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by Chirael
1693 days ago
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Part of the challenge is that virtually anyone can call themselves a coach. I can’t tell you how many “life coach” business cards there are on the boards in nice coffee shops and Whole Foods around me. How do you know that the coach is actually an expert in the subject AND a good teacher/coach to boot? If they’re so good, why are they coaching instead of doing and succeeding at it themselves? Obviously there are folks that were successful and are now retired and seemingly just want to pass their experience on, but I think those require some work to find. I do think there’s virtue in finding a mentor or coach but it can be challenging to do that. In the meantime finding a group of peers at the same level who are equally ambitious and willing to help each other - a mastermind group - can be a great substitute or stopgap until you can find such a coach or mentor. |
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They're really aware of the complexity of this - where they see the value of coaching as a tool, and know it's not a medical industry with the need for such high qualification time as eg. councellors or therapists, but that anyone calling themselves a coach means people do a lot of advice / self-help / general fluff without it being what they understand coaching to be. Getting accredited means having training, having certain number of logged hours doing coaching, recording sessions for assessment, passing an exam on ethics, limitations, confidentiality, methods, etc...
In the ICF understanding of coaching, a coach doesn't need to be a domain expert (although domain familiarity helps), as the coach's job is to help the coachee (client) be the expert / get unstuck / manage themselves. No matter how good a business leader I am, I'll never know your company and the individuals involved as well as you do. But if I'm good at asking you questions that help you see where you're stuck and see things in a different perspective, you'll come up with better solutions than I ever will. If I give you good advice, you'll see me as a guru or authority, and not build your own answers. And if you need a mentor, or advice, then in coaching that would come up and we could talk through ways you could find that.
(Disclaimer: I've completed an ICF accredited course, and am slowly working on my 100+ hours of coaching others and exams to be accredited).