Every coach will encounter at least one difficult client in their coaching lifetime.
So don’t worry, you are not alone.
Roughly 60% of all clients are low compliance clients.
They struggle taking action and following through on their plans.
You might also tag them as unmotivated, resistant, or stubborn clients.
But don’t add them to the hopeless list just yet, you can still help them if
you have the right tools.
As hard as they can be at times, they are also a great source of learning.
Trust me, I’ve been there too.
Several times.
So I can say first-hand that there is a way out.
Welcome to Evercoach, the leading online training platform for coaches
who want to create impact and be prosperous.
This is Ajit Nawalkha and today we’re showing you how to deal with coaching clients
that are non-compliant so they can achieve their goals.
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We release new videos like this to support your coaching journey every week.
Now, let’s do this!
Picture this.
You start coaching a new client.
They have big goals and you’re stoked to help them achieve it.
You create a plan with them and define the action steps.
A week goes by and not much progress was made.
You adjust the plan to make it easier.
Another week goes by, no change.
Four weeks in, nada.
What is going on?
Many coaches and trainers wonder why their clients can’t seem to make progress, having
such valuable information at their fingertips.
But here’s the thing.
Change is hard.
Change requires breaking your current habits and creating new ones.
Which is why during a change process, people can get stuck for different reasons and at
different places.
That is where they become non-compliant.
So the next time you face a difficult client in this situation, try following these 5 steps
I tried and tested myself, to help your client progress.
First things first.
Your client is not following through with their action plan because they are
struggling with something.
- I'm so mad I don't know what to do.
- I wanna know why!
Step one is gaining an understanding of why they are struggling.
What is holding them back?
Clients’ non-compliance can arise for many different reasons.
For example, lack of clarity about the process, lack of understanding about the action plan,
low motivation, depression, personal or cultural bias, or even certain steps in the action
plan that they are uncomfortable with taking.
They might not be aware of it at first so do what you do best and coach them through
this until it is clear for both of you.
Every client is different and thus, to help them get unstuck, you have to customize your
approach by understanding their situation.
Remember, no matter how frustrated you are, you have to keep your coach hat on.
People often mirror the emotional signals you emit subconsciously.
It’s called emotional mirroring or emotional contagion.
If you’re angry, you’ll probably reflect it upon your client and make them angry.
But if you’re calm, you can encourage your client to be calm as well.
So keep that in mind to create a safe space in which you can actually get your client
out of their funk instead of pushing them further into the rabbit hole.
Now you know why your client is being resistant to change.
Your next mission is to boost their compliance.
How?
By identifying what they need.
There are 3 main reasons why clients have low compliance.
First reason is they lack a clear understanding of why this change is important to them.
Don’t assume your client understands the value of their change.
Ask them, on a scale from 1 to 10, How important is this for you?
If the answer is from 8 and up, then they are pretty self-aware that they need this.
But anything lower than that means they don’t have this clarity.
What they need in these cases is to find their own purpose and meaning for what they need
to do to progress.
If you skip this step, it’s only a matter of time before they will give up.
The second reason is they are not confident in their ability to follow through.
Confidence is a major deal-breaker for so many clients.
If they don’t believe they are capable of taking action, they won’t take even
the tiniest step.
- Maybe I'm just not good enough.
What they need is, well, confidence.
So ensure, from day 1, that they are almost 100% confident that they can follow the plan.
Tweak the plan as needed until they get there.
Reason number three for low compliance is lack of clear instructions in the action plan.
Let’s say, your client has committed to start practicing meditation every day.
It may sound simple but if it’s the first time they try it, they might not know
where to start.
At what time should they do it?
For how long?
What should they listen to?
Avoid any ambiguity by ensuring your client thoroughly understands what to do
in each step.
The better the understanding, the more confident they will be in executing.
Plus having simple, high-value habits they can easily follow will make them feel successful
in actually doing it.
Have you had a non-compliant client before?
Share your experiences and what you did to help them in the comment section below so
we can learn from you.
The next step is super important.
Co-create and educate the new action plan.
Instead of telling your client what to do based on your feedback, co-create the action
steps with them.
Changing habits is difficult and requires consistency and confidence.
So the more empowered your client feels, the more likely they’ll follow through.
Ask your client to choose what new behaviors they want to adopt.
These habits should be encouraging, simple and attainable.
The trick here is to make it too easy.
- Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?
Easy-to-follow daily habits that are suited for their lifestyle and daily routine will
drastically improve compliance because they won’t see it as such a huge challenge.
The more confident they are, the higher their compliance will be, and the faster their rate
of change will get.
And then you can challenge them to a bigger habit to get bigger results.
Another trick is to change only one behavior at a time.
Doing this will increase the likelihood of keeping the behavior until it becomes a habit
by over 80 percent.
According to experts, trying to tackle two behaviors at the same time lowers the chances
of success to less than 35 perfect.
And applying three behaviors or more drops the success rate to 5 percent.
So ask your client which one they want to start with that could be the biggest
needle-mover for the other behaviors to start building up after.
Step number 4 is to review and learn.
It’s always crucial for coaches to take a step back and evaluate what happened.
Take a moment to ask yourself, Why did this situation arise in the first
place?
What could have been done differently to prevent it?
What action steps are needed to avoid this in the future?
Analyze the situation with your client that went wrong and how it was fixed.
Identify what could be simple solutions to prevent this situation from repeating with
another client.
Before I get into the last step, I want to make a disclaimer.
I’m a big supporter of trying every trick in the book to serve your clients fully.
And the first 4 steps we’ve gone through until now should most likely work to help
your clients increase their follow-through.
However, if every checkbox has been ticked and you’re still listening to whatever is
their latest excuse that makes you wanna go...
- Oh, shut up, you’re so annoying!
Then you have to cross the line and take step 5.
Let your client go.
You’ve been patient enough and nothing has changed.
Sometimes, it just won’t get better and you have to come to terms with that.
The moment you realize you’re spending more time dealing with your client’s lack of
compliance instead of actually coaching them, then you have to consider firing your client.
Get rid of your “baggage” clients so you can free up space to coach clients that actually
want your help and commit to taking action.
My wish for you is that you always remember to serve from a place of love no matter how
difficult or tough your coaching client can be.
Trust your skills fully, but if your boundaries start getting broken, then respect yourself
enough to let that client go.
Now that you know how to deal with difficult, non-compliant clients,
you’re ready for the next step.
Which is creating profound transformation for your clients.
We interviewed world-class leadership coach Michael Neill to dive deep into the principles
to become a masterful coach.
You can sign up for this free masterclass on the link in the description box below.
Are you on track to becoming a successful coach?
Find out what are the top coaching skills every master coach has in this video.
Click here to watch it.
How do you deal with your non-compliant clients?
Share your best advice in the comment section below so we can all learn from each other.
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