I, Robot

FINANCIAL PLANNERS – I’ve always been a firm believer that technology should not be in the meeting room during a client’s life planning and coaching session. 

It is, after all, a human process that benefits from a human touch and most of all a human connection. 

That eyeball-to-eyeball session really helps us as Planners to drill down to the real issues the client wants to solve but maybe doesn’t have the confidence, vision or clarity to be able to articulate themselves. 

Having eyeballs on each other is 93% more effective than not. 

Why? 

Because only 7% of communication is verbal. 

38% is communicated through tone of voice and 55% through body language. 

If you’re both staring at a laptop or, even worse, a big presentation screen on the wall, you’ve filtered out most of the communication and are essentially working blind. 

Let’s face it, most of the time we have technology in the room, it’s not really for the client’s benefit—it’s just to show off our shiny new toy. 

Supermarkets do the same. 

If they asked customers what they preferred, 90% would say a human checkout operator. 

But they remove them and replace them with soulless electronic versions. 

Why? 

Because it’s the shiny toy their Accountants have decided will save them some money. 

It’s not for the customers benefit – it’s for theirs. 

But being face-to-face does have some drawbacks. 

That is mostly around honesty. 

The simple truth is that we’re often less honest than we could be when talking about ourselves to someone else. 

Why? 

Judgment. 

Or more accurately, the fear of it. 

When you go to the Doctors and they ask you how much you drink, do you give them the real number? 

If you’re tee total, then maybe you do. But if you like a tipple, then you probably give them a lower figure than you know to be true. 

Why? 

Because you fear being judged. 

Or worse, being told to drink less. 

The same fear of judgment can impact on how honest a client is with you during your life coaching sessions. 

They might have hopes and dreams they worry will seem silly to others, or more commonly, feel the need to dress up their lifestyle vision to make it more exciting—afraid of being labelled as boring. 

So, although technology shouldn’t be in the life coaching and planning session, it can help us with the judgement problem outside of the meeting room. 

Having your clients complete a coaching questionnaire before the session, exploring their current life, lifestyle, and desired wants, needs, and outcomes, can help you start with a more honest foundation. 

Why? 

In the comfort of our own living room, tapping away on an iPad, we’re more likely to give honest answers. 

iPads don’t judge, after all. 

Or tell you to drink less. 

By doing this in advance, you invite an unfiltered version of the client’s feelings to work from during the in-person session. 

Technology for technology’s sake isn’t helpful, but when it serves a purpose, it’s very useful. 

And that allows the humans to be, well, more human. 

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