How do I choose a good business coach?

With an abundance of potential business coaches to choose from, the exciting and potentially career-changing decision to collaborate with one may suddenly come to an abrupt halt.

Thankfully, there are key traits and characteristics that good business coaches share – graciously narrowing our field of choice for us.

While this is not exhaustive, it includes the key things to observe and discover. Not only does this decision have the capability to change your career trajectory – it may also give you the opportunity to evolve and grow personally.

Thus, choosing a business coach is something that should be viewed as an immense opportunity; a chance for change.

We want to maximise the return we see from investing in a business coach. In order to ensure this is likely to happen, we need to be selective with whom we choose to share the ups and downs of the entrepreneurial road with.

Listening is not an innate ability. It is a skill.

Consider times when you have reached out to family or friends. Have you found that the dialogue shifts from the challenge you are dealing with, to a similar experience they had? Or, worse… to what they think you should do?

A good coach should then be able to summarise what you have shared, demonstrating that they have heard and understood you. This will assist the coach in asking further questions and guiding you into finding your own solutions.

In your coaching session, you should be given the space to speak freely about challenges or opportunities without interruption.

When people come to us with their challenges or opportunities, without having the skill to listen, we are usually thinking about what we should say next, our next big idea for them. Therefore, we’re not actively listening, and we’re in a more reactive than responsive state which is not useful for the person sharing.

A good coach is able to make you feel comfortable and safe almost immediately.

This means the space feels less about their ego, and more about you feeling at home with them.

This allows you to be able to open up, be vulnerable and be your authentic self – which in turn means you will get the most out of your sessions.

The importance of trust between you and your coach cannot be emphasised enough – this is key to any relationship but especially in one where you will be diving into deeply personal conversations.

You should never feel judged in your coaching sessions… challenged perhaps, but never judged.

Your sessions should be a guilt-free space for you to be completely honest.

Curiosity is key to a good coaching relationship.

You might come to your session with a specific view of a situation. A good coach will challenge you on your views and thinking, for a number of reasons.

It may be that you’re holding onto something in your comfort zone that isn’t serving you anymore. Another reason could be that what you’re seeing as a challenge is actually an opportunity for growth.

Asking questions is another element of strong listening skills (as addressed previously). This is because it is important for a good coach to clarify exactly what about your challenges are blocking you from moving forward.

If you are seeking coaching because you are feeling despondent or overwhelmed, you don’t really want your coach to encourage you to stay in that space by just agreeing with you about how hard things are.

Although, yes, a good coach can acknowledge that a specific situation might be challenging – they should ultimately be guiding you to be able to view it in a different light. One that encourages growth and solutions; not stagnation and giving up.

A good coach is also able to empower you to have more self-belief. Confidence can get knocked for numerous reasons, but a good coach knows how to guide you in building yourself up to the point that you can trust your instincts and decision-making abilities. This may be through structured reflection and celebrating successes, as well as identifying your weaker areas and setting clear goals for you to achieve.

It depends on what you’re looking for.

Business coaches are human, with different experiences, temperament and subjections. Which personality aligns with you and your goals will ultimately depend on what you need.

A good business coach is able to work with a variety of industry roles. Business coaching is not industry-specific, but you should ask yourself what you are looking to get out of your coaching relationship.

The most important thing is that you meet with a variety of coaches and feel out which of them connect on a more personal level.

Although most coaches tend to call themselves something within a specific niche – e.g. life coach, creativity coach or business coach, the actual coaching skills are transferable across all of these disciplines.

Remember coaching is not mentoring – although the line can get blurry from time to time.

Mentoring will give you more direct answers to your questions whereas coaching requires more of a self-directive process for the coachee.

A creative coach may be more focused on identifying self-sabotaging patterns and helping you with your mindset and ideas, whereas a more analytical coach may be looking at the areas of your business that you are not performing as highly in, and solely giving practical advice on strategies to improve.

For example, if you’re a woman, you might want a female coach to work with you to help you in changing stereotypes in your industry, or even the way you feel about yourself.

You might find that you need someone who is of a different temperament to you, in order to give you the confidence in taking action that you might not have otherwise considered.

For example, if you are quite agreeable, having a coach who isn’t as agreeable as you may help you excel as you wont be so focused on avoiding conflicts or the need to be liked.

Then again, you might find the views of someone different to you to feel quite refreshing and give you an alternative perspective.

Business coaching often straddles the line of personal and business development.

Every session is different and generally the deep-seated challenges that need to be discussed come up organically.

If you’re in a good space personally, your business is more likely to thrive. Although you and your business are two separate entities, it’s important to keep this distinction in mind.

If you are looking after your personal wellbeing it will be easier to encourage your business’ wellbeing.

Your decision-making abilities will increase because it will become more intuitive than desperate.

What tends to happen in a coaching relationship is that depending on the support you need at the time, the type of coaching might shift.

For example, if you have hired a business coach and are finding you are struggling with goal setting, your coach may move into an accountability coach role. Another example would be if you’re struggling to let go of habits that aren’t serving you, the coaching relationship might turn into one focusing on transformation.

The support you acquire through your entrepreneurial journey will undoubtedly shape the experience you have.

While you seek the help you need, there are factors both you and your potential coach will need to consider. In order to maximise the value you receive from your coach, you must ask yourself what it is exactly that you are in need of support with.

Not only this, but your coach should be able to demonstrate, confidently, that they are understanding of these needs and can offer a clear trajectory of progress.

This can manifest in their personality, temperament, experience and the-like. Seek as many potential coaches as you can, and discover who aligns with your personal and business goals.