How to Recognize the Great Coaches and Avoid the Mediocre Ones

Coaching has been in the media quite a bit in the last couple of years, but many people who are interested in it still don't know what it means or how it can help them.

I understand. Many different definitions of coaching are circulating. The lines between coaching, consulting, counseling and mentoring are not always clear and distinct. There is executive coaching, personal coaching, business coaching, career coaching, life coaching, success coaching, health and fitness coaching, leadership coaching, athletic coaching, and underwater coaching.

OK, I made that last one up. But you get my point. People can call themselves whatever kind of coach they want. How are you supposed to know what any of it means? How are you supposed to tell the difference between the great coaches and the mediocre ones?

First a couple of basics. The International Coach Federation is the largest non-profit association of coaches worldwide. It has taken great care to define and describe competencies that every professional coach should possess. The ICF website is a good place to go to understand what the coaching competencies are and what ethical standards its members agree to follow.

The ICF accredits coach training schools, so selecting a coach who completed training as a professional coach from one of those schools is greater insurance (although no guarantee) that she will be well-versed in the coaching competencies.

Beyond the basics, here's my incomplete and completely biased list of who a great coach is and what a great coach does (inspired by Robert Hargrove, author of Masterful Coaching):

A great coach is:

• Inspiring
• Positive
• Direct
• Truthful
• Your thinking partner
• Your sounding board
• An inquirer
• Totally committed to your success
• Totally committed to your transformation (sounds dramatic, but it's true)

A great coach:

• Puts exciting new possibilities on the table
• Stands in the future you want to create
• Challenges all of the assumptions you take for granted
• Listens for the paradigms behind your stories
• Acknowledges your successes
• Inspires you to stay in action
• Chooses clients selectively

Get recommendations of coaches from your friends or colleagues. Or find coaches on the Internet, read their websites, read their blogs, and call them. Talk to several. Tell them what you want, what's missing, what's in your way, and why coaching intrigues you.

Ask yourself who they are "being" with you. Notice what they are "doing" with you. Compare that to the bullet points above. Check in with your gut.

Make your selection, or decide that you need a different kind of service, such as counseling, a mentor or a class. A great coach will coach you to find the person and service that is right for you.

Heather Mundell
Dream Big Coaching Services
www.dreambigcoaching.com
heather@dreambigcoaching.com

Comments

[Max Leibman]

Those are two great lists! More attention to what makes a worthwhile coach is needed--it's a swiftly growing field with little regulation and few barriers to entry (which I like), but it's prone to many of the pitfalls of such fields, such as many overpriced underperformers (which I don't like). Worse, some of the high profile recent attention (like Barbara Ehrenreich's BAIT & SWITCH) only spotlights the negative.

[Heather Mundell]

I haven't read BAIT & SWITCH but have heard plenty. Also in a way I like how life coaches have been lampooned in the media (Nip/Tuck, Gilmore Girls, among others) because it reflects the growing visibility of the field, but of course those aren't exactly flattering portraits of coaching, either.