Warning: do not hire a coach until you read this

How much do you charge?

It’s the instinctive first question, it’s also the least informative. Coach is their label, what they are to you is a problem solver or rather a solved problem(s) is the side effect you’re looking for.

Your job when selecting a coach of any sort is to ascertain if they can facilitate that.

The following article is designed to help you to find the best person for that job.

Do they understand your problem better than you do?

The first time you speak whether on the phone or in person should feel like you are being interviewed. Your coaches job is to get a clear understanding of what problem you wish to fix and how you see that problem.

They should then repeat back to you what you have said in a way that puts more clarity on your problem.

Not solving it but simplifying it to a degree that makes it seem solvable. That is what an expert does. If this doesn’t happen then it may have been show that attracted you more than substance.

Have they helped anyone similar to you with similar challenges?

The thing you are about to embark on isn’t going to be easy. There will be questions you don’t want to be asked. There will be truths you don’t want to tell. This process is not about forcing and hold you accountable to right action, it is about changing your mind - the right action then will follow.

Your would be coach should have stories that illustrate this with previous clients.

From who the client was to who they became and what realisations took them there.

They should also be able to put you in touch with a previous client to get a first hand account of what it’s like to work with them.

Are they a specialist?

A specialist is created by making a lot of mistakes in the same area. Each mistake gives the individual an opportunity to improve their service. A coach claiming to help everyone just doesn’t have the time to have encountered enough problems to have become a specialist.

Look for a specialist in you or your problem and ask them how they came to specialise in this area. It should be about meaning not marketing.

Do you have a connection?

You may think that you are purchasing this persons knowledge and you are to a degree but it’s more than that.

It’s often said that you are the average of the 5 people you spend most of your time with and in hiring this person you are seeking to make them a part of you.

You are seeking to see the world though their eyes, to change your world view enough to achieve the outcome you desire and keep it.

This requires a gut feeling of course but shared humour and an inquisitive nature are a good place to start.

The person is about to become a friend who you disagree with at the moment. If you saw the world the way they do you wouldn’t need their help.

Are they trying to convince you?

Ok so this might sound a bit strange. How do they make the sale you might wonder.

Well that’s the million dollar  question. Coaching is extraction not instruction so the first rule of coaching is DO NOT convince anyone.

A coaches role is to guide you to what is true for you. So if the coach supports you to the right decision for you then great, they’ll be a good coach and you a good coachee.

But if the coach convinces you with stories about you that they’ve created then they aren’t being a coach and you aren’t being a coachee, that a bad start that’s unlike to improve.

Price

Now we have covered the above we can address price. You may be able to clearly see that using price per hour as a bench mark could cost you thousands and deliver little results.

A coach charging 1.000kr per hour might want to see you indefinitely once a week until the problem is solved which could cost 50.000kr in a year and you might still have the problem.

A specialist may charge double per hour but only ask for 20 hours of your time.

As you can see, using price as a bench mark makes no sense at all.

Do they have a guaranteed system?

Rules are many, principles are few, rules will always change, principles never do.

Coaching is a fluffy area, make no doubt about it.

You can do a 6 week qualification. You can have your own life in a mess. You can literally sit down, have a conversation and because you asked questions you can say coaching took place. If they don’t get results you can say that you didn’t do the work.

That’s a rough deal but it’s far from rare. It’s not far from the norm.

They should have a proven system that they are happy to detail or you should run like the wind.

Do they have skin in the game?

Their life should be a demonstration of their own principles.

That isn’t to say that their life should externally demonstrate your exact model of success but a coach should be actively engaged in the process of creating clarity, direction, focus and strategy in their own life to the degree were each year should be unrecognisable from the last.

Ask them about their own story and their own evolution over the last two or three years.

What are you willing to do?

As the saying goes, “you can’t solve a problem with the same level of thinking that caused it”.

What ever it is that you want help with, your current beliefs in that area are not serving you.

You must be willing to at the very least to delay your disbelief long enough to prove your current belief wrong.

That takes courage and discipline and the willingness to get comfortable being uncomfortable.

Is that something you are ready for?

Are you in a leadership position at at level where you can influence decisions and strategy?

Are you a quick implementer?

If you are interested in working with a coach (me) that stands by the above principles, then you can contact me by clicking the button and we can explore working together.