Dependency – Do Your Coaching Clients Depend on You Too Much? (Jim Wright)

Episode summary: All coaches recognize that they should be helping their clients become more competent and self-reliant. If the coaching relationship isn’t doing that, it’s very likely that the client will become overly dependent. Coaches can, subconsciously, have an economic incentive to ignore the problem of client dependency, creating a potential conflict of interest. It’s natural for them to want to expand their business, but the best coaches put their clients’ interests first. 

A coach should equip their clients with the skills and confidence to navigate their own journey. But what if your client starts showing signs of dependency, and wants you to tell them what to do and how to do it? What then? 

Melinda Cohan, our senior coach and host, invites Jim Wright, a coach for course creators at Mirasee, to talk about how to recognize and navigate dependency. They’ll discuss what dependency is and is not, and how coaches can establish necessary boundaries.

In this episode we discuss:

What are the indicators or signs that a client might be becoming dependent on you? What are the roots of dependency?What tools can coaches use to help their clients be less dependent? When is enough enough when it comes to dependency? 

“I think as a coach, probably the single biggest gift you can give someone is to let them know that they can do it, that they have that power.” – Jim Wright

Resources or websites mentioned in this episode:

Mirasee Coaches Console 

Guest Coach Bio:
A writer, teacher, coach, and advocate for clarity in communication, Jim joined Mirasee as a course-building coach in 2018.  Through teaching, Jim has been coaching and supporting students for over 20 years, both online and in the classroom. 

An accomplished musician, he has been playing drums and singing in a career that has spanned over 31 years, performing in everything from marching bands and musicals to country and rock bands.

In his spare time, Jim speaks on a variety of topics including online and email marketing, WordPress website design, and search engine optimization. Jim’s hobbies and interests include sailing, chess, audio, and video production, trying to keep his French current, and learning Mandarin Chinese.
 

Jim lives in beautiful Perth, Ontario, Canada, with his wife Cindy and their two children Maxim and Madeleine.

Jim Wright

Credits:

Guest - Jim WrightHost - Melinda CohanProducer - Cynthia LambExecutive producer - Danny InyWriter - Melinda Cohan, Michi Lantz, and Cynthia LambAssembled by - Geoff GovertsenAudio Post Supervisor: Evan Miles, Christopher MartinAudio Post Production by Post Office SoundMusic soundscape: Chad Michael Snavely

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Music and SFX credits: 

Track Title: Clouds

Artist Name(s): Acreage

Writer Name: Marshall Usinger

Publisher Name: BOSS SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONS

Track Title: Coastline Dream

Artist Name(s): Wild Sky

Writer Name: Adam Simons

Publisher Name: BOSS SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONS

Track Title: Coo Coos

Artist Name(s): Dresden, The Flamingo

Writer Name: Matthew Wigton

Publisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION

Track Title: Stars & Trees

Artist Name(s): Outside The Sky

Writer Name: Dustin Ransom

Publisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION

Episode transcript: Dependency - Do Your Clients Depend on You Too Much? (Jim Wright)
[00:00:01] Signature sound: Mirasee

 

[00:00:06] Jim Wright: as we get older we get more and I don't know if it's, you know, societal pressure or peer pressure, but we, we don't want to look like, we don't know what we're doing, we don't like to make mistakes, we don't want to look stupid so that freezes us I think and you just want somebody to give it to you or give you the solution or do it for you.

 

[00:00:32] Melinda Cohan: Hello and welcome to just between coaches, the podcast that tackles difficult coaching conversations. Head on. My name is Melinda Cohen and I run a business called the Coaches Console. The Coaches Console has supported more than 50,000 entrepreneurs and creating their own profitable coaching business.

 

Today we're going to talk about an interesting and important topic, a subject you'll have to dive into if you're a coach or thinking of becoming one, I'm talking about dependency, but first let's define dependency from my perspective. It's the inability to move forward without someone or something being present. Like a coach should equip their clients to navigate themselves on their own journey. Clients shouldn't require me to tell them what to do or how to do it. I actually tell my clients this when they hire me, I say if I do my job at the end of our, let's say, three month agreement, you won't need me anymore, you might need me for a different topic, but you won't need me for this particular topic.

 

And so I start out with the transparency so that they know right out of the gate that this is about empowering them to navigate their life to talk about dependency. Today I've invited Jim Wright. Jim has been helping and supporting clients for 20 years, he has also a coach for course creators at Mirasee.

 

But before I bring Jim: on, I'm going to read an email from a listener that reflects today's topic. As I've said in other e...