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26 | Goal Setting in a Lactation Consult – Lactation Business Coaching with Annie and Leah
As a lactation consultant, your role in goal-setting is to be a coach, cheering your clients on and pointing them in the direction of the path they want to take. While you have the advantage of experience that they don’t, it would be counterproductive for you to dictate how they should do things and what their goals should be. Be someone who your clients can rely on to provide objective guidance and problem-solving while empowering them to build the family relationship they want.
Show Notes
- Setting goals with your clients is a great opportunity for using your communication skills.
- This starts with how you present yourself online and extends to the intake process, actually meeting with the client, and following up.
- Even if you think you know the right answer or the right course of action, it is imperative for your clients’ goals to be their idea based on your input and guidance.
- Great questions to ask when meeting in person with the client are: “What do you want to work on during our time today?”, “Tell me more about…”, and “What do you want this to look like?”
- When it comes to putting theory into practice, the process of determining the steps the client needs to take should allow them to be autonomous but with your objective voice helping them vocalize and structure their plan.
- Think in terms of milestones rather than metrics.
- Be sensitive about what they’ve been through already
- Help your clients take a look at what is hindering them or holding them back and see if you can provide a solution they hadn’t thought of.
- Make sure your clients do not put too much pressure on themselves to be achievers but rather celebrate milestones and manage disappointments
- Circle back at the end of the visit to talk about follow-up, especially with clients whose insurance might not cover recurring visits.
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Quotes:
- “We are so dedicated to helping our families feel like they can trust and be honest with us and know that we are on their team.”
- “Look at the questions you are asking as opportunities to move the branch in the direction where it needs to go.”
- “The lower value you can place on what you want to see happen, the better it is for your client.”
- “It is important to help the client articulate what type of relationship they want to have with their new family.”
About Us
Leah Jolly is a private practice IBCLC with Bay Area Breastfeeding in Houston, Texas. Annie Frisbie is a private practice IBCLC serving Queens and Brooklyn in New York City, and the creator of Paperless Lactation.
The Lactation Business Coaching podcast is produced by us and edited by Jillian Grover, who also writes our show notes. Our theme song is by Silas Wade.
