Written by: Luca Berni, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Unfortunately, even today we register some resistance from Managers, Entrepreneurs, Professionals or ordinary people to be supported by a Professional Coach. Someone thinks he's a kind of psychologist, someone sees him as a support teacher for those who can't perform effectively, someone believes that no one can teach him anything about his job, and others think he's just one of the many fads and still others they don't think they need to.
All this arises from the lack of knowledge of this profession, which is very different from teaching and has nothing to do with therapy but focuses on supporting the Coachee (or "Client" in the definition of the International Coaching Federation) in a self-learning program that helps him/her maximize his performance and achieve new and extraordinary results.
In sports – from which modern professional coaching partially derives – the best athletes need to be supported by the best coaches to go beyond their limits. Likewise, in work and in life, being supported by a professional Coach can be a key factor in achieving what you want, achieving new results, and obtaining a fuller and more satisfying life.
Once you understand the importance of having a Coach by your side, all that remains is to choose the right one. To do this, here are some suggestions that can be useful for orienting yourself in the jungle of Coaching.
Specific training in Coaching
The Client must always be informed about how the Coach was trained. Coaching is a trendy and growing profession. That induced many people to invest in this activity, some have studied, while others have thought that a professional experience was enough (for example as a manager, consultant, holistic, sports operator ...) or a course of study (psychology, sociology, business …) to operate as a Coach. All those backgrounds can be useful, but Coaching is a specific discipline that needs specific training. So, always ask the Coach how he trained in coaching, which school he attended, and the duration of the course (at least 100 hours).
Certifications, credentials, or similar
In most countries, it is not necessary to have a document certifying the skills of a Coach in order to practice the profession. However, having a certification, a credential, or an acknowledgment from any independent organization presupposes that the person has undergone a process of verifying their professional skills. Of course, the verifier cannot be the same organization that provided the Coaching training and the Coach cannot be part of the body that dictated the guidelines of the certification process.
Associations
Membership in professional associations is a feature increasingly requested by Coaching clients and in particular by companies. The most important association in terms of size and global diffusion is certainly the International Coaching Federation (ICF), with over 40,000 members and present in almost all countries of the world. By statute, ICF does not provide Coaching but is dedicated to establishing the professional and ethical guidelines of Coaching and verifying that its associates respect them.
ICF is not the only association of Coaches. At the local level, there are many and in some countries they are very representative.
Coaching experience
A good question to ask the Coach is how many hours of Coaching he has done and in what areas. It's a bit like asking a pilot how many flight hours he has on his flight log. It is useful information to understand the degree of experience of the Coach and, considering that the certifications we mentioned above are often based on the hours of Coaching accumulated, if a Coach does not have an idea of what to answer it may not be a good sign. We can consider a Coach as an established professional from 500 hours of Coaching up.
Previous experience or provenance
A much-debated topic, especially in corporate coaching, is whether or not the coach should come from the sector in which the company operates. From the point of view of Coaching theory, the answer is certainly no, because the Coach is responsible for the self-learning process, not for the content of the sessions. However, there are Coaches who specialize in certain areas and this can be helpful from the point of view of understanding a certain language, which could be specific to that sector. For example, the typical language of the fashion industry is completely different from the language used in the IT field.
Teaching or publications
Another factor indicative of the level of competence of a Coach could be the constant teaching in the Coaching training course, perhaps also accredited by one of the bodies or associations mentioned above. Teaching Coaching involves further training and a continuous review of the skills of this profession. This is an added value, as are books, publications, and articles that talk about coaching or stable collaboration with specilized magazines.
Chemistry
But the real determining factor is the "chemistry" that the Client perceives when he meets the Coach for the first time. If there is a connection, affinity, and that feeling of dealing with someone who understands and values us, then this criterion will trump all previous ones. Following a Coaching program mainly means creating a Partnership with the Coach, a person to whom the Client can entrust their stories, their secrets, their desires, and much, much more. For this reason, if there is immediately the right chemistry, everything becomes easier and faster.
Three is the magic number
A good practice is to meet at least three Coaches before deciding who to work with. This practice, which has been a bit lost lately, is called (of course) "Chemistry Meeting".
Luca Berni, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Luca Berni is an Executive & Team Coach that works with Leaders, Top Managers, Entrepreneurs, Boards of Directors, and Leadership Teams. Before becoming a Coach in 2009, he worked as a Manager in different Multinational companies in different Countries for almost twenty years. Luca also works as a management consultant, he co-founded and runs TheNCS The Neuroscience Coaching School, and he writes articles and books about Coaching and Management.
