Brave Coaching: The Power of Bold Intention
You’re already a good coach. But as a natural achiever who cares about your work, you don’t want to stop at just “good” or even “great” coaching. Living up to your full potential may require coaching with bold intention. Let’s dive into what that means–and how you can start coaching with better, bolder, braver intention.
Why Being Bold Pays Off
To make the most impact on your clients, feeling confident in your strengths, aligned with your personal values, and being willing to mess up sometimes is important. If you don’t take risks and experiment with your coaching style, you miss out on long-term transformation, yours and theirs.
“You can choose courage or you can choose comfort, but you cannot have both.” — Brené Brown, Daring Greatly
Brave coaching means taking strategic risks so that you can have deeper breakthroughs with your clients. When you challenge yourself and your clients to step into the unknown rather than playing it safe, the sky’s the limit on how much everyone can grow.
The Qualities of a Brave Coach
Brave coaches don’t have it all figured out, and this is actually a strength! By recognizing that they have areas to grow while still showing up with clarity, integrity, and determination, they can model the transformation they’re inviting their clients to experience.
“Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we will ever do.” — Brené Brown
Here are a few qualities to cultivate:
Curiosity over certainty
You don’t have to know everything, you just need to be open. Staying curious about others’ experiences and your own will allow you to ask better questions and uncover insights you may not have discovered from a place of certainty.
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence.” — Albert Einstein
Compassionate honesty
Brave is not a synonym for harsh. Don’t be one of those people who declares themself a “truth-teller” but then makes unhelpful comments. Instead, say the things that actually matter, and can help people reflect, think, and explore with the utmost care, understanding, and compassion.
“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” — Theodore Roosevelt
Comfort with discomfort
To grow, become comfortable with being uncomfortable. There might be days in your brave coach journey when things don’t go according to plan, or you feel awkward about the deeper questions you ask or hard conversations you lean into. But these things will only give you more insight, exercise your muscles for doing hard things, and allow you to grow into the coach you’re capable of becoming.
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” — Neale Donald Walsch
How to Be Brave
Like all things in life, coaching with brave intentions is easier said than done. A good starting point is to identify areas where you’re defaulting to comfort.
Are you avoiding difficult conversations? Not accepting certain clients who feel too “different” or “unaligned” from you? Not promoting your work out of fear?
Once you’ve found some areas, ask yourself, “What would boldness look like?”
From there, just take one small action. Change won’t happen overnight, but you can take baby steps. Send the email. Ask the hard question. Share the insight that’s aligned with your heart. The more you practice brave intention, the easier it will become to coach and live from a place of boldness.
“Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is the decision that something else is more important.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
Interested in Working With a Partner in Your Growth?
As a coach educator with over 20 years of experience, I can help you identify your current limitations and the areas where you’re playing it safe so you can grow. Schedule a call with me to learn more about how I can support your unique journey and help you coach with brave intention.
And to discover more ways I can help, visit my Coaching and Brave Leadership Mastermind pages.