Showing your competence and credibility

There are so many coaches out there. How do you give confidence to your potential clients that you can do the job? In other words, how do you convince the client that you are competent to coach them or their team??

Your coaching credential is the most direct way. Showing you are an International Coaching Federation (ICF)’s member with the ACC, PCC or MCC credential will directly inform your client that you had undergone and met the established coaching standards required of an international coaching body. Similarly you may also show your credentials with the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) or other coaching bodies. ?

Your coaching credential means you have undergone formal coach training and attained a certain level of experience. This is essential, but may not be sufficient to convince your client that you are the right person for them. Continuing the theme of “Getting Started As A Professional Coach”, this article focuses on developing your track record as a concrete way to demonstrate your coaching capabilities and credibility.

Below are 10 ways. You may not need all 10, but certainly a few of them are needed to strengthen your case. Where possible, show the qualitative and quantitative results or outcomes as clients are often looking for their ROIs.?

1) List the organizations of the people whom you have coached and their job levels. You can provide a list or to display their logos. Logos can have good visual impact. (For this reason, I prefer to use powerpoint slides to write my profile as there is more flexibility to add images). By displaying your clientele, your potential client may identify with the industry or some of the organizations. Your experience with a particular industry or company may be important to the client as it gives them confidence that you have some understanding of their operating environment. ?

2) List some of the common issues faced by your clients. This information will help your client to have a good idea of your range of coaching experiences and capabilities. It helps raise the comfort level that the client has with you. It is quite normal for a client, who is looking for a coach, to ask you specific questions as to how you coach such a person. For example, a department head approached me and spent the bulk of the time wanting to know how I would coach a dysfunctional team to improve their performance. When providing such information, do aggregate and summarize the information to ensure client confidentiality is maintained.

When talking about your experiences, be discreet and not name your client’s organization or person. A client that hears you speak about another organization by name will also be sure that you are going to talk about them when you speak with other clients. This is not providing comfort and confidence to them, even though you are fully qualified to help them. The only exception when I mentioned an organization by name is when I have the client’s permission to do so. Otherwise I will only mention the industry. Eg. “I have a client in the ship-building industry …..” . The other exception is when I am conducting coach certification training where the names of specific organizations may be mentioned to enable more learning in the classroom, much like a case study.?

3) Clients’ testimonies. Clients’ testimonies are powerful statements. This is especially valuable when the person giving the testimony is someone senior in an established or well-known organization. As they are often busy people, having them write a testimony for you is telling your client that what you have done for them must have been very significant (otherwise they would not have taken the time and effort to write). The confidence in your competence and credibility increases when several clients say almost similar things about your coaching strengths. As it takes time to accumulate testimonies, it is?a good practice to collect testimonies or feedback as you conclude each coaching assignment.??

4) Tell your stories.?You can also tell your stories - who you have helped, what and how you have helped and the outcomes. These personal stories are immensely powerful because you were the coach. You were there in the thick of actions. You can tell your story as part of your conversation with your client. You can also summarize it as “an example of a real case” …… telling the who, what, why, how and so what. This story can be on slides or written as an article.

A potential client contacted me through a referral. In our first email exchange, she requested that I sent to her my profile and any change management work that I had done (she was obviously looking for someone to help her with some change management work). I had my real cases ready and was able to respond very quickly. A few days later she invited me for a discussion with her team. Let your stories speak for you.?

5) Let the clients tell their stories. What is more powerful than to let the beneficiaries of your coaching to tell their stories for you. The trust and believability go up many notches when your clients advocate for you. If you have a close enough relationship, you can ask for their story directly.

There are many ways of doing this. They can write their story for you. They can narrate and you write their story for them. You can invite them to a seminar (or webinar) and have them share their experiences with the audience (the advantage: you have a video recording and the transcript can be re-purposed to become an article).

One principle I often keep in mind:?Always make it easy for the client. It is easier for the client to say “yes’ when it does not require too much time and effort from them.?

6) Be an author. The root word of “authority” is ‘author”.?Presumably, an author is an authority on that subject. This is the perception that people usually have. They are not wrong. To write a book take tremendous time and effort (assuming you are writing and not a ghost writer). Research work is needed. Time is needed to incubate some of the ideas. It takes time to put your experiences on paper.?The 1-3 years that you spend on the book writing project will not doubt make you very knowledgeable on that subject.?

My first book in 2017 “Coaching in the Moment - How busy leaders can make greater impact with less time” established me as someone who is competent on coaching.

