Life Coach Certification

Certified Life Coach and Mentor (CLCM)™

Life coaches can be a great tool for people, especially for getting assistance with organizing and prioritizing a client’s personal life or business projects and deadlines.  Many people are unable to organize and prioritize the different aspects of their life.  A life coach can help the client take a look at everything happening in their lives and determine what is most important to accomplish and what order to perform those tasks.  It helps the client to feel less overwhelmed with their schedule and feel more empowered to tackle what they need to get done.

There are no formal education requirements needed to become a life coach.  Any person who wants to be a life coach can become one, regardless of education or background.  Having a certification from a respected organization like the Management and Strategy Institute, however, can help bring instant credibility to you as a coach or mentor.  You can get your certification in life coaching online directly from MSI.

The demand for life coaches has skyrocketed in the last 5 years!  They are needed by individuals to help manage their lives and by companies looking to supply their employees with work/life balance benefits.

If you love helping people, offering advice, and providing guidance, a certification in Life Coaching and Mentoring might be perfect for you.  The Life Coach certification program from the Management and Strategy Institute is completed 100% online and includes the study material and the MSI certification exam.  We also offer the Executive Coach and Mentor certification for anyone interested in coaching their employees and staff to a higher level.

Introduction

The goal of the Management and Strategy Institute is to teach you the key competencies required to function in the role of a Life Coach and Mentor.  As you go through the training material you will learn the competencies listed below.

The CLCM exam is a timed, online exam.  It consists of approximately 50 questions and has a required passing score of 70%.

Competencies

This course of study covers the following competencies:

What is Life Coaching

• Life coaching is a growing industry that transcends typical counseling, therapy, and even mentoring.
  • Learning Outcome: Define life coaching.  What life coaching is and isn’t.

Why People Need a Life Coach

• A life coach works with someone to achieve their goals.
  • Learning Outcome: Learn about famous life coaches, why people have difficulty making life decisions, prioritizing timelines, urgent situations, and lack of balance.

The Benefits of Life Coaching

• Many people are not aware of what a life coach does, they are also not aware of the benefits a life coach has to offer.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand performance targets, coping with pressure and stress, develop and maintain vision, maintain motivation.

Life Coaching Challenges

• Like any other venture we take on, life coaching can present many different challenges. Learn about issues your clients may have.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand lack of commitment, procrastination, poor communication skills, and lack of direction.

Basic Structure of a Coaching Session

• Clients are more likely to attend the coaching session if they have several options available.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand how to develop an action plan, ask questions, overcome obstacles, setting a timeline.

Essential Skills for Successful Coaching

• The life coach must possess a variety of skills in order to help their clients
  • Learning Outcome: Understand the skill of listening, listening with curiosity, taking in what you hear, reflecting, how to question.

Cognitive bias

• As a coach, you must be aware of Cognitive bias. Not only your clients potential Cognitive bias, but of yours as well.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand and identify cognitive bias.  Confirmation Bias, Framing Bias, Anchoring Bias, Availability Heuristic, False Consensus.

Tools and Techniques

• A good life coach will implement several different tools and techniques to assist their clients.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand goal tracking, journaling, assessments and forms, homework and action items.

Specialized Areas

• Some life coaches choose to practice in a specialized area of coaching.
  • Learning Outcome: Gain an understanding of the following niche practice areas:  Relationship and Dating Coaching, Health and Fitness Coaching, Family and Parenting Coaching, Spiritual Coaching, Image Coaching, Communication and Creativity Coaching, Career Coaching, Retirement Coaching, Leadership and Performance Coaching, Business Coaching, Executive Coaching.

Have a Game Plan

• One of the most important tools anyone can have when preparing to make a change is to create some form of a game plan.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand how to create a game plan for your clients success.  Linking games plan with goals and doing drills. 

Defining Coaching and Mentoring

• Understanding the difference between coaching and mentoring.
  • Learning Outcome: Define coaching and how it differs from mentoring.

 G.R.O.W. Model

• The GROW model helps you organize your coaching process in a flow that identifies the goal first and ends with putting a plan together.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand the G.R.O.W. model and its stages, Goal Setting, Reality Check, Options Developed, and Wrap Up.

Setting Goals

• Defining specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time driven goals will plot a marker in the horizon that acts as your beacon.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand goal setting.  Goals in the Context of GROW.

Identifying Appropriate Goal Areas

• Your objective here is to “catch” as much information as possible to help you determine what specific areas you can leverage and achieve results.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand how to listen more, find areas to achieve results.

Setting SMART Goals

• Outline your goal in an easy and clear format that your employee will find useful.
  • Learning Outcome: Define SMART goals – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely.

Understanding the Realities

• Marking the beginning of the coaching journey with employees.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand the second component, or the “R” of the GROW model.

Getting a Picture of Where You Are

• Neglecting to do this could result in a non-responsive employee.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand framing the reality of the situation for your employee.

 Identifying Obstacles

• Obstacles will arise and you need to be prepared to handle them with efficiency.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand how to overcome obstacles.  Use IRA method.

Developing Options

• Explore options that will enable your employee to move towards the goal that was set before them.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand the next component, or the “O” in the GROW model.

Identifying Paths

• Let us look at things from the employee’s perspective. How in control do they feel?
  • Learning Outcome: Understand B.I.G. results.  Buy-in, Innovation, and Growth.

Choosing Your Final Approach

• Implement a consistent method to determining the best possible option.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand options for choosing the final approach.

Structuring a Plan

• Structuring a plan as soon as possible sends the message to your employee you mean business.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand how to structure a improvement plan.  3T questioning technique.

Creating the Final Plan

• When creating a development plan, there must be consistent steps outlined, allowing your employee the opportunity to learn, apply measure, and assess their development.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand the LAMA process – Learn, Apply, Measure, Assess.

The “Business” of coaching

• Life coaching is a business, and like any business, there are federal, state, and local laws you must follow.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand the need to form a business entity, Business Insurance, Error & Omissions (E&O) Insurance, Hiring a business accountant, Leasing / renting office space.

Additional Reading & Education

• It’s important that you stay up to date on the latest practices regarding coaching.
  • Learning Outcome: Understand where to find IACTM and ICF Core Competencies