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Mike Gosling Ph.D. Executive Leadership Coaching

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Dr. Mike Gosling

How to Be a Great Coaching Client: 7 Smart Habits for Transformational Results

May 21, 2025 By Dr. Mike Gosling

If you’ve made the courageous decision to invest in coaching—congratulations! You’ve already taken a bold step toward growth. But here’s the truth: coaching isn’t just about finding the right coach. It’s also about being the right client.

The most powerful coaching transformations don’t happen by chance—they’re co-created. When you bring the right mindset, attitude, and habits to your sessions, your results accelerate. Here’s how to be an outstanding coaching client and make every session count.


1. Come Prepared—But Stay Open

You don’t need all the answers—but do come with questions. Reflect on what’s been working, what’s challenging, and what you’re hoping to shift.

At the same time, stay open to unexpected breakthroughs. Great coaching often happens in the unplanned moments.


2. Be Honest—Especially with Yourself

Coaching is a space for truth. If you’re struggling, say it. If you’re stuck, bring it to the surface.

Your coach isn’t here to judge—they’re here to support your clarity, even if that means asking tough questions.


3. Take Radical Responsibility

Coaching isn’t therapy or consulting—it’s a partnership. Your coach and stakeholders won’t do the work for you. But they will walk beside you as you do it.

The more ownership you take for your actions and outcomes, the more you’ll grow.


4. Do the Work Between Sessions

Transformation happens between the coaching calls. The insights are just the beginning—real change requires integration.

Whether it’s reflecting, journaling, experimenting with new behaviours, or taking bold action, commit to follow-through.


5. Ask for What You Need

Need more structure? Want tougher accountability? Craving encouragement or clarity? Say so.

Coaching is most effective when you’re clear about your expectations. Speak up—this is your journey.


6. Embrace Discomfort as Growth

Coaching will challenge you. At times, it may feel uncomfortable—that’s often a sign you’re stretching into new territory.

Lean in. Growth rarely happens in your comfort zone.


7. Celebrate Your Wins (Big and Small)

Don’t gloss over your progress. Share your wins—even the little ones.

Acknowledging growth keeps momentum alive and reminds you just how capable you are.


Final Thought: Coaching Works—If You Do

Being a great coaching client doesn’t mean being perfect. It means being present, courageous, and committed to your growth.

When you show up fully, magic happens. The investment you’ve made in coaching is really an investment in you—and you’re absolutely worth it.

Book a FREE 15-min strategy session with me to explore options for Executive Leadership Coaching [ CLICK HERE ].

Filed Under: Blog

What is Emotional Intelligence?

March 30, 2025 By Dr. Mike Gosling

what is emotional intelligence

Understanding Its Power for Leadership Success

Traditional leadership styles often focus on authority, decision-making, and task management, while Emotional Intelligence (EI) offers a more holistic approach to leadership. As an executive leadership coach, I believe that integrating EI into leadership practices enhances not only decision-making but also interpersonal relationships within teams.

Traditional leadership styles tend to emphasize control and command, which can work in certain environments. However, these approaches often overlook the emotional and psychological factors that drive team engagement and motivation.

On the other hand, EI-driven leadership focuses on self-awareness, empathy, and social skills. Leaders with high EI recognize their own emotions and those of others, allowing them to make more informed, compassionate decisions that foster trust and collaboration.

Incorporating EI into leadership brings a more balanced and inclusive approach. Leaders who leverage EI build stronger teams, increase employee satisfaction, and improve long-term success through emotional awareness and adaptive decision-making.

Want Executive Leadership Coaching?

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Filed Under: Blog

Emotional intelligence can matter more than IQ

June 10, 2016 By Dr. Mike Gosling

Dr Dorrian AikenAccording to Dr Dorrian Aiken, part-time lecturer at the University of Stellenbosch Business School, EQ is considered to be more important than IQ in leadership, management , parenting and teaching “because emotions are contagious”.

She says one person can influence the well-being of others by behaving in a way that causes them to become demotivated.

How we influence one another through our emotional intelligence and through our positivity is really important

— Dr Dorrian Aiken, part-time lecturer at the University of Stellenbosch Business School

Dr Aiken says some evidence suggest that human beings are born with empathy, and we are compassionate beings, but we are also influenced by our environment.

Listen to the full conversation here…

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Dr Dorrian Aiken, EQ versus IQ

How to screen leadership candidates for emotional intelligence

April 14, 2016 By Dr. Mike Gosling

How important is it to interview executive leadership candidates for emotional intelligence when recruiting?

Any executive search firm provides detailed information on each candidate’s career history, their reasons for leaving prior employers, and their most applicable career accomplishments, as well as the recruiter’s insights into each candidate.

After reading through the extensive candidate profile that Laura Fries, managing director and executive vice president of Baker Tilly’s Executive Search practice, provides her clients, she’s often asked for interview questions to help them really understand the candidates and dig further into their match for four emotional intelligence competencies:

1. Self-awareness

2. Self-management

3. Social awareness

4. Relationship management

Read Laura’s article here  >>

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: emotional intelligence, Laura Fries, screening leadership candidates

How Do I Become A Facial Expression Expert?

July 9, 2014 By Dr. Mike Gosling

One of the purposes of my blog is to bring you information on current research that is going on in the field of emotions.

Paul Ekman Ph.D. is a pre-eminent psychologist and a co-discoverer of micro expressions with Friesen, Haggard and Isaacs. In 2009, Ekman was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by TIME Magazine. He became interested in facial expression in 1965.

paul ekman

After studying nonverbal behavior in Papua New Guinea in 1967 and 1968, his research provided the strongest evidence to date that Darwin, not Margaret Mead, was correct in claiming facial expressions are universal. 

Dr. Ekman then developed, with W. Friesen, the first and only comprehensive tool for objectively measuring facial movement – the Facial Action Coding System (FACS), published in 1978, and revised in 2003 with J. Hager as third author. FACS remains the gold standard for identifying any movement the face can make, free of interpretive inferences

When he retired from the University of California in 2004, after more than thirty years as a full professor, Ekman decided to translate his research findings into resources that could be of help to the general public. He formed the Paul Ekman Group, PEG LLC, and authored his book: Emotions Revealed: Understanding Faces and Feelings to Improve Emotional Life.

In his book Ekman asks: Can we choose whether to become emotionally engaged, and how we act when we are? He explains why these choices are difficult and  how to identify and respond to the emotions shown by others. Ekman has written a blog post to find out which courses and universities are best equipped to promote a career in becoming an expert in facial expressions and emotion. The answer to this question depends on what level of education you are seeking, and what topic interests you. To help you on your journey, he has put together a series of short answers. You can review them here.

Book a FREE 15-min strategy session with me to explore options for Executive Leadership Coaching [ CLICK HERE ].

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Paul Ekman

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  • How to Be a Great Coaching Client: 7 Smart Habits for Transformational Results
  • What is Emotional Intelligence?
  • Emotional intelligence can matter more than IQ
  • How to screen leadership candidates for emotional intelligence
  • How Do I Become A Facial Expression Expert?
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