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Increasing Your Intuition (for Coaches!)

www.BecomeARealCoach.com

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Glenn Livingston, Ph.D.

FREE BOOK Increasing Your

Intuition with Your Coaching Clients

Sharon Livingston, Ph.D.

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Originally trained as a psychologist, Dr. Glenn Livingston has helped literally thousands of clients. Along with his wife Sharon, he’s sold consulting, teambuilding, and workshops to big names like AT&T, Nextel, Panasonic, Whirlpool, Novartis, Lipton, Colgate-Palmolive, Kraft, and Panasonic. Their work, research, and theories have been seen in major media publications like The New York Times, Entrepreneur Magazine, Crain’s NY Business, AdWeek, America West, and more!

"According to Our Students We Run One of the Most Powerful

Certification Programs for Coaches Who Want to Grow a Thriving

Practice...And Now You Can TEST-DRIVE It for a $25 One Time

Payment!”

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Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 4

What is intuition? ............................................................................................................. 4

Where intuition comes from ............................................................................................ 5

Why we blow off our intuition .......................................................................................... 7

How can you measure your intuitive ability? ................................................................... 8

When should you act on your intuition? .......................................................................... 8

What makes intuition go wrong? ..................................................................................... 9

Developing your intuition ............................................................................................... 10

Create........................................................................................................................ 10

Meditate..................................................................................................................... 10

Listen to your body .................................................................................................... 10

Practice spontaneity .................................................................................................. 11

Pay attention to your media ....................................................................................... 11

Practice presence ...................................................................................................... 11

Get regular exercise .................................................................................................. 11

Journal....................................................................................................................... 11

Get outdoors .............................................................................................................. 12

Pay attention to your dreams ..................................................................................... 12

Take a hot shower ..................................................................................................... 12

Turn off the analytical side ......................................................................................... 12

How to use intuition in your coaching practice .............................................................. 13

Learn to relax with your clients .................................................................................. 13

Avoid distractions ...................................................................................................... 13

Let it keep .................................................................................................................. 13

Get permission from your clients ............................................................................... 14

How to tell if you're on target ..................................................................................... 14

Teach your clients to be more intuitive ...................................................................... 15

Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 15

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Introduction Everybody has some level of intuition. Although some of us don't trust those gut feelings we get about

people and situations, we can learn to. I've found that intuition can be a very helpful tool in a coaching

practice. Sometimes listening to your gut can give you that "aha" insight that you need to help a client

solve a baffling problem. Intuition may be one of the most powerful but little-used tools in a coach's

skill set.

Intuitive ability can vary greatly from person to person. But even the most intuitive people practice

behaviors that help them cultivate their abilities. Anyone can improve their intuition, and I'll give you

some tips how to do it in this book.

Find out how you can harness the power we all have within us to help your clients overcome

obstacles to reaching their goals. You may want to help your clients develop their intuition, too. It's

another tool we can all use to achieve what we want out of life.

So let's get in touch with your sixth sense and see how it improves your coaching practice, OK!?

What is intuition? Intuition is a feeling about something (or someone) which is instinctive and sometimes beyond

reason. We experience intuition as a hunch, which can appear to come completely out of the blue.

Sometimes it feels irrational or even crazy. But it's probably one of the oldest survival instincts

humans ever developed.

Often we experience an intuitive feeling almost like a fire alarm. It's the feeling you get when you're

walking down a street you've traveled hundreds of times and you get the feeling something isn't right.

Like that reoccurring thought Mom’s often report that something’s going on with their child… a

thought they just can't shake.

Now, some people get intuition mixed up with being psychic or having other similar abilities. There’s

nothing supernatural about intuition. It’s just that part of our everyday thinking and feeling we tend

ignore.

Intuition is unconscious reasoning.

About 15 years ago, a psychologist named Gavin de Becker wrote a book called The Gift of Fear. In it

he discovered a propensity for people to get hurt or even killed when they ignored their gut feelings

about important situations. Not surprisingly Becker believes intuition plays a huge role in personal

safety… a role most of us tend to minimize.

I think this too!

