"You want me to call up my previous clients, just to see how they're doing?" my client Alicia recently asked me. She was astonished I would suggest something so forward and questioned whether it would come across as unprofessional.
"Don't you care how they're doing?" I asked her. Of course she did. "Why, then, would it be wrong to check up on them periodically?"
Alicia has been coaching for four years, helping young professionals with career transitions. She believed she needed to maintain a certain professional distance and felt that once her clients had benefited from her services, she no longer had a reason to communicate with them.
Nevertheless, Alicia agreed to call four of her clients before our next session and ask them about the value she had brought to their careers and lives. Afterward, Alicia couldn't wait to tell me about her experience.
"First of all, they were grateful that I cared enough to follow up," she said. "None of them thought my call was inappropriate. That got me comfortable enough to ask about the value they received from me. And that's what I'm really excited about."
Alicia learned that she'd given all her clients confidence, focus and someone to hold them accountable until they were on their feet again.
It reinforced her belief in what she was doing and got her excited about finding more clients.
