One global study found that executives received a 788% return on investment (ROI) based on coaching received.

Coaching is about helping people improve by improving their lives, making better decisions, and developing healthy habits. By having a guide lead you in the right direction for positive change, people can experience transformative change that seemingly happens overnight.

But what exactly is transformational coaching, and what does it involve? This article will tell you everything you need to know about it.

Keep reading to learn more.

What Is Transformational Coaching?

Most people have heard of a life coach. The truth is transformational coaching shares many similarities with life coaching. In both, coaches work closely with their clients to take the necessary measures to improve their lives and achieve their goals.

However, transformational coaching goes much deeper than life coaching.

In life coaching, coaches will usually focus on changing the habits and behavior of their clients. For example, they’ll help them remove bad habits they may have picked up over their life or teach them how to manage their time more efficiently.

Giving them small building blocks to add to their life can help people make a positive overall change in their life.

Transformational coaching does all of this as well as one extra (huge) job. They change how their clients view themselves. One of the biggest obstacles when it comes to success is often found in self-limiting beliefs, often leading to self-sabotage and a lack of confidence.

Transformational coaches focus on building self-worth in their clients. This makes them more confident so that they understand that they deserve to succeed.

While life coaching focuses on external actions that can bring change, transformational coaching rebuilds a person’s self-worth from the inside, so that they can find motivation from the source of their power and potential.

What Are the Elements of Transformational Coaching?

To help their clients reach their true potential, several fundamental elements are used in transformational coaching.

Let’s take a look at a few of them.

Personalization

One of the biggest advantages of having a wellness coach is that they can give you personalized advice and guidance. Building a strong relationship between coach and client is a crucial role in the process.

Once they learn about the unique situation that the client is in, they can come up with a strategy and advice that suits their needs.

Focus On Growth

To help clients make significant life changes, the coach has to have a deep understanding of what it takes to cultivate a growth mindset. They have to help clients understand how failure is a necessary part of the process and how to stay motivated no matter what obstacles they face.

Even in tough times, they should know how to find growth opportunities and how to progress from it.

Staying On Course For Goals

Life improvement through transformational coaching can only occur if clients stay on track toward their life goals — no matter how long it takes. Every small step and change that they make must be aligned with their goals.

It can be easy to lose focus and direction. Coaches must keep them on the right track until the very end.

Providing Important Resources

Changing one’s life is no small task. It is a complex process that requires many different types of learning. A coach helps guide clients as well as gives them the tools they need to succeed.

Continuity

Transformational coaching is only successful if you can continue with your positive life changes, even after you complete the program. This means getting the learning and tools you need, not falling back into bad habits and thinking patterns.

Different Types of Transformational Coaching Techniques

A complete transformational coaching program has several different things it can teach clients. Some things include:

• Overcoming fears
• Building healthier relationships
• Mastering their mindset
• Understanding how their brain works
• Finding the purpose of their life
• Getting rid of bad habits and building good ones
• Avoiding procrastination and building better discipline
• Learning to tap into a flow state
• Living healthier and having more energy and vitality

To instill these fundamental goals, coaches need to use different techniques to teach them. Let’s take a look at a few of them.

Neuroscience Techniques

Neuroscience refers to the study of the human brain and nervous system. By tapping into real data and studies from neuroscience, transformational coaches can help clients improve their:

• Self-awareness
• Mindfulness
• Optimism
• Resilience
• Motivation
• Optimism
• Critical thinking
• Stress management

This is not an inclusive or exhaustive list. Every person that a coach works with is unique. What may work for one person’s growth may not work for another’s.

To help clients improve through neuroscience, coaches need to explain how the brain works and why certain tools work may or may not work for someone. If they deliver results, they need to be able to prove them scientifically.

To do all of these things, transformational coaches should have a deep understanding of neuroscience.

Positive Psychology Techniques

One relatively recent branch of psychology and philosophy is positive psychology. This approach asks what is going right rather than what is going wrong.

It focuses on something called optimal functioning. This area of study helps people find what things are leading to the most fulfillment in a person’s life and promote and expand on them.

For example, it identifies what strengths and skills the client have that help it thrive. Positive psychologists don’t view human beings as broken machines that are missing something but rather as vessels of potential that can thrive if they utilize the right strengths and skills in the right context.

Motivational Interviewing Techniques

Motivational Interviewing (MI) was originally developed to help treat people with addictions. Recently, it has been adapted to be used in public health and personal development settings as well. This helps patients move through the stages of change.

It is used to:

• Increase self-efficacy
• Enhance intrinsic motivation
• Resolve ambivalence
• Promote confidence in one’s abilities to change their behavior

Motivational interviewing does this by focusing on the person to elicit personal motivation to change. Some strategies that are used to do this are eliciting change talk and reflective listening. It explores their current behavior and how it stands in the way of their life goals.

Cognitive Behavioral Techniques

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a form of psychotherapy. It helps people identify feelings, thoughts, and behaviors that are creating problems in their lives and helps them change them.

CBT is unique when compared to other forms of therapy because it focuses on a holistic view of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors connect and how it affects the person’s worldview. When these are negative, it prevents the client from being able to move forward with their lives.

CBT coaches allow them to unlock these barriers and move toward their goals.

CBT is often combined with MI to help change negative behaviors. With coping strategies, deep discussion, and motivational interviewing principles, a person can identify problems, create a change plan, and motivate themselves to see it through.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) Techniques

Neuro-linguistic programming is a popular approach that was created in the 1970s by John Grinder and Richard Bandler. It focuses on personal development, communication, and psychotherapy.

The overall strategy can be understood from the roots of the name:

• Neuro — related to the nervous system
• Linguistic — related to language
• Programming — referring to habits

When put together, neuro-linguistic programming uses language to help program the nervous system so that we can create better habits.

It functions on the belief that people build their maps of reality. These maps, which are also our worldviews, are filtered by several different elements, including our:

• Senses
• Experiences
• Beliefs
• Neurology

Simply put, the way we see the world is actually the source of many of the challenges in our lives.

With NLP, coaches can use tools that can help clients create:

• Stronger relationships
• Personal change
• Self-motivation

NLP can do these things while allowing them to overcome challenges and blocks that prevented them from reaching their full potential.

Experience Transformational Coaching For Yourself

Now that you understand what transformational coaching is and what it can do for your life, it’s time to take the next step to become the best version of yourself.

If you’re struggling with a situation, a person, or the way you view yourself, you need to create meaningful change. Book a discovery call with Brenda Reiss to see how you can create positive change with transformational coaching today!