There’s a classic argument between a Freudian and Jungian psychologist which perhaps illustrates

the point:

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Freudian: “My patient reported a dream about descending the creaky stairs to her basement,

and falling through one of the steps which was broken. She’s obviously having fears about

experiencing her bodily impulses more fully, since the house almost always represents the

body in dreams… and she’s probably frightened she’s going to have a breakdown if she

descends any ‘deeper’ into this”

Jungian: “Maybe. But first you’d better tell her to check the stairs in her actual house!”

The Jungian therapist knew what the Freudian didn’t: Not every weird thought, image, or feeling we

have is symbolic. Sometimes it’s just our unconscious reasoning and awareness trying to draw our

attention to something real and important in our lives!

Where intuition comes from Despite the way we experience it, intuition probably never comes out of the clear blue sky. At least

not completely. See, every day we take in WAY more information than we ever hope to consciously

process, and so we’ve evolved this ability to work on categorizing, storing, and using the information

without necessarily “thinking” about it. It’s only when the conclusions the unconscious mind is

reaching become particularly salient that this information begins to rise to our awareness.

In other words, you actually know stuff which you don’t know you know until it becomes

important enough to get forced into consciousness.

Maybe the reason you checked your tire right before it was about to blow out was because you

actually heard a noise on the highway while you were driving—but that didn't “register” in your

awareness.

Or maybe you decided to get someone to walk you to your car on a dark night because you

subconsciously noticed the hedges around the sidewalks had grown high enough to cover a predator.

Or you run back to the house because you just “feel” that you might have forgotten to secure the lock

on the backyard gate when you took the garbage out.

The thing of it is… you don't actually consciously think these thoughts. Because if you did, you

wouldn’t have enough time in the day to take care of everything else you need to do just to survive!

So it’s not like you say to yourself: "Wow, Glenn. You forgot to put the lock back on the backyard

gate when you took the garbage out." Part of your mind realizes that you did forget to put the lock

back, and your intuition tells you to go check the lock.

Try this experiment: When was the last time you said to somebody "Now that I think about it…???"

That’s an example of something which likely took your unconscious hours, days or even weeks to

process… but it’s only now that you really have the NEED for the information. When you have the

need, your brain processes and presents you with just as much as it thinks it will take for you to take

the necessary action. It’s doing you a favor and conserving your energy and attention for other

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pursuits by “background processing” everything to that point. (I hope that you’re starting to

understand there is an evolutionary survival value in this type of processing)

The vast majority of intuition comes from unconsciously recognized patterns. Most of the time these

patterns simply never register.

Here’s a VERY intriguing study which proves the point…

Psychologists who wanted to learn about intuition had people pick cards from three decks and place

a “bet” on them. Each deck was stacked in a complicated pattern which would be very hard to

articulate…

After just 14 cards, a statistically significant number of people had unconsciously figured out when to

bet on a winning card based on each deck's particular pattern…

And get this: Almost EVERYONE had figured it out after 24 cards!

So intuition clearly can be a type of unconscious pattern recognition.

Another not-so-mysterious place intuition comes from is memory. We may not be conscious about

memories that trigger our intuition, but they affect us just the same. A friend of mine adopted a dog 10

years ago from a shelter. The poor dog had been at the shelter for three years.

During a hurricane at the shelter, the tin roof on the dog's run blew off and fell on top of her, cutting

her rump. Thankfully, it was a minor injury requiring just a couple of stitches. It's very unlikely my

friend's dog remembers the hurricane 10 years later. But she intuitively seeks out her human when it

is storming outside. That's the way intuition works. You can’t explain it, you’ve just got “a bad feeling”

about certain kinds of events and develop some type of compensatory behavior.

So intuition can also be a type of unconscious memory recall.

Sometimes experience fuels our intuition too.

Because when we've had enough experience to know more than the average bear in a particular

area, we get gut feelings based on this know-how.

For example, a friend of mine used to be the television editor at a daily newspaper. The company

which provided the TV listings for this paper was always late getting the data to her. One week, she

got two sets of data, delivered within hours of each other. Her editor told her to go with the second

set…

But my friend knew in her gut it was the first set they should use. The second set was incorrect and—

because the boss forced her to use the second one—they had to reprint the whole TV section.

