How the Wolf of Wall street can impact the life coaching process

The Review: Give your impression of the movie with a brief description of the plot summary. Resist the urge to retell the whole plot of the movie; instead, share the scenes that had the greatest impact on your thinking as a life coach.

As a life coach, it is important to provide advice that makes the lives and lifestyles of clients happier. The definition of “happiness” often varies from person to person. However, in many instances, money and financial resources are critical components to achieving a desired goal. As a life coach, it is important to provide advise that is allows clients to achieve their desired result and provide them with a means of properly doing so. For example, a McDonalds worker may dream of a life of luxury and travel and believes that will make them happier. As a life coach, it is important to advise that person that skills development is critical to achieving this goal, as better skills will lead to higher salaries.

As a result, I watched the Wolf of Wall Street to get a grasp of coaching techniques used in the one of the most competitive fields in the world. Here, the main character Jordan Belfort, used a variety of coaching techniques throughout to the file to inspire, motivate, and ultimately engage his employees.

The film is about the life of Jordan Belfort, a fledging stock broker who went bankrupt at 25 years old. Prior to becoming a stock broker, Jordan had many other businesses including a meat packing company, an Italian Ice business, and a very small dentistry school business. After all of these ventures failed, Belfort started Stratton Oakmont. Here the company engaged in activities designed to pump up the price of penny stocks. Once high enough, he would then sale the stocks at a profit. As his firm grew, he needed to coach, and train additional individuals to his firm. This eventually ended when Belfort engaged in illegal securities fraud.

The scenes that had the greatest impact on me was Belfort’s ability to inspire individuals to engage in activities that could change their lives for the better. Although his activities were questionable and in latter times, illegal, he still had a strong motivation component to his communication. As a life coach, I would like to leverage this communication style to properly motivate clients to achieve their desired goals and objectives (Glaser,1958).

Coaching Implications: What makes this film appropriate for use in a coaching conversation? How would a client benefit from watching these scenes in the film? What coaching techniques were utilized? Were these techniques effective? For this section, you will need to reference and cite specific life coaching concepts from the course texts and materials.

The film is appropriate for three reasons. First, it shows that material possesses are not always going to make an individual happy. Second, it shows that in order to obtain the happiness you desire, a shift in behavior is required. Third, from a coaching perspective, the plan outlined may not work in the desired manner. Instead, several changes and correction will be needed throughout the implementation of the coaching plan and process.

A client can benefit first from seeing how Belfort, failed in three prior endeavors before he was able to be successful. Belfort, prior to this success also went bankrupt at the age of 25, causing further uncertainty in his life. From a life coaching perspective, it is critical for clients to understand that many of the circumstance prevailing in their lives can be overcome with patience and a plan. It is also helpful to understand that failure will often occur throughout this process, which is necessary for development and growth.

In addition, it is important for clients to understand that money, possessions, and material wealth may not lead to happiness. Here, as the film depicts, Belfort engaged is activities heavily related to sex, drugs, and entertainment. This didn’t bring him “happiness” as many of these individuals were using him for his success and wealth. Although material possessions are nice to have, as a life coach, it is also important to emphasize the spiritual and psychological well-being of the client.

As it relates to techniques employed by Belfort, many were used. The most important however were related to emotional intelligence. Belfort, throughout the film had a very keen sense of emotion intelligence. Emotional intelligence refers to our “ability to perceive and express emotion, assimilate emotion in thought, understand and reason with emotion, and regulate emotion in the self and others’’ (Mahler, 1964) Belfort often used this technique to motivate others to engage in behaviors that ultimately provide them with money, but didn’t necessarily make them happier. In other instances, he was able to provide a better life for those who were previously in poverty.

The above concepts ultimately relate to humanistic psychology. Humanistic psychology views human behavior from a whole-person perspective and attempts to understand and explain behavior from the individual’s perspective instead of the observers. Here, the idea is not to provide a prescription, but instead understanding the client.

In addition, these concepts also related to transformative learning, which is described in detail within the text. Transformative learning theory argues that humans hold a specific worldview informed by their experiences. This worldview frames their ideas, their biases, and their view related to certain stimuli. Social media, and the unending amount of information on the internet also contributes to this worldview. As a life coach, the film can be used to provide context and a different perspective to clients. This provides the client with an additional frame of reference that differs from their own. This could ultimately impact their behavior and mannerisms in a positive light.

Personal/Professional Implications: How did you connect with the movie on a personal and professional level? How did it confirm or challenge some of your perceptions of the coaching process? How will you utilize this information personally and professionally to impact your delivery of coaching services?