Virtual Coaching Tips: How to Make Online Coaching As Effective As In-person Coaching

Learn about the essentials tips and tricks of virtual coaching that you must adopt to make your virtual sessions as effective as an in-person session.

If you are an online coach looking forward to making remarkable strides, one of your major challenges would be making your classes effective so that it has the feel of a one-on-one class. 

When your coaching feels like an in-person coach, you get to save time and make your mark as an effective coach. 

It is a refreshing experience.

You’re probably wondering how to go about it but we wouldn’t be stating your problems if we can’t proffer solutions to them! 

So, this is the right article for you if you are all about making your online coaching extremely effective.

So, let’s run!

Some of the important tips of virtual coaching that you must follow are having the required tools, pre-preparing yourself and the client for the session, asking your client’s consent, building rapport, choosing a private space, being present, keeping track of time, preparing for hitches, and always making a strong ending. 

1. Have The Required Tools

Before you venture into online coaching, you must get all the tools you need. 

Simply put, get the right equipment

This will help you set up your coaching environment and curb the chances of future challenges that may show up otherwise.

You must understand that online coaching is different from in-person coaching. 

As such, you must invest well into it. 

Improving your online coaching means making better investments in your technical tools.

Eye contact is necessary during in-person coaching. 

It shows that you are a part of their feelings at that moment and the same thing goes for online coaching, so, investing in the right tools will go a long way.

As an online coach, your audience is diverse in geography; they are spread out across the world and it is your place to gather them.

When you show up, you must look the part. 

Your home office should be well equipped to enable you to function efficiently. 

The required webcams, monitors, microphones, and even sound systems should all be available. 

These all make your coaching as real as in-person coaching.

You want to avoid any communication barrier which could be present during in-person coaching. 

There shouldn’t be any sort of speech impediment or broken voice or blackouts during your class.

2. Prepare For The Sessions Ahead

There is no class if the coach is not prepared. 

Preparation is key to getting the best out of your coaching sessions

If you want to have those five-star reviews, then you have to earn your stars by preparation.

Preparation helps you stay on top of your game.

How do you prepare? 

What kind of preparations should you make?

One way of preparing ahead is to be in touch with your audience

Remember, you are holding online coaching so emails are arguably the best medium closest to your audience.

If your class is 7 days away, you should take one day to email your students or clients on what they should expect from your class and predict their thoughts and expectations to make them feel involved and important

It is good preparation to email your audience days before the session to keep them updated.

Also, it is advisable to prepare your gadgets’ connectivity so that any future technical glitches could be dealt with and it’s also smart to email them if any comes up. 

Also, it’s wise to have or put some plans in the case of an issue coming up before the session. 

This right here is a proactive coach. 

The goal is to ensure maximum readiness is in place and that you are never caught unaware. 

Another way to prepare ahead of your session is to ensure your coaching is done from a place that is familiar. 

Whatever happens, try to not hold the online coaching in a place that isn’t your office or familiar to you, at least.

This is because you know where the internet is at its strongest and you will not need to be scurrying around trying to stabilize a shaky connection.

You also should check yourself in a mirror or use some video tools to be sure you appear professional for your session.

Also, put some space between you and your screen

It’s psychological but you are perceived as threatening when you are too close to your screen.

You want to make your audience feel comfortable and relaxed to learn from you, so make sure you are close enough, but not too close.

Another very important preparation is to pay attention to your background. 

You want it to be clean, neat, and cool. 

Don’t help your students get distracted

Messy backgrounds are distracting.

3. Prepare Your Client

Many students think online coaching seems daunting and this creates some level of anxiety. 

This happens to most clients and well, they can’t be blamed for it.

One way to deal with this problem is to actively engage them and have them share their previous online experiences with you – if any – and then you can find a way to assure them of the best experience with you and set their minds at ease.

Let them have a glimpse of how different your coaching with them is going to be. 

It is advisable to have them in a one-on-one meeting as this not only makes your coaching effective but lets them know that you care.

Try to make them feel at home, both with your tone and your promises.

Also, let them in on the tools you will be employing and get them familiarized with them before or in the course of the session.

If they are not already used to the tools you’re using, take time to educate them on the tools and how important this is to their learning and desired change or transformation. 

Remember, this is why they signed up with you in the first place.

Also, encourage them to come to each session with their writing materials as taking notes using writing tools is a great way to increase focus during coaching sessions.