See, my friend knew every once in a while the company produced listings early. And this was one of

those times. That’s why she had that queasy feeling in her gut.

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Finally, for many, there's also a spiritual component to intuition. Some people refer to the still,

small voice inside them that speaks the truth. Others believe God is speaking to them directly, giving

them insight.

Oh, one more thing, and it’s very important: You can—and often will—have intuition about POSITIVE

events too!

We naturally pay more attention when our guts tell us our next-door neighbor is a psychopath

because, well, I guess nobody really wants to be someone crazy person’s dinner!

But if you pay attention to ALL or most of your intuitions, you'll become sensitive to very positive

feelings too. Have you ever fallen in love at first sight…or met somebody and knew they would

become one of your closest friends? That's POSITIVE intuition at work!

No matter where intuition comes from or how we experience it, Gavin de Becker is right. Because

we require factual input to make decisions in our lives, we tend to dismiss our intuition as

unreasonable. But sometimes—especially when reason doesn't seem to be yielding a solution—your

intuition has already solved the problem if you’ll only “tune in” and give it the credence it is due.

But, because our culture puts way more value on facts, figures and statements of fact, we tend to

blow off our intuition as unreliable. And while nobody’s intuition is reliable 100 percent of the time,

neither are facts and figures!

Why we blow off our intuition The reality is most people are pretty leery of using their intuition—even though they’ll tell you

otherwise. You can’t help it… you were raised in a society where you were taught to look for the

RIGHT answer and JUSTIFY IT WITH LOGICAL REASONING. Moreover, most of us have had the

experience of being humiliated in the classroom during our school years if and when we couldn’t

defend our answers in the manner above.

So is it any wonder we’re all worried our guts might be wrong, or that others may think us eccentric

for relying on what appear to be random feelings?

See, centuries ago our species decided reason was one of the primary things which separated

human beings from animals…and that using reason rather than our instinct was a more reliable way

of making decisions. (Which is true—but only up to a point as described above)

When society crossed this threshold many humans pretty much learned to ignore their natural

"animalistic" intuitive abilities—except for some very specific areas of life. For example, it’s always

been socially acceptable for mothers to claim intuition with their infants and toddlers.

Mothering is a socially acceptable area to rely on instinct…

But it’s not socially acceptable to decide whether to sell your company based on a hunch. That's only

OK after 15 feasibility studies and a vote of 23 members of a board of directors!

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Now, I’m definitely NOT saying you should make important decisions solely based on hunches. What

I advocate for important decisions is taking your intuition a LOT more seriously, as one critical data

point amongst many in weighing your decision! This, as opposed to relying solely upon reason, facts,

and figures.

The best decisions are made with both reason and intuition. Humans have both, so why not

use everything we've got to reach our goals?

How can you measure your intuitive ability? Just a reminder … everybody has some intuitive ability. You may have more than everybody else but

be simply ignoring this vast resource. Others have some ability and rely on it to the point of

unreasonableness. Most of us are right there in the middle.

The internet is awash with tests that say they measure your intuitive ability. Most of them focus on

whether you pay attention to clues your body gives you, like sweaty palms or a sick feeling in your

stomach.

One of the best tests to measure intuitive ability is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. This test is used

by psychotherapists, corporations and more to determine personality types. The test compares your

reliance on Intuition vs Reasoning (called “sensing” in their nomenclature)

I like the Myers-Briggs because everybody uses at least a tiny bit of intuition in their daily lives and

everybody uses some sensing or factual information. The test shows which decision-making method

you are more comfortable with.

By the way, my wife sells a downloadable video course on using Myers-Briggs Personality Type to

build faster rapport and get better results and referrals in coaching. You can read more about that

here.

When should you act on your intuition? Paying attention to your intuition and acting on it are two different things. Just because you have a

hunch about something doesn't mean you should automatically act on it. Your intuition is just more

data that you need to consider before you make a decision.

