Coach, Life Coach, Business Coach - How Do You Decide Which To Use?
When is a Coach a Life Coach, a Business Coach, a Career Coach, an Executive Coach or a Relationship Coach?
It's really a tricky question.
About 5 years ago Bruce was headhunted for a job that sounded fantastic and nearly doubled his salary. He wasn't sure whether he should take the job. I was his Executive Coach. I suggested drawing up a list of pros and cons for staying at one job and the pros and cons of moving to the offered job. The result? He moved to the new job and has made a success of it.
Want to know his key issue?
Whether he would have security in the new, leading-edge and much smaller company.
When he asked my opinion on this I pointed out that big companies downsized all the time. In fact the one he worked for had downsized three times whilst he'd worked there.
What did that have to do with being an executive coach as it was a "Life Coach" issue?
My point exactly.
Sometimes coaches cross over into areas that aren't their main focus. Some people have several coaches one for each area of their lives.
Integrity counts here. If you're asked a question that's outside of your remit as a business coach you must inform your coachee.
Beware of giving an unasked opinion as a mentor's words can carry the same weight they do when talking on business issues. Particularly if you've helped them in their career and/or business.
This underlines the importance of choosing the right coach in the right way. Do you know how to do that, easily?
To get you thinking I'll give you one of the criteria I list in my report "How To Choose The Best Coach For Where You Are Now":
- You should get at least a free 30 minute phone session where you can both check each other out. After all if a coach knows they can't help you they should say. Equally if you feel the coach is not at the level you need you can say so and no hard feeling.
After the call decide whether you believe that the coach demonstrated how they would deliver value to you. If they did employ them. If not don't.
Equally if a coach says that they're not right for you? Thank them for their honesty.
No comments:
Post a Comment