How to choose your coach and what to discover about their professional excellence ?

So many times after chemistry meetings, I notice that coachees find hard to ask questions and are unclear about what to be curious about the coach. The choosing criteria is mostly the quality of the emotional bonding which is unquestionably one of the most important but is it enough? Obviously not!

So I decided to give some clues which points can give coachees and HR professionals clarity about assessing the quality of a coach. Being a coach for almost 18 years, a supervisor and an assessor and ambitiously contributing to the profession, I feel the responsibility of creating consciousness for all stakeholders in the system.

To match with the right coach for you, it might be good to have a conversation around …..

o   Why are they doing this job? How does it relate to their life purpose?

o   What is their story of entrance to the coaching profession ?

o   Which personal values do they honor with coaching?

o   Are they graduate of internationally accredited coaching programs?

o   Are they individually accredited from respectable bodies? If yes from which bodies? One or more?

o   What do they do to develop their practice?

o   What do they do to develop their inner journey?

o   How diverse are their development areas to support their coaching practice?

o   Which ethic code do they follow?

o   Which professional institutions are they member of and how active are they?

o   What are they doing to develop their emotional, mental and physical health?

o   Do they have supervisors and how often do they have supervision?

o   How do they reflect on their experience as a coach?

o   What do they do to contribute to the development of coaching profession?

o   What do they do to follow international developments/trends in coaching?

o   What are the new things they are trying in their coaching practice?

o   What was the last time they did have a substantial shift in their coaching practice or as a coach?

o   How do they define their coaching approach and philosophy? Are they attached to a single model/approach?

o   What is their relationship with diversity?

o   How do they evaluate their quality of practice?

o   Do they write about coaching or related subjects? If yes, read them.

o   Where other parts of their live do they apply coaching mindset and how?

o   How are they being as a coach / as a role model in other parts of their life?

o   What is their sweet spot as a coach?

o   How is their process like?

Waww.. It is a long list. Choose the ones that really are important for you.

We hope these points will help. 

Iam not suggesting to turn the conversation into an interview:-)))) but it will be useful to clarify the difference of a person who is doing coaching and who has become a coach if you have your conversation around these topics. To pick the ones that WALK THE TALK..