How to get the most out of a coach you appoint
So you, your boss, or some other individual or group with a vested interest in you, or your performance, or your future have decided that the specific expertise of a coach may be just what’s needed to help you realize your potential while retaining work/ life balance. With that decision made, the task is to locate and use a coach whose skills and expertise will help you to find desired pathways or solutions. Here are some useful hints to help your decision-making.
1. Do your homework.
Psychotherapist Stephen Berglas, writing in the
Harvard Business Review (June 2002), claimed that coaching was attracting the wrong sort—‘too many boffins from the classroom and hulks from the gym’. He wrote that some of the ‘former athletes, lawyers, business academics, and consultants who have become executive coaches do more harm than good’.
Selecting the right coach is an important decision. It’s your life and your career, so take your time to find the best person for the task at hand. Your choice of a coach will differ according to your particular needs—life, executive, or business.
2. Rely on a wide variety of information.
When selecting the best coach for you, testimonials and letters of support from previous clients need to be taken into account. A visit to their website could also prove useful. Take note, however, of your gut feelings. Research indicates that we make up our minds about a person within the first four-minutes of meeting with him or her and that impression is likely to be long-lasting. By all means take into account what others are saying, but take note also of your own feelings and impressions.
3. Seek a specialist.
Coaches come in all shapes, sizes, and areas of specialization. You need one who satisfies the ‘Goldilocks Principle’ for decision-making (one who is ‘just right’). The market for life and business coaches is highly competitive. Finding one whose area of specialization matches your needs will not be difficult, but you need to take time with that selection process.
