This blog post explores using advanced AI technology, specifically ChatGPT, as a virtual coaching tool. The post provides insight into how to use ChatGPT effectively as a coach, what to consider when working with this technology, and how to apply the International Coach Federation's core competencies to communicate with ChatGPT.

Readers can also learn how to use ChatGPT to generate powerful coaching questions and explore personal growth and development. Finally, the post offers a CTA to learn more about coaching techniques with the 8-week innovation Coach Training program.

Coaching with ChatGPT: 6 things you should know.

Coaches play an essential role in the development of individuals. With the help of advanced AI technology, such as ChatGPT, you can now have a virtual coach to assist you in your coaching practice or explore your thoughts, beliefs, and values.

You need to know some fundamentals to successfully use ChatGPT as a coach for yourself and your clients.

It's a great benefit in using ChatGPT since it cannot provide personal advice or make predictions about the future, which is in the playbook for coaches. A Master Coach (should) never offer advice, suggest solutions, or forecast the outcome to their clients.

To get the most out of this technology, it is crucial to understand the limitations and the best practices when working with ChatGPT.

1. ChatGPT is a machine learning model, and its responses are based on patterns and associations that it has learned from its training data. Therefore, some answers may not always be perfect and align with your expectations.
2. ChatGPT's training data is based on text from the internet, which may include inaccurate, biased, or out-of-date information. Therefore, verifying any information with additional sources is always a good idea.
3. ChatGPT cannot provide any personal advice or make predictions about your future.
4. ChatGPT cannot answer questions that are too specific, too general, or not well-formed. Therefore, you must learn and practice to clarify your questions and provide context.
5. ChatGPT cannot perform tasks requiring physical actions or give access to the internet outside of providing information.
6. Finally, remember that ChatGPT is a machine, a robot, and there are limits to what it can understand and express.

A winning formula is to treat ChatGPT like a professional coach treats their coaching clients.

Treat ChatGPT as a Coaching Client.

ChatGPT is like a coaching client with lots of knowledge but needs straightforward questions to access its archive. And as you might know, a coach should only trust what a client says by having them explain, verify or confirm that they mean what they are saying.

Ask ChatGPT Clear and Specific Coaching Questions

Just like a coach helps their client access their knowledge and skills, you make ChatGPT access its vast archive of information by asking clear and specific questions. This approach enables you to access the enormous library of information within ChatGPT and receive accurate and relevant information.

Additionally, just as a coach ask their client to explain, verify, or confirm their statements to ensure understanding, it is vital to be clear and specific in your language. Clear and direct communication ensures that ChatGPT understands and can provide accurate and relevant information.

Provide ChatGPT Feedback to Improve Performance

Treating ChatGPT like a coaching client can also involve providing feedback and adjusting your communication. Just as a coach may give feedback to their client on their progress and areas for improvement, providing input to ChatGPT on its responses can help improve its performance.

Additionally, just as a coach adjusts their approach based on a client's needs and goals, ChatGPT can benefit from how you phrase your questions or provide information.

As a coach, you always have to meet your client with an understanding of potential limitations based on their backgrounds and meet them with questions adjusted to their knowledge.

Understand ChatGPT Limitations and Adjust Your Approach

When working with ChatGPT, you must understand the model's limitations and the data it was trained on. This understanding also includes being aware of any biases the model may have or areas where it may not have enough information to provide an accurate response in a similar way a coach would work with a client and understand their limitations.

Another aspect to consider is that sometimes the coach might ask clients to clarify what they mean to help them better understand their situation or context. It is possible to do the same with ChatGPT by providing more context or background information to help ChatGPT better understand the context to respond more appropriately.

ChatGPT is a machine-learning model trained on vast data and generates responses based on patterns and associations. This means that its answers may sometimes be flawed and not align with your expectations, and you need to ask more questions to get what you want.

Learn Fundamental Coaching Skills to Maximize ChatGPT in Coaching.

A professional coach constantly questions clients' answers since clients often reply with the most accessible knowledge. A master coach also avoids imposing possible bias or incorrect information by asking questions and reassuring that coaching is the right way to go for their clients.

ChatGPT is trained on text from the internet, so it may contain biased, inaccurate, or outdated information. It's a reflex for a master coach to always let their clients repeat and verify what they are saying to secure the correct information and not build upon a belief system the client never signed up to follow.

