5 Questions to Ask Any Leadership Coach Before Hiring One

The business of coaching is growing rapidly and there are a mass of people out there calling themselves coaches. It can be very confusing for someone looking for a coach to find the right one for them.
A quick search will find lots of different titles: life coach, business coach, executive coach, personal coach, career coach, health coach, conflict coach, dating coach, sports coach victimisation coach, leadership coach, performance coach, and so on. These people vary from the totally unqualified to the highly professional; and from one-man-bands, through to companies employing dozens of coaches, up to international franchise operations.
How do you pick a good coach, who is right for you? What can you look out for to help you select a coach who understands you and can help you to move forward?

The Sales Coaching Dilemma

In common with training and management, coaching is unregulated, and therefore anyone can call himself/ herself a coach, and they do.
There are four distinct levels of coach and as you move from one level to the other, the need for skill and experience increases commensurate with the complexity of the coaching process.
LEVEL 1 (L1) - CAREER COACH AND LIFE SKILLS COACH
Level 1 coaching is typified by the coaching process being in the hands of the person being coached, which means that they drive the agenda rather than the coach. This is where most of the coaches in existence (up to 80% of the coaching population) operate. The focus of the coaching effort tends to be on life skills and career coaching. There is a significant gap in experience, knowledge and skills between coaches operating at this and the other levels.