Life Skills Coach

A life skills coach is a partner who assists a client in becoming experts on themselves - assisting them to take actions which can allow them to achieve their personal goals, life goals, business goals or family goals.

They focus their energy and their attention on clients by being completely non-judgmental, thoroughly supportive and objective. They provide options for their client's life, giving them new perspectives on things that have otherwise gotten them down in the past. This encouragement is concentrated into personal one-to-one sessions, giving their clients the confidence to take steps to improve their life.

In order to become a life skills coach, there are certain attributes that you must have and respect. Indeed, some aspects of your personality are better suited to be incorporated into your life as a life coach, than others.

A professional life coach must be a trustworthy individual, holding the ideal that they must maintain the highest integrity. It is crucial that a life coach's integrity must be genuine and continuous. There needs to be firm trust between client and coach.

Life skills coaches also need to have a strong respect for other people and their privacy. A coach is an 'equal partner'. This involves complete mutual respect. Those who do not respect others develop attitudes undesirable for this sort of practice - which include judging, and sometimes imposing.

Full attention must be paid on the client, of whom must always be the centre of attention. The coaches are not there to seek credit, or huge acknowledgement for what their clients may achieve in the future, or during the course. The reward should be the fact that they have helped a person move on with their life.

A natural life coach will have a natural talent for focusing their on energy on the interests of other people, and will have a genuine motivation to help other people to achieve and prosper. Personal biases are absolutely unacceptable, and must be kept out of any discussion or help.

A skills coach must acknowledge that the best routes for a client's life may change dramatically with new events, and so they must realise that there is not one specific route from the beginning. Professional life coaches must control their urges to advise or manipulate their clients. Any such thing will halt the process of coaching.

A life coach must always attempt to avoid telling a client what they 'should' do, and rather, attempt to determine paths that a client could take instead. Equally, a life skills coach must be able to talk to a client without acting as a superior or anybody with ultimate authority. Once the life coach has observed the personal feelings of a client, they must communicate well their observations, without pretending to 'know it all', and know what's best. This is potentially the first step to judging your client.

Though it's important to stay a calm mutual individual, a life skills coach must also assume a strong observational role, presenting the truth of what they observe to their clients in a manner that allows for easy discussion.

• More info to find an evaluate a life skills coach or business coach.