The ICF's (International Coach Federations) Core Competencies can help you better manage ChatGPT.

Applying International Coach Federation's (ICF) core competencies to create prompts and exhilarate communication and coaching with ChatGPT.

1. Establishing the Coaching Agreement

As a user interacts with ChatGPT, it is vital to clearly understand their goals and expectations and what information they want to receive. This is similar to how a coach establishes a coaching agreement with their client to set clear goals and expectations for the coaching relationship.

2. Active Listening

ChatGPT is designed to comprehend and respond to natural language input, which means that it is essential to communicate clearly and precisely. This is similar to how coaches actively listen to their clients to understand their needs and goals. Improve your listening skill and enhance your leadership talent.

3. Facilitating Learning and Results

By asking clear and specific questions, ChatGPT can access its vast archive of information to provide accurate and relevant information. This is similar to how a coach facilitates learning and results by helping clients access their knowledge and skills. 

4. Coach Competence -Direct Communication

Due to ChatGPT's design, it is crucial to communicate concisely and explicitly since it understands natural language input. This is similar to how a coach uses direct communication to help clients achieve their goals. 

5. Coach Competence - Creating Awareness

As a user interacts with ChatGPT, it is vital to be aware of any biases or limitations the model may have, similar to how a coach helps their client become aware of their shortcomings, strengths, and prejudices. Learn how to expand your awareness.

6. Coach Competence - Designing Actions

By providing more context or background information to ChatGPT, it can understand the situation better, similar to how a coach would work with their client to design actions to help them achieve their goals.

7. Coach Competence - Planning and Goal Setting

As a user interacts with ChatGPT, they must clearly understand their goals, expectations, and what information they want to receive. This is similar to how a coach would work with clients to set clear goals and plans to achieve them. (Read about what to do when goal setting doesn't work)

8. Coach Competence - Managing Progress and Accountability

Providing feedback to ChatGPT on its responses can help improve its performance, similar to how a coach would manage progress and accountability with their client.

In conclusion, using ChatGPT as a coaching tool is an effective way to explore your thoughts and achieve your goals. However, it is crucial to understand its limitations to communicate clearly and provide context to get the most out of this technology.

How To Ask ChatGPT For Coaching Questions on a Particular Topic.

The best way to receive accurate answers from ChatGPT is to ask a well-formed question.

A well-formed question is a question that is clear, specific, and provides enough context for ChatGPT to understand and respond to it.

In coaching, it's what we call Powerful Questions.

Here are some examples of well-formed questions:

• What is the [International Coach Federation]?
• How does [a coaching process] work?
• Can you summarize [the book "The Power of Intention by Wayne Dyer"]?
• What are the symptoms of [depression]?
• What is the history of [life coaching]?

Any question is powerful when it's specific, clear, and provides enough context to understand and respond with a clear answer.

Mastering Velcro Strap Questions: Why ChatGPT Is Your Best Coaching Partner

In my coach training, I teach my student to use "Velcro Strap Questions" built upon the 5-word questions founded by my co-founder of Coach Education Swede, Domenico La Corte n 2004.)

It's a question with only 5 words, includes one word from the client's last sentence, and has a clear question mark. I have named this type of question "Velcro Strap Questions" because they hold any communication and coaching process together, including a conversation with ChatGPT.

Use ChatGPT to Practise Asking Powerful Coaching Questions

A problem that repeatedly will remind the client it's still there. With "Velcro Strap Questions," you are digging down to the cause of a client's problem and finding solutions, so the problem doesn't recur. In a coaching session, horizontal digging keeps the client temporarily happy since solutions rarely cure the underlying problem.

To become a better coach, learn how to use velcro questions effectively with ChatGPT because it will take your coaching to the next level.

Coaching is a skill that requires practice and dedication. Using velcro questions effectively improves your coaching skills, but mastering this technique takes time and effort.

As with any skill, it may seem easy once you've learned it, but getting to that point requires hours of practice, failure, and perseverance. Fortunately, ChatGPT is an excellent tool for practicing your velcro questioning skills.

ChatGPT Can Refine Your Coaching

With ChatGPT, you can create a safe and supportive environment to practice your coaching skills. Whether new to coaching or a seasoned professional, ChatGPT provides a platform to develop and refine your skills.

