Seeking validation from clients can sabotage your coaching. It puts you in an up and down cycle of highs and lows and can affect your coaching. How can we identify this validation trap and thus avoid it? How can we keep our coaching free from needing personal validation and remain focused on our clients?
Before we tackle this subject, it’s important to acknowledge that wanting validation is completely normal. As coaches, we naturally tend to seek validation because we need to know we’re truly helping others. It’s part of our helper personalities. It’s only when validation becomes too self-focused that we want to avoid. So don’t judge yourself too harshly.
What You’ll Learn- How to Recognize the Trap of Validation
- The client is in a pleaser role
- You’re hyper-focused on yourself
- The safe, sacred space for the client is interrupted
- A positive response, rather than what is actually best for the client, is sought
- Honesty from the client is inhibited
- Empowerment is not supported
How to Identify When You’re Falling Into the Trap of Validation
- Asking if something is helpful
- Getting overly lit up from praise
- Feeling unsettled when the focus isn’t on you
- Seeking validation that’s unnecessary
How to Avoid the Trap of Validation
- Never take credit
- Hold space for curiosity regarding success
- Define your success, separate from your clients
- Stay in your space, give your client theirs
Contact Info and Recommended Resources
The Coaching Collective: thecoachingcollective.com/
Work with Molly! mollyclaire.com/coaching
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Charlie Kirk Show
Charlie is America's hardest working grassroots activist who has your inside scoop on the biggest news of the day and what's really going on behind the headlines. The founder of Turning Point USA and one of social media's most engaged personalities, Charlie is on the front lines of America’s culture war, mobilizing hundreds of thousands of students on over 3,500 college and high school campuses across the country, bringing you your daily dose of clarity in a sea of chaos all from his signature no-holds-barred, unapologetically conservative, freedom-loving point of view. You can also watch Charlie Kirk on Salem News Channel