My second book, “Shared Leadership Disciplines??— A better way to lead and coach”, which will be published in Mar/April this year, is jointly authored with my master coach, Ernie Turner. This book helps to promote Leadership In Motion LLC, our parent company, as the creator of “Shared Leadership Disciplines?.?The book also establishes both of us as having good knowledge on the topic.?

Building on my writing momentum, I have just started writing my 3rd book, “Coaching Professionally — Starting the journey right”.

7) Publish articles.?Publishing articles is another concrete way of establishing yourself in your chosen field. Linkedin provides us with a very good platform to start. You also have the right audience who would be interested in your contents. You can create a LinkedIn newsletter and publish your writing regularly. It is very critical that you have a clear theme and focus. It must be aligned with the brand that you are building. You can also contribute your article to a professional or trade magazines. Such magazines are often looking for contributors.?

8) Speak about the subject.?Writing is one thing. Speaking about it is another. You can be a presenter in a seminar or webinar. Create the content and market it to the relevant organizer. All event organizers are trying to get presenters on FOC basis, in exchange for publicity. Sometimes you get asked. I remembered the words of my first master coach (KC Lee) in 2009. Whenever anyone ask you to be a speaker, say yes first, then worry about how you will deliver it. Very often, our first reaction is defensive.?We shy away.?Do not turn down a good opportunity.?

If no one invites you, you can also think of organizing your own webinar, perhaps with a few partners. Webinar has almost zero financial risk, except for your time and effort. From the point of developing your track record, featuring you as a key presenter speaks a lot about your expertise. The number of people who turn up for your webinar is secondary.

With social media, you can also create your own video channel and establish yourself as an authority on the subject.

Appearing on public radios is also a very good way to show your competency. Only people who are credible (real or perceived) will be invited to speak or to make an appearance. Being invited to speak at an event or radio is easier if you have a relevant job role, have an interesting experience to share or you are an author with good contents.?

9) Quantify your results.?Let the numbers speak for themselves. This is an important approach to establishing your competency and credibility. Find ways to measure the effectiveness of your coaching. A simple way is to convert your qualitative measures to a quantitative measure.

For example, you can ask a qualitative question such as: “How effective is your coach in helping you with your coaching objectives?”. The ratings are: 5) Very effective.?4) Effective ?3) Average?2) Below average 1) Poor If you ask a few of the questions using the same rating scale of 1 to 5, you can average the results and have a numerical score. Eg. Overall your rating for that particular engagement is 4.2.?

You can measure the “before”, “after” and the “in-between progress”. You can measure results and obtain feedback from your coachee. You can also obtain feedback from their supervisors, peers and direct reports.

The quantitative measurements, together with the qualitative comments, provide the client very concrete evidences of their progress, and indirectly, your coaching effectiveness.

The plan to collect feedback is best discussed at the beginning of an engagement. This will ensure there are clear expectations and commitment right from the start of the engagement, with no avoidable surprises along the way.

10) Your professional brand. What do you want to be known as and know for in your market? When I started out in 2010, I wanted to be known as a “Leadership Coach who helps leaders and organizations to be higher performing”.?This is my mission statement. My purpose:?To create a better world by having more effective leaders and teams at all levels of the organization. From here, I keep building on this brand consistently for the next 10 years.

Start your branding early so that you can build on it. Your brand can only get stronger as you reinforce it with the work you do.

Conclusion. There is no shortage of ideas on what you can do to building your track record. From the above 10, there could be areas that are new to you. You just need to get out of your comfort zone and move to the learning zone. Today’s learning zone will become your tomorrow’s comfort zone. Using a combination of the above 10 ways will enable your client to have confidence in you as a competent and credible coach.?

In the next article, I will continue on this theme of “Getting started as a professional coach”.?The topic:?Your profile.

Best

Tan Swee Heng

Coach Supervisor & Mentor Coach, MCC, ICF Advanced Certification In Team Coaching (ACTC),?Head of Shared Leadership Team Coaching Academy

PS: The Shared Leadership Team Coaching Academy offers the following help:

1. Help you to be a competent and confident certified Shared Leadership Team Coach with more than 40 tools in your tool kit (26th Team Coach Certification Program starting on 16 Mar 2023)?https://www.limglobal.net/learning

2) Help you to attain your ICF Level 1 certificate for your ACC credentialing

3) Help you to attain the ICF's Advanced Certification in Team Coaching (ACTC)

4) Help you to become a more effective coach through monthly Group Supervision for Coaches https://www.limglobal.net/coach-supervision-program

5) Help you with your Coach Mentoring for your ICF credentials https://www.limglobal.net/coach-mentoring-program

You can email me for more information ([email protected]) or check out the website: https://www.limglobal.net/learning