5 Leadership Traits All Rockstar Coaches Should Have

Coaches are amazing strategists. 

They’re incredibly talented at honing in on a problem and coming up with ideas and steps to help their clients achieve their goals.

These are awesome skills to have as a coach but the truly extraordinary coaches, the coaches who belong in the “Hall of Fame”, are the ones who don’t just convey strategies and “how-tos” to their clients…

They get their clients to take real-world action. When you take real-world action, you get real-world results and this is what your clients are after: results and outcomes.

Results are what make a coach’s reputation.

Great results equal powerful word-of-mouth buzz and ongoing referrals. Not to mention, an incredible income. On the other hand, if your clients keep getting bad results or no results at all?

Well, you can imagine what that would do to your reputation as a coach.

Here’s something to think about…

Do your clients come out of a coaching session just “knowing” what to do or do they actually have the motivation to clearly and consistently do the hard work of implementation and execution? 

Implementation and execution are the daily (sometimes dull) tasks that involve taking small steps for incremental gain before reaching the final goal for the win.

So what should you do as a coach? How do you get your clients to do what you need them to do outside a coaching session?

You need to become the kind of rockstar coach who has the power to inspire and motivate your clients to do what they must do even when you’re not right there next to them, encouraging them and cheering them on. To do this, you need to cultivate and hone your skills as a leader and an influencer.

You need to become the kind of coach whose leadership and impact connect with your clients, outside a session. The kind of coach who gets clients to trust in themselves and to believe in their dreams and goals so they can do what it takes to get where they want to go.

Here are the top 5 leadership traits all rockstar coaches should have.

Leadership Trait #1: Powerhouse Communicator

A great communicator and leader knows how to connect in a way that creates maximum impact on the listener. As a coach, the listener is your client. This means that you have studied your client early on and understood your “client’s language”. 

Some clients respond well to a direct method of communication. You can list out your strategies or email a list of bullet points for them to absorb and implement.

Then there are clients who respond to narrative and metaphors. These are the clients who need stories to inspire them. You’ll need to turn to case studies or examples from your own life experiences to get them invested in the message that you are trying to convey.

When you pay attention, you’ll find that your client’s preferred “language” becomes clear within the first session or two. Focus on how they convey information to you. Is it through story or to they get straight to the point? Use this as a guide to connect deeply and effectively with them. You’ll notice that they’re far more able to absorb your advice and strategies and then take action.

Leadership Trait #2: Endlessly Enthusiastic

Endless enthusiasm here refers to the powerful combination of drive and passion. Leaders who score high on the motivation scale, leaders who are able to motivate themselves and others to persevere through unbelievable challenges and setbacks, have an amazing amount of enthusiasm at their disposable. They have the added ability to channel this energy through to their audience.

Think of all the great leaders you know throughout history and the rockstar coaches of today: Brendon Burchard, Tony Robbins, Martin Luther King, John. F. Kennedy. They were passionate and they were driven. They were enthusiastic about their cause.

The truth is it’s impossible to overestimate the combined power of drive and passion. No obstacle is too big and no problem is too complicated when you start to harness this power. The good thing about enthusiasm is that it’s infectious. So, when you cultivate this in yourself, you will find that your clients are able to pick up on it and run with it too.

Enthusiasm is often overlooked as an important trait in leadership but now you know, make sure are tuned in to high levels of enthusiasm during your coaching sessions with clients.

Leadership Trait #3: Thrives on Change

Change is an inescapable part of being human. The moment you resist change, you are closing yourself off from a life of limitless possibilities. Great leaders know this and this is why they can change on a dime. They’re not just open to change, they welcome it. They look for opportunities to try new things, find new solutions and experience new activities. This is true in the work that they do and it’s also true in their personal life.

Cultivate this habit as a coach. When you are open to change you are also rewiring your mind to think in new and innovative ways. When you do this, you’ll be able to find insights and solutions for your clients that aren’t just out of the box but in a different dimension.

This type of innovative thinking is absolutely essential for a rockstar coach who is set on influencing clients to keep reaching further and further out of their routine and their comfort zone. You cannot inspire in others what you don’t have in yourself. So consciously cultivate this trait. It will make an extraordinary positive difference in your ability to coach effectively.

Leadership Trait #4: Thinks and Acts with Integrity

Integrity is an old-fashioned ideal but it’s needed now, in today’s world of “quick fixes” and fast results, more than ever before. Thinking and acting with integrity arises when you understand your own values and why you do what you do.

Leaders with integrity have something that many others don’t — they live from a place of conviction. Even if external circumstances are chaotic or unclear, a leader with integrity is guided by an inner certainty that arises from knowing why they do what they do. When you know the “why”, the “what” becomes crystal clear.

This is the kind of thinking that you want for your clients. A rockstar coach wants clients to be guided by their own inner certainty and an ability to make the decisions that are in line with their integrity.

Many people think that integrity is this “magical” quality that you’re born with. You either have it or you don’t but I disagree. Integrity is something that can be developed over time. 

The best thing to do to build integrity in your work as a coach is to make sure that you walk your talk.

Do what you tell your clients to do. If you promote discipline, organization and time management to your clients, make sure you show up and practice this in your own life.

Integrity is the difference between a motivated client who’s eager to put your ideas and strategies into practice and a client who resists your advice and your feedback. You can’t blame a client for not wanting to take action on what you say if you are not taking action and implementing your own advice.

Leadership Trait #5: Incredibly Resilient

When it comes to bouncing back from adversity, rubber balls have nothing on great leaders. Resilience is possibly the most important leadership trait there is.

When you practice resilience, you are able to face challenges with a great deal of confidence and clear-mindedness. 

Why panic when you know that you can bounce back no matter what sort of curve ball life happens to throw at you? Great leaders understand this at their core and they practice this every single day.

If you’re keen to be a rockstar coach, your ability to demonstrate resilience as you work with clients to guide them through difficulties, will serve as a critical reminder that this is what they need to do in their lives. You’ll help them to rewire their thinking so they are able to overcome in-the-moment emotional reactions to problems and use calm, rationality instead.

This is especially important if you happen to receive less-than-positive feedback from a client or you find yourself working with a difficult client.

While I believe that you should be quick to identify a coaching relationship that isn’t working so you can let it go, sometimes a period of demonstrating resilience and patience is enough to motivate difficult clients to start taking positive action.

When you develop these leadership traits in yourself, you’ll find that you can inspire, motivate and influence your clients almost without trying. 

These leadership traits have an amazing “ripple effect” that will affect your clients and motivate them to take action to achieve the outcome they’re looking for.