The Coach Series: Seven Signs of a Great Life Coach: Part 1

Knowledge and Know-how

Look for a coach who has experience and who has been working within the industry that you want to be part of, or achieving the results you desire. Ask yourself if he has worked with anyone like you and helped them succeed. Make sure that the coach has the right skillset to help you achieve your goals. Don’t assume that a successful businessman makes a great coach. Your coach should have a proven track record working within the industry, but should also have a track record of being able to help others.

Communicate

The coach should have an open-door policy. The coach should be accessible. You should be able to ask questions via email and get responses that are not only timely but also detailed enough to answer your questions. Emails should be returned within a business day.

Interact

How does the coach interact with her/his clients? Is this person accessible to each client? Is this coach positive and a great role model and mentor? How does this coach motivate his/her clients? Make sure you ask for referrals and ask their current clients how the coach interacts with them. Some coaches are hands off – sends tasks to do and then they are done. Some are extremely involved with their clients on a daily basis. You may lean more towards one of those options. It’s important that you get the right match for your skills.

Goal Setting

Make sure your coach asks you what your goals are and what you want to accomplish, both short- and long-term. The coach should be able to set up a day-to-day plan for you, but also be able to see the big picture, set up a macro-plan and be able to explain to you why the exercises and challenges are structured like they are to help you achieve your goals.

Feedback

Ask the coach how they will provide feedback to you on your exercises and challenges you are working toward. Progress is the name of the game. For example, if an athlete does not feel they’re making progress, they should be able to ask the coach for feedback on how to change things up. Also, the coach should be able to provide feedback on your progress, and tell you how to adapt things for your particular circumstances. They should also be able to give you specific feedback such as how to improve your skills, for example. Some ways that a coach can provide feedback is in person, via Skype, via email, or via social mediums like Twitter and Facebook.

Honesty

This is a tricky one, but one that I find is absolutely vital to success. It’s also one of the harder issues to address between coach and client. When looking for a coach, spend some time asking this coach how they can explain to you how realistic your goals are and what you need to do to improve. Honesty sometimes hurts, but it is critical to improvement and setting realistic goals.

Balance

A good coach understands life. They realize that down time is a must for most people and it is absolutely critical to maintain balance with work, family, social life and business. Find a coach that emulates this in their life and leads a similar lifestyle to yours. If you are a full-time working parent with four kids, hiring someone who has similar life experiences or works with clients like you will help in their understanding of the schedule you need. A good coach will help you sort through these life-business balance issues daily.

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