Of course, if your intuition is screaming at you that you shouldn't be left alone with the creepy cable

guy, follow your gut. You aren't going to lose anything by protecting yourself. If you feel an instant

connection with someone you meet and you're single, it’s probably a decent idea to ask the person

out on a date. The worst thing that can happen is you get turned down.

Besides risk, here are some other things you should consider before you act on your intuition:

Am I running away from something by making this choice?

Am I making this choice out of fear or shame?

Am I doing this because I need to be in control?

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If I had a million dollars in the bank would I be doing this?

Am I basing this solely on past experience?

Does this choice make me feel positive about my life?

It's a good idea to run your intuitive thoughts past a person you trust. Be sure to gather all the data

you can before you make an important decision based on a gut feeling.

Don't be afraid of trusting your intuition, but don't trust it completely, either. You'll be right more than

you thought you'd be, but you won't be right all the time.

What makes intuition go wrong? A variety of effects can skew your intuition. That's why it's important to use it in conjunction with

reason. Here are some of the reasons why intuition isn't always correct:

Bad data. Unconscious reasoning (intuition) is subject to the pitfalls of bad data too. Just like

with conscious thinking, it’s entirely possible to proceed logically from a false premise with your

intuition too. And when this happens you reach a false conclusion which seems to make

perfect sense. Remember: The best minds in the world thought the world was flat for

centuries. They believed because the world was flat, it was too dangerous to sail too far in one

direction… a perfectly logical conclusion IF the world was indeed flat. If you don't have the

facts right you can make a mistake with your reasoning whether you thought it through

consciously (like in school) or unconsciously (with your intuition.) So definitely pay attention to

your intuition… but check your facts before you act.

Limited options. Sometimes intuition on its own limits your options. For example, if you are

basing your opinion of a new product on a pattern you intuitively perceive, that pattern itself

might be boxing you in. Many of you know I have previously run an advertising agency. I

recall an ad-test I was supervising in which I was immediately and intuitively SURE the

problem was a lack of proof at the top of the page. I strongly recommended the client add a

half dozen testimonials at the top, which promptly cut sales in half. What did my intuition

miss? The pattern I was intuitively basing the insight on came from hundreds of tests I’d seen

in a paid environment where the prospects were already expecting to see advertising…this

particular client was selling to people who were just reading a blog. The testimonials

immediately said “sales” to them and turned them off. My intuition led me astray. Your opinion

may need more light than your perceived pattern can shed on the subject. The question to ask

yourself to avoid this intuitive error is “am I basing this insight on a pattern in a similar

environment or is there something different about this case?”

Overconfidence. Your killer instincts are almost always right, but not 100 percent of the time.

You may have great intuition may be great in your personal life but suck in your professional

endeavors. If you are making an intuitive decision about something you don't know much

about you may want to reconsider and get some facts to back up your hunch.

Emotions. If you just had a blow-up with your spouse or your dog died, your intuition probably

won't be as accurate. Sometimes intuitive decisions are hindered by emotions that aren't

related to the matter at all. So if you’re tired, stressed out or upset, make an extra effort to

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check out the facts before you decide. Better yet, get some sleep and take up the decision at

a later time.

Personal prejudices. Even though feelings are a huge part of intuition, some experiences

affect us so greatly they wind up distorting our ability to intuitively perceive the truth. Maybe

you had a bad experience at the dentist and have a difficult time making a dental appointment.

Your intuition that you may have something wrong with your teeth could be overshadowed by

that negative experience. You’d be prone to believing everything was fine in order to avoid

having to confront the dental situation again.

Developing your intuition Before you start using your intuition in your practice, you’ll need to start using it more regularly in your

daily life. And even if you do already, it's a good idea to practice some techniques to keep your

intuition sharp.

Create Most people who are highly intuitive are creators. They are involved in the arts, write, or do some sort

of hobby or work that allows them to express themselves. Try writing a poem, composing a painting

or creating a web site from scratch. Creating opens up the mind to different ideas and uses a different

part of the brain that stimulates thoughts that aren't always based on reason. Creativity is a kind of

“divergent thinking” which allows for more than one right answer and constantly seeks possibilities—

as contrasted with “convergent thinking” which seeks ONE answer of the kind you could raise your

hand in school and be recognized as correct.

