If you’re thinking about getting a leadership coach, I applaud you. I truly believe everyone can benefit from having a coach, and there’s no better time like the present to get this work started! Coaches can bring clarity, focus, and structure to your work like no other-and are a valuable perspective for any leader given the challenges inherent in the role.

Finding the RIGHT coach though, is a little like dating. You may need to shop around a bit, interview some candidates, and consider a whole bunch of different factors before actually choosing someone to work with. Spoiler alert…you won’t click with everyone you try out, either. 

The dictionary defines coaching as a verb as “to instruct or guide in a particular field or skill”). I have (and have had) coaches in many different areas of my life: professionally as I grew into various leadership roles, personally as a parent and breadwinner. I have my financial advisor, who’s my money coach. I have my own leadership coach, who helps advise me in my business decisions. When I first started looking for each of these coaches, I considered a number of things. Here’s a few: 

1. Why/my motivations 

2. The coach’s area of expertise

3. The future goals  I wanted to achieve

Why/my motivations

It’s important to dig deep and really think about the motivating factors behind this decision. Get to the root of WHY you are seeking a coach and remember, there’s no right or wrong reason!

There are SO many possible answers to this question: a popular one is that folks tell me they are stuck in a rut and don’t know why or how to get unstuck. Others tell me they feel like a fraud, need some validation, want to extend their fields of vision, or need someone to talk to who doesn’t have a stake in the ground.

Once you figure out why you want a coach, you can turn your attention to what kind of person will best meet your needs. 

Area of expertise 

When looking for a coach, if there’s something specific you want to work on, you will want to seek out a guide who has the right qualifications and experience. Sometimes it’s folks who want to reimagine part of their work, others need guidance innovating, and others want to improve a specific skill. If you want to work on staff culture and motivating your team as a new manager, you wouldn’t want to hire a coach who doesn’t have management experience or experience turning around staff culture! Be sure to check for evidence that a potential coach has success stories doing what you want to improve upon: both through their own achievements and in working with clients.

Future goals

Visualize yourself six months from now. What do you want to be true? What do you want to have accomplished? When you get clear on your long term goals, you can focus in on the short term goals necessary to help you get there. A coach can be really supportive in this. Maybe you aren’t sure what those short term goals should be. The right coach can guide you to focusing on the right things! 

When you’re figuring out if a coach is right for you, talk to them about where you want to be in six months. Ask about their experience in helping a leader in a similar position get from A to B. Then, see if you think you could have a similarly successful journey with their help.

Stay tuned for part two…I have a few other things I would recommend you consider as well! If you don’t want to miss these actionable, practical resources, make sure to sign up for my newsletter here, where you will always be in the loop on this.