If I’m So Smart … Why Aren’t People Taking My Advice?,
Have you ever picked up a conversational ball to run with it and given amazing advice? While you were running, you might have been making astute observations, offering visionary concepts about how things could be better, and presenting airtight strategies for breakthrough (what a gift!) … all to regroup in a week or two to realize no action was taken?
You’re smart. You could see the problem clear as day. You were definitive on what good things could come with a tweak or two. You even gave specific steps to make said tweaks. And alas, it was all great advice, but not taken.
What happened?
There’s a not-so-secret skill that can help your conversations be even more effective that has nothing to do with giving advice better and everything to do with connecting authentically with people you want to serve well, whether it’s clients, staff, friends, or family.
What’s this not-so-secret skill? It’s listening.
We’re not talking about typical listening though; we’re talking about listening with a coaching mindset.
Here are three reasons why coaching mindset listening transforms your conversations:
When you listen to someone with a coaching mindset, you take time to fully understand what’s happening, explore their concerns, uncover what makes the topic important right now, recognize what factors are at play, and discover how deep the impact of a situation is.
When you listen to someone with a coaching mindset, you tap into their vision of the something better they’re reaching for. Listening with a coaching mindset helps you uncover with them what their dreams might be regarding a specific topic. It helps you illuminate with them what the ideal scenario might be, and helps you encourage them to communicate their hopes, which fuels their feelings, which fuels their fire to change. Real change.
When you listen to someone with a coaching mindset, you complete the conversational cycle by helping someone devise a strategy for actually making a thing happen. You help them name their own level of commitment, identify their own action steps, anticipate what might slow them down, and map out their own timeline for change.
How exactly do you get people to take action on your advice? We believe it’s tapping into your listening skills and taking those skills to the next level – the coaching mindset level.
People come to you because you’re smart. Listening with a coaching mindset gives you the ability to co-create with them to build a vision and strategy they’re onboard with and intrinsically motivated to take action on.
Are you interested in building coaching mindset skills? We would love to partner with you in an interactive, fast-paced, and fun learning environment that gives you opportunity to practice these skills with meaningful, encouraging feedback in a cohort of like-minded professionals. Our next EFI: Coaching Mindset might be starting soon — check it out and get on a fast path to listening more effectively which helps people more effectively.