Here’s a simple exercise: Give yourself three minutes to list EVERY possible use you can think of for

a paper clip. Resist stopping at the normal uses.

The number of items you can list is a measure researchers call “ideational fluency” and is the most

accurate measure of creativity there is. And it can be significantly improved by simply giving yourself

the instructions to “be creative”…

So work on your “ideational fluency” by periodically picking random items around the house and going

through this exercise. What are all the uses I can list in three minutes for a paper cup? A telephone?

My dog? (I’m not kidding!)

Meditate Since many people believe intuition is aided by their spiritual nature, prayer and meditation are tools

intuitive people often use to sharpen their skills. Meditation is a skill anybody can learn to help

improve their stress levels. It stops the constant chatter in your head. It gives you space to be still

and quiet – a state when intuitive people have realizations and can listen to their unconscious selves

talking.

Listen to your body One of the basic ways to learn to trust your instincts more is to listen to your body. Does thinking

about something make you feel “sick” deep in the pit of your stomach? Does your heart race when

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you consider a certain course of action? Spend some time determining why your body responds the

way it does in certain situations. Try to correlate it to what you were thinking, saying, or doing

beforehand. Before long, you'll be able to tell which of these responses deserve the most attention.

Practice spontaneity You don't have to go every direction the wind blows you, but at least periodically try to do something

spontaneous. Pay attention to your feelings when you do something on the spur of the moment.

Pay attention to your media Sometimes a movie, a book or a song will trigger some intuitive thoughts. Maybe the song you heard

reminded you of the summer you went to camp when you were a kid. You'd forgotten all about a

cabin mate who initially seemed stuck up, but turned out after a few days to clearly just be shy.

Suddenly you realize your boss is like that cabin mate.

Or maybe you're reading a book and a sentence leaps out at you. Even if you can't make a

connection to the information that touches you, remember it and how you feel. It may come in handy

later! (It’s helpful to keep a notepad with you at all times for a while to jot down these thoughts)

Practice presence Dwelling on the past and the future is where many of us live most of the time. Plus, we take ourselves

anywhere-but-the-present with our constant worrying and plan making. And our society actually

values multi-tasking despite all the research which proves it’s completely ineffective.

Being present is shoving all of that stuff out of your head and being in the now.

It’s a gift which allows you the awareness of others and the world around you.

See, when you’re pondering what you’re going to do later in the day, or thinking about a great client

session from the day before, you’re actually missing what’s going on right in front of your nose.

Distractions keep us from noticing things going on around us and in our bodies. Which is why

practicing presence is essential to developing your intuition. It will help you become a MUCH better

coach.

Get regular exercise Yes, exercise even helps you develop intuition. Getting and staying active gets us in touch with our

bodies. And being aware of what are bodies feel is essential for our intuition. Our bodies are ground

zero. They give us signals about situations and other people, one of the key elements in intuition.

Journal Writing down what we think and feel in black and white is an excellent way to start trusting your

intuition. You’ll see patterns and insights when you re-read what you wrote. It will become clear in

print when going with your intuition worked for you vs. when it didn't.

Journaling can also help you begin to identify how you personally experience intuition both mentally

and physically.

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Get outdoors We spend so much time cooped in our homes and offices that getting out in nature is critical not only

to developing our intuition, but also good for us mentally, emotionally and physically. The guy who

first said, "You've got to stop and smell the roses" wasn't kidding. We need to literally stop what we're

doing and experience the life growing around us.

As a hobby, I hike. It's amazing to me how many times an idea will come to me out of the blue while

I'm in the woods. I often find a simple answer to a problem I've been dwelling on for days because of

something I see or experience on a mountain trail. For example:

It’s inevitable to find unplanned obstacles on the trail and have to find a way around them.