4. Ask How They Would Want To Connect

It’s quite easy as a coach to get carried away and believe everything is entirely up to you. 

But what happens when your preference is a video call and your client prefers an audio call?

In online coaching, it is important to make a long-lasting impression on your client through your coaching, but what’s more important is making sure that you are both on the same page. 

Simply put, you should both arrive at a situation that is suitable for you and the client.

Ensure that you and your clients choose what is right for the situation at the very beginning. 

You mustn’t force them into what they do not want because you feel it’s okay for the coach to do that.

So, whether video calls, phone calls, or even emails, the idea is to find that medium that gives a sense of immediate connection between you and your client.

5. Build Rapport By Connecting Via Video

A great way to feel another person’s presence during an online meeting is seeing their face as well as their gestures during the session.

This is exactly what a video call does: builds rapport between your client and you.

It is highly recommended to connect with your client via video and not just audio or text. 

This is because seeing the face of your client goes a long way to establish and builds great rapport as you get to share an understanding of what is going on between you two.

The internet has done us a great deal of good in this regard. 

With the internet, we have easy accessibility to various platforms where we can connect through video.

You have a host of platforms for this purpose: Zoom, FaceTime, WhatsApp, Skype, and a whole lot more.

Also, establishing rapport over a laptop screen goes farther than what a phone screen can do.

Of course, rapport can still be created via the phone screen, but unlike the laptop, it can be limited because of its size.

6. Choose A Private Space

Appearance matters a lot and can make a lasting impression, no matter the kind. 

In the same way, the physical setting of your class speaks volumes and knowing this will help you decide whether or not your coaching would be successful. 

An important thing to look out for when choosing a space for your coaching class is to find a place that allows for both privacy and minimum distraction. 

This could be in your reserved bedroom or your backyard if it’s a lot quiet there or you could even use your lobby.

The goal is to have privacy and avoid any distractions.

7. Apply Similar Techniques With Face To Face Coaching

You shouldn’t get caught up with your online coaching that you forget how it applies to physical coaching as well.

Applying most face-to-face techniques can make all the difference to making your online coaching as effective as in-person coaching. 

So, this means you can move around with your laptop or have some gesticulations here and there, as well as maintaining eye contact.

Another technique is to use the personal belongings of clients to create illustrations or drive home some of your points. 

Belongings could range from bags to food to their clothes and so on. 

In this sense, there is a feeling of home and this gives access to maximize the full potential of your session.

8. Be Present

There’s probably nothing else as important as this. 

When you are having an online class, you just have to be there, at the moment!

The key to effective coaching is your ability to be focused.

As easy as this seems, it can be a huge task since we are prone to multitask during online sessions.

You do not want to lose your clients because of a slight distraction or lack of focus. 

Try to be there. 

Minimize the multitasking to the barest minimum. 

You can do this by putting everything you need in place before you begin. 

9. Keep Track of Time

As a coach, it is important to track time during online sessions, as a coach. 

It’s commonplace to see coaches lose track of time and try to hurry through what’s left of the session. 

But you are not that coach.

You are a proactive coach, and proactive coaches set reminders to help them follow through the allotted time for each point, stop where they need to, and transit into the next point.

Sure, it can be hard to determine where the conversation ends as they can span wider and longer for in-person sessions, but this is why keeping track helps a great deal.

 10. Prepare For Possible Hitches

It is important to always have backup plans in case the primary one fails. 

For instance, in the case of a switch in devices, you should be in touch with your client to alert them of the change. 

Even external interruptions as loud noises should be taken into consideration and planned for in the course of the session.

Distraction could come from family or pets and sometimes, this seems unavoidable, but you can walk around it if you plan with that in mind.

An inevitable hitch could be internet connectivity. 

It is recommended that you get more than one internet-ready as the best way to deal with this hitch.

If you try all these and still experience some glitches, you could leave the session and try to reconnect with another or the same internet and summarize your previous teachings before embarking on another lesson to help deepen your client’s reflections.

11. Finish Strong

Online coaching classes are expected to make a meaningful and valuable impact on clients, so making sure it meets and exceeds such expectations placed on it is key. 

One way is to ensure this is by making sure you finish strong.

This includes allowing time between the end of the current session and a future one as there would be space to accommodate reflections and questions on the lessons both for your client and you. 

Also, do well to ask for feedback of any kind

This helps you become a better coach both for your clients and you. 

Conclusion

We hope you found this article helpful.

Let us know in the comments below.

Good luck!

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