detail oriented and could be described by friends an colleagues as analytical with an emphasis on the first two syllables. Before he makes any major or minor decision in his personal and professional life, he gathers as much information as possible, weighs the facts and sometimes gets so weighed down in the details that ends up stuck in analysis paralysis. Some of Client A’s favorite magazines include Consumer Reports and Economist.

• Client B, on the other hand, is results driven power player who associates would describe as a leader who goes with his gut and just wants to be given the bottom line, damn it. She’s willing to take calculated risks without a detailed analysis of every factor in a decision because somebody’s got to be the one to call the shots, and you’ve got to willing to play if you want to win. Client B has been subscribed to industry niche journals and magazines like Money, Newsweek and Architectural Digest for years, each of which she flips through and scans as time permits.

Now, just imagine a well-meaning business coach who’s still wet behind the ears trying to coach a could clients like Client A and Client B for the first time. By the end of the first session, Client B would probably be running our hapless coach’s show, while Client A would get so hung up on the minor details of his coach’s probing question that the session would end with unmeasurable results.

• Broadly speaking, Client A can’t see the forest for the trees and could use some coaching on how his larger aspirations and passions fits into the smaller picture of the day-to-day. Probing questions that broaden his tunnel vision and allow him to reach observations and conclusions on his ultimate destination could be tremendously helpful.

• The chances are that Client B is going to enter her first session with a pretty good idea of what she wants out of the coaching experience in the long term. The task of the coach is start off with first things first and establish a concrete picture of both her major goals and present reality in terms that are as qualitative as possible. Next, the coach uses narrow probing questions so she can reflect on the major details of the present and future obstacles standing in her way, as well as the pros and cons of her most promising options moving forward. Finally, this type of session must end with a firm commitment from Client A on precisely what actionable tasks she plans on putting in place for short term solutions before her next coaching session.