Mark Ottobre breaks down the two skills every coach needs: authority, which is real competence and results, not just confidence, and empathy, which means staying calm and clear instead of getting pulled into a client's panic. A coach stays in the helicopter while the client's boat burns.
I'm going to teach you the two most powerful forces in coaching: empathy and authority. Authority is knowing your subject matter. It's knowing the sets, reps, nutrition. It's being masterful. And people confuse confidence for competence. Competence comes from being able to get the result, and the evidence of that is having done it before. Confidence comes after the fact that you've got competence. If you don't have that right now, that's okay. Work until you do. Now let's talk about empathy. Empathy is not sympathy. Let's analogize. There's a helicopter and a burning boat. You as the coach are always in the helicopter. Your client is in the burning boat with their problems. You throw down a ladder, the client is scared. You get out of your helicopter, you go in the burning boat with your client. That is sympathy, not empathy, and it is unacceptable in coaching. You never get in the burning boat with your client. Instead, you say to the client, I understand that it's scary and I understand that it's difficult. Here's the plan of action you need to follow. If you're a coach that needs help with coaching, make sure you follow my page, Mark Ottobre, for more.
