Improve Your Life How to Hire A Coach
A reader writes, “I read your "Ten reasons to hire a coach" and, believe it or not, all the ten reasons apply to me. I am really interested in having more information about it. I do not know how or where to contact a coach here. What kind of background should a good coach have?”
Perhaps others of you wondered the same thing after reading my list. Hiring a coach takes some investigation on your part but according to the February issue of Fast Company magazine there are 20,000 coaches in the world so locating one isn't going to be difficult. (See below for a link to the Fast Company article.) If you want a coach in your country that is definitely possible since coaching is a worldwide profession. That said however many coaches coach on the telephone so you are not limited to coaches in your country.
Where do you look for a coach? My favorite way of finding anything I need is to ask others who have had experience with it. So to find a coach I would ask my friends who their coach is. If that doesn't work then there are directories of coaches on the web. A few such websites are: www.coachu.com and www.coachfederation.org.
You will need to have some search criteria to find the coach that is right for you. If your issues are work related you might want a business coach, a career coach, an executive coach or a corporate coach. If you have personal issues, you might want a personal coach, a life coach or a relationship coach. Another search criteria might be your country if you prefer to be coached by someone there.
The International Coach Federation, an association for coaches, suggests that people interview at least 3 coaches before deciding on one coach. That said I think what is most important is your trust and connection with your coach. If you call one coach and your intuition tells you this is the coach for you, then hire him or her. The one thing I do know is that you must believe that the coach can help you for the coaching to work. It is the coaching relationship that is most important.
Before you decide on which coaches to interview, go to their website if they have one and get a feel for the coach. Subscribe to his/her newsletter or read articles in the archives of the website. It will help you to understand where the coach is coming from and if his/her values align with yours. Finally many coaches give Teleclasses. This is a great way to “put your toe in the water” without a huge financial commitment.
Coaches come from many diverse backgrounds. There are former therapists, educators, and business people. Depending on your need one background may be more appropriate for you.
Some coaches have additional training as a coach. Rather than telling the client what to do, the coach’s role is to help the client to find his/her own path. Coach training programs give the coach the tools and resources to guide and motivate the client without pushing him/her. The advantage of having a trained coach is that he/she has no agenda other than to help you succeed.
For the interview you will want a list of questions that will help you to decide if this is the coach for you. (See below for a way to receive a list of questions to ask.) Let the coaches know your expectations and needs so that they can have a chance to tell you if they can meet them.
Finally be sure to discuss the fee with the coach. You must feel that the benefit of coaching is worth the cost of the coach and that you can easily afford that fee without cutting back on necessities.
Take Action
Ask friends about coaches they or any of their acquaintances use. (I would be happy to suggest coaches to anyone who reads this newsletter.)
Search www.coachu.com and www.coachfederation.org for names of coaches to interview.
What kind of help are you looking for? Make a list of questions you would like to ask the coach. I have a list of questions that used to be on the CoachU website. If you would like the list, send an email to asparker@asparker.com with "Coach Questions" as the subject.
Interview the coaches and let me know the result!
Read "Are You Being Coached?" from this month’s Fast Company magazine
Improve Your Life How to Hire A Coach - To learn more about this author, visit Alvah Parker's Website.
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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