Using ChatGPT to practice your velcro questioning techniques, you can ask more powerful and compelling questions to help your clients discover new insights and take action.

In the 8-week Coach training, we'll explore how ChatGPT improves your velcro questioning effectively. If you're ready to take your coaching to the next level, take a look.

General Vauge Coaching Questions Confuses ChatGPT and Your Clients

Questions that are too general, too long, and don't provide enough context can be difficult for a client to respond to. When someone doesn't have an answer, they construct and deliver an answer they believe is the "right answer" to please the coach.

Made-up answers aren't moving things forward. At its best, it keeps the clients in the present mud, and as it gets worse, it takes them backward.

When you ask ChatGPT unclear questions, you might get confusing answers. Ambiguous answers make you seek information elsewhere, and you must consult many sources to verify or dismiss the information you received.

Example of General Vauge Questions

• What is the meaning of life?
• Can you help me with my project? (without providing any detail about the project)
• Why is the sky blue? (without giving any context)

To get the most accurate and informative answer, it's best to be specific when asking a question. If you're unsure if your question is well-formed, you can, as always in any coaching session, rephrase the question - or ask your client what question they would like to have. So, to make ChatGPT your—or your clients—best coach, you will ask for questions, not answers.

Here is a simple prompt temple I give my clients to receive powerful coaching questions they can use for any topic, issue, or situation they are going through to help them move forward.

Tips When You Use ChatGPT in Your Coaching.

1. Decide who you want ChatGPT to be.

I prefer to receive questions from a Master Coach with long experience, and in this example, someone who is an expert on people's fear.

2. Be specific in the definition of the situation.

Be as specific about the situation or problem as you need to receive coaching questions to find clarity or a solution.

3. Write your request in the third person.

Writing in the third person improves your ability to separate yourself from "a problem" and develop the coaching skill to be an objective observer.

Prompt Example: How to receive coaching questions from ChatGPT. 

If you haven't tried ChatGPT yet, you can sign up here (it's free) and try this immediately.

Replace what's inside the brackets, copy and paste it into ChatGPT and see what questions you receive:

If you are an ICF Master Certified coach with 25 years of experience [working with people's fears,] what powerful coaching questions would you ask someone [who is afraid and experience AI as a threat to themselves and humanity]?

This is the response I received from the prompt above. The answer is unedited to show you can fine-tune some questions.

1. Can you tell me more about the specific fears and concerns you have about AI?
2. How does this fear show up in your daily life and interactions with technology?
3. What is the worst-case scenario you can imagine as a result of AI advancements?
4. How do you believe society should address the potential risks of AI?
5. Are there any specific steps you can take to mitigate your fears and concerns about AI?
6. How can you re-frame this fear in a more empowering and positive way?
7. Are there any positive potential outcomes that you see coming from AI advancements?
8. Is there any support, information, or education you need to feel more secure about the role of AI in the world?

My suggestion on how ChatGPT can Improve its Coaching Questions

These questions above are great because they make you think, but to make the questions even more powerful, I will—as ChatGPT's coach trainer—ask it to avoid alternatives and only respond with one question in one and divide some of the questions into two.

Suggestion for improvement of Question 1

1. Can you tell me more about the specific fears you have about AI?
2. What other concerns do you have about AI?
   
   

Suggestion for improvement of Question 2

1. How does this fear show up in your daily life?
2. What impact does this fear have on your interaction with technology?
   
   

In Conclusion - How To UseChatGPT In Coaching

ChatGPT is an innovative tool to enhance coaching skills and explore personal growth and development. By treating ChatGPT as a coaching client and applying the ICF core competencies, you can maximize the outcome of this technology. Remember to communicate clearly and provide context, as ChatGPT's responses are based on patterns and associations from its training data.

If you want to take your coaching skills to the next level and learn more about incorporating ChatGPT into your coaching practice, consider enrolling in the 8-week Neoteric Coach Training. This program offers a comprehensive and in-depth exploration of coaching techniques and includes a module on using ChatGPT as a coaching tool.

Birgitta

Take advantage of the opportunity to harness the power of ChatGPT and advance your coaching skills. Read More and Download the program to Neoteric Coach Training today and elevate your coaching skills to the next level!