How to increase your authority in online coaching sessions

Follow these 9 simple steps to make sure you aren't accidentally diminishing your authority in online coaching sessions.

“The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own…”

Epictetus, Discourses, 2.5.4–5

[So, you’ve read Become an Authoritative Coach and you want to know what to do next? This article is a chapter in the “What now?” series. Read more chapters from this series.]

Hey Coach,

There are literally 100s of ways that we accidentally diminish our authority in our work as Authoritative Coaches.

Now that you’ve read the book - Become an Authoritative Coach - it’s time to start acting and behaving like an Authoritative Coach.

Let’s start with the area where we spend a significant amount of our time as coaches - online meetings.

I’ll reference Zoom, since that’s what I use, but you’ll see that many of these lessons apply to any platform (and also transfer to in-person meetings).

Let’s get into it.

1. It’s in your meeting room

Make sure that all meetings are booked into your meeting room, giving you ownership of the meeting.

If your client tells you that they will set it up, insist on being the one who books the meeting, or get your assistant to do it for you.

I know this feels like an unimportant administrative item, but don’t dismiss this - it puts you in a position to control a lot of the other elements I’m about to share with you.

If you don’t do this, most other options on this list won’t be available.