Often as I’m doing this I find my mind intuitively discovers a way around an obstacle I’m facing

at work, too…

Hiking is a lot easier when you follow pre-made paths people have carved out before you. It

might take a bunch of work to get to the top, but at least you know if you put one foot in front of

the other and stay on the trail, you’re going to get there! Having this experience again and

again reminds me to seek help from people who know more than me, have done what I want

to do, and been where I want to go. (It’s SO easy to forget this in our narcissistic world!)

Intuition is part of our nature, and when observe the instincts of birds, squirrels, and even

insects protecting them from harm, it subtly reinforces the value of our instincts, too.

Pay attention to your dreams Everybody has dreams while they're sleeping whether they remember them or not. Dreams are our

unconscious mind’s way of working out things that are puzzling or troubling us. Intuition frequently

manifests itself in our dream life. (Note: If you don’t remember your dreams, place a pad and pencil

by the side of your bed and just write down the first thoughts you have when you wake up in the

morning. It won’t be long until that leads you to dream fragments… and then to full dreams)

Take a hot shower Amazingly enough, many creative people get struck with inspiration in the shower, and intuition

strikes there, too. Why? Because the experience of detoxifying and cleansing relaxes us both

physically and mentally. That steamy stream of water not only opens our pores, it opens our minds

too! And a relaxed mind is one of the most important keys to developing your intuition. If we are

mentally weary, we're liable to dismiss your intuitive insights as mere “brain chatter.”

Learn how to turn your analytical side on and off at will Play an imaginary game with your kids or find a quiet place where you can just be. We quite naturally

analyze and judge people, information, and things all day long. When we stop thinking about what's

good or bad, or whether we should take that new position opening up at work, we give our mind the

space to be creative and to bring those subconscious notions we've been kicking around in our head

into our consciousness.

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The above are the most common ways to develop your intuition. You’ll almost certainly find some of

them help you more than others. Try a few and see how it goes!

How to use intuition in your coaching practice Odds are you are already using intuition in your coaching practice, you just don’t know it. For

example, if you have a face to face practice, your intuition is unconsciously picking up on your client’s

body language. Even if you try to do it all consciously, there’s just too much to process. Millions of

years of evolution takes over and tells you on a very gut level what’s going on with the person in front

of you.

And even when you can’t see them, your intuition is constantly analyzing your clients voice, inflection,

pauses, volume, stuttering or lack thereof, redundant words, emotional tone, and more.

So start with the simple instruction to pay a little more attention to your clients’ body language and

voice patterns.

Learn to relax with your clients Some coaches, especially if they are new to the field, are brimming with excitement, new ideas and

techniques to help their clients. In addition to this excitement, most coaches may feel a certain level

of anxiety about their sessions.

While anxiety is perfectly normal for a new coach, it can crowd out your intuition. So you’ll want to

take steps to relax your mind before a session. Even just a few minutes to meditate, journal, do your

affirmations, pray, or whatever other constructive activity lifts you up and inspires you will help. And

for this reason, it’s essential you leave yourself enough time between session to take self-care

breaks. (Coaches who schedule clients back to back without at least 15 minutes in between, in my

experience, don’t have as fulfilling or successful a practice for this reason)

Avoid distractions It's hard to be present to your client when you are thinking about the last one, checking for an

important email, or simply not feeling well. All of these things are distractions which keep us from

being in the moment. When you remain fully present for your clients, you'll hear most of what they

say, which dramatically increases the odds of having an intuitive insight.

Let it keep Sometimes it's difficult keeping a hunch to yourself, especially if you are sure you’ve got THE answer

to your client's problem! But unless it is something that is time-sensitive, it might be a good idea to

keep it to yourself for a session or two, sometimes longer if the client isn't ready to hear it. Before you

tell your client about your intuitive thought, ponder it between sessions. At the next session, ask some

questions that may give you more clarity about your hunch. If the information your client gives you

reinforces your hunch, tell your client about it.

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But please note this is not a hard and fast rule. Especially as you gain more experience using and

communicating your intuitive hunches, and especially as you get to know any particular client over

time, you’ll find less time is necessary before presenting your insights.

But in the beginning, letting it keep is usually the more effective route!

Get permission from your clients Before you share your intuitive thoughts with your clients, you may consider asking them if it's OK.

