This year I was able to achieve significant milestones in my business by hiring professional coaches. My coaches helped me with goal setting, accountability and gave me short cuts, tips and resources to achieve my goals. My coaches also taught me new skills, and helped me to avoid blind spots in my business.
As a certified coach myself, I know and understand the value of coaching. Whenever I want to take things to the next level both personally and professionally, I will hire a coach. Having a good coach is like having a personal guide that can walk you through things you could never have conceived of on your own. That said there is no shortage of people calling themselves coaches/consultants these days and for this reason, I wanted to share a couple of tips on hiring the right coach.
- A qualified coach is someone who is experienced in the area that you want to gain knowledge in and has achieved the results you want to achieve. For example, if you were looking to take your business six figures, a good coach in my opinion would be someone who took a business from in your industry start up to six figures. They are also helping other continually achieve those results.
- Coaching is a skill, and therefore I believe that professional certification is important. Just because someone has done something well, it does not necessarily qualify them to coach. To me, experience and professional certification is a must.
- A good coach is results oriented and focused, and therefore can speak to and demonstrate actual results that they have helped their clients achieve. When choosing a coach, you should speak with references and ask specifically about results achieved by others.
- Good listening skills; if a coach is doing all the talking, something is wrong. A coach someone who listens very carefully to you, and then provides guidance and direction to help you achieve your goals.
- Accountability is a big part of the coaching relationship and to that end a good coach is someone who is accountable themselves, they are organized, they are on time, and they do what they say they will do. They also hold you accountable – whether you like or not.
So to answer the question, should you hire a coach? I say it is a personal choice, not everyone is coachable. For me, coaching is a cost effective way of desired results within a specific timeframe while simultaneously acquiring new tools, resources and skills.
