The whole profession of coaching, both personal and business, is undergoing a bit of a boom right now and as in any fast growing profession there are challenges. One challenge is the large number of people jumping on the bandwagon and calling themselves coaches without formal training or relevant experience.
So to ensure you are among the over 98% of all coaching clients who are completely satisfied with their experience, here are some suggestions to help you choose a great coach:
STEP 1. Get clear about what you need coaching for and how you want to be helped
Maybe you want help in finding a new job, or getting better organized, or getting an important project underway or making an important decision, or simply learning how to enjoy life more, or any of a number of other things. The point is that the clearer you are on what you want to achieve, the easier it will be for you to tell that to your life coach.
It is also important how you want to be coached: do you need a drill-sergeant or a cheer-leader? If you're not sure, ask the professional you talk with for help in clarifying it for you.
STEP 2. Things to look for in a coach
Relevant Coaching Experience - To be effective at life coaching, it is not necessary for the life coach to have experienced exactly what you're trying to accomplish. But it helps. So, look for a coach with relevant coaching experiences to what you're hoping to achieve.
Relevant Pre-Coaching Background - What did the life coach do before becoming a coach? Find out and see if it's relevant to what you want to work on.
Coaching Credentials - Look for more than just basic training; look for advance training and certification from an accredited coaching organization such as the International Coach Federation.
Coaching Commitment - Look for a full-time coach. Most life coaches need several hundred hours of practice to really hone their skills. Calling yourself a life coach is NOT the same as the commitment needed to be a life coach.
STEPT 3. The Interview or Sample Session
Most coaches offer free, no-strings-attached sample coaching sessions. To make the most of these calls, bring a specific 'issue' to discuss - the more specific the better - and actively engage in the coaching process.
So do a number sample sessions before selecting who you want to work with on an ongoing basis. Now let me help you select make an assessment of the life coaches you've interviewed.
Now look for the following things in your meetings and rate each one from 1 to 5:
- Contribution - How much did the life coach contribute to you meaningfully addressing the issue you brought to the call? What Next Steps do you see now that you didn't before? Can you see yourself enjoying an ongoing working relationship with this person?
- Listening - Who did more of the talking, you (which is good) or the life coach (which is not as good). How well do you feel the person understood who you really are? How well did his/her words resonate with you? What did you hear in your own words that was new? How helpful was the conversation?
- Intensity - What kind of energy was there on the call and how motivated were you by the life coach's style and approach? How engaged were you able to become in the call? What new thoughts, feelings, and insights surfaced for you that can speak to the value of the sample session?
- Connection - How aligned did you feel with the life coach? Was there an instant kind of rapport? How comfortable were you? How did you like the tone and mood of the call? Imagine what an ongoing coaching relationship would be like - how does that feel?
- Creativity - How good a job did the life coach do in getting you to see old things in new ways, or get out of you own way, or get back on track, or whatever? How motivated are you to want to work with this person on an ongoing basis? How confident are you that this particular person can help you achieve your 'what' and 'how'?
And in the end do not forget to follow your gut feeling.
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