Most clients will appreciate getting a little extra insight. If it's not your style to be so direct, just clarify

your notion is based on your intuition. You might say something like, "I have a hunch maybe the

reason you’re having a problem with your boss is because you’re still angry he got promoted over

you. Do you think that could be some of the problem?"

Notice that I ended what I said about the intuitive thought with a question. And I didn’t 100% assume I

was right. Because it’s not really possible to get 100% inside someone else’s head, it’s not ever

possible to be 100% on target with your intuition. The best we can ever offer another human being is

our best empathic guess…

But that’s a LOT!

After you've told a client your hunch, always pause for their reaction and see what they think. Was it

on target? Allow for the clients to modify your insights to their liking.

Most clients will tell you the truth, so you should generally take their reactions at face value. But

sometimes clients may not be ready to face what you've intuited. Because they are in denial they may

not believe your hunch is right.

This is very difficult for new coaches to understand. As a new coach, we really live for those “Aha!”

reactions from clients. They validate our thinking and make us feel worthwhile as coaches. But the

truth is, the bigger insights are usually about things which are harder to change for the client… things

they are more thoroughly defended against seeing.

What this means is, a lot of your BIG intuitive insights may be met with a luke-warm reaction at first.

The more important the insight is, the more time it may take your clients to integrate, appreciate, and

act on it.

So your “reward” as a coach needs to be setting the process in motion and NOT that “Aha!”

moment. And you won’t be able to recognize the signs of this until it’s happened a few times.

But if you allow for the client’s genuine reaction and encourage them to explore it, you WILL

have set the process in motion. Read this sentence again please… it’s really critical for your

success.

How to tell if you're on target If your client is ready to hear what your hunch is, you'll be able to tell your intuition was on target

because their resistance to achieving their goal starts to go away. Everything starts to get a little

easier for them…including the sessions themselves. Your client will feel less "stuck," and you'll both

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have ideas about how to take action to solve the problem or take the next step in helping the client

achieve her goals. Both you and your client will feel right about the hunch.

Teach your clients to be more intuitive Everybody can benefit from getting in touch with their intuitive side. Work with your client using some

of the tools listed previously to help them begin to trust their gut instinct.

It's a good idea to set up the right kind of environment for your clients if you are planning to teach

them techniques to improve their intuition. I know some coaches who engage the creative side of the

brain using guided imagery. Others spend a few minutes before starting each coaching session by

meditating together.

I personally teach my clients to take 10 minutes of quiet, reflective, alone time before their sessions—

and—15 minutes afterwards. This provides a kind of “warm up” and “cool down” space which allows

for the session work to be more intense and intuition stimulating. It’s a space for daydreams, which is

where intuition LOVES to rear its pretty little head!

Conclusion Intuition can be a powerful tool in your coaching practice. It's important to prepare and stay on top of

your game by practicing some tools to keep your intuitive skills sharp.

I have a gut feeling that many of you, after reading this book, will start learning to trust your own

instincts more and will teach your clients to give their intuition a chance, as well!

PASS IT ON: Although this is a copyrighted book, you are free to copy

and distribute it provided (a) you don’t charge for it; (b) you don’t

change anything; (c) you leave all links intact.

www.BecomeARealCoach.com

16

Glenn Livingston, Ph.D.

FREE BOOK Increasing Your

Intuition with Your Coaching Clients

Sharon Livingston, Ph.D.

c

Originally trained as a psychologist, Dr. Glenn Livingston has helped literally thousands of clients. Along with his wife Sharon, he’s sold consulting, teambuilding, and workshops to big names like AT&T, Nextel, Panasonic, Whirlpool, Novartis, Lipton, Colgate-Palmolive, Kraft, and Panasonic. Their work, research, and theories have been seen in major media publications like The New York Times, Entrepreneur Magazine, Crain’s NY Business, AdWeek, America West, and more!

"According to Our Students We Run One of the Most Powerful

Certification Programs for Coaches Who Want to Grow a Thriving

Practice...And Now You Can TEST-DRIVE It for a $25 One Time

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