What To Do When My Client Keeps Asking Me For Suggestions

Question –  How should I handle clients who keep asking me for suggestions?

Jennifer – If your client is asking you for suggestions, it may be because you haven’t done a good enough job clarifying their role and responsibilities and your role and responsibilities within the coaching relationship. So check yourself and make sure you're doing a good job letting your clients know that you're not there to give suggestions. 

However, if you did do a good job clarifying roles within the coaching sessions, then you may simply need to remind your client that they are fully resourceful and have all the best answers inside them. So it's a good strategy to just flip it around and ask them what “their” best answer is to the suggestion they are looking for. 

If after you bounce it back to your client and they still are asking for suggestions, then you need to coach that client on this issue. What is it that leads them to seek external guidance? What's that about? In this case you might try a question like, “So I've noticed you keep asking for my opinion. What is it the makes you seek answers more from the outside rather than from what is inside you?"  So it's a very good coachable moment and may bring a new level of self-awareness to your client.