There are several ways the value you offer through coaching or consultancy can be life changing. This first one is where you provide hope.
What Does it Mean to Provide Hope?
According to Bain, when you provide hope, you offer something to be optimistic about. So, a business that provides dietary supplements offers hope for a healthier body.
It is worth looking a little closer. Hope is a theological word and has a specific meaning. It is often grouped with faith and love; the three great virtues.
So, what is it? It’s common to see hope as a pietistic belief in heaven; that everything will somehow pan out for the best. Hope is more active than simply “hoping for the best”.
I think of it this way:
- Faith is the way we perceive the world around us (not belief in a specific doctrinal system)
- Hope is the steps we take towards a better future for ourselves and others
- Love are the specific actions we take in response to the needs of others.
So, hope is strategic; commitment to a course of action. There is some risk involved. We cannot know our course of action will be successful unless we set out.
Hope is the entrepreneurial virtue!
Value for the Client
It is hard to generalise but the basic idea is to help the client find a route to something they need. The implication is something is at stake.
If you help your clients acquire a new skill, for example, you do not provide hope unless that skill is on route to a life change the client needs. Indeed the client might approach you because they have hope!
How to Get There
So, you provide hope when you teach not only a skill but also help the client work out how to use the skill to reach a life-changing goal.
Hope is not an instant return on investment. It is a change to the way the client approaches the world. They may need to change the way they perceive the world as well as find the path they need to make the change they need.
Your Offer
So, don’t claim this value unless you offer the opportunity for real change in your client’s life. It may involve helping the client acquire new skills but simply teaching a skill is not in itself a way to provide hope.
I coach in marketing and some of my clients have changed what they offer as a result of my coaching because they see a new opportunity. Sometimes this amounts to a completely new direction and that is when I know I have provided hope.
Neither I nor my client can be certain their new road will be successful but making that decision to try the road is a sign of hope.
This is the third of 31 posts about elements of value. Make sure you don’t miss any by signing up for the offer below. The posts in this sequence can be accessed below:
- Social impact Self-transcendence
- Life Changing Provide hope
next Self-Actualisation
+ 3 more elements
-
Emotional 10 elements
-
Functional 14 elements
