The Three Crucial Questions for Hiring a Coach

The coaching industry is chaotic and confusing and even trying to define 'coaching' can be challenging. This simple word seems to encompass everything from simple performance development to deep therapeutic transformation and coaches may everything from be masters of their craft to poorly trained 'snake-oil' salesmen (or women).

In selecting a coach, we need to be understand whether a coach will be a good 'fit' to a client and their needs. We need to consider whether the coaches practice will suit the work and whether, their professional veneer, do they actually have the skills and character needed. We need to assess whether a coach even be harmful to a clients development and wellbeing.

Since I began engaging coaches as an HR leader, and now as the director responsible for the coaching practice at Heresy Consulting, I have found that there are three crucial questions which any good coach will be able to answer immediately...and which will reveal a great deal about their work.

Where did you train and why?

There are many different forms of training available to coaches. Some are rigorous and grounded in solid theory and practice, and others are superficial and largely spurious. The training does not guarantee the quality of the coach, but it does indicate the seriousness and intent with which they entered the profession: Were they were seeking a deep immersion into the craft of coaching, or a 'quick and dirty' qualification?

The training a coach has chosen will also provide a good insight into the coaches underlying philosophy and approach, and the way in which this has since developed: Were they trained to take a more behavioural approach, working to achieve tangible goals and objectives; or was that training more geared to supporting an internal journey, working 'below the surface' with underlying motivations and beliefs? The difference will be crucial, depending on whether we want to support a young leader transitioning into their first management role, or a seasoned executive who is seeking to find meaning in their work and a purpose for their life.

I have also worked with untrained coaches, and some have been excellent, but I would urge a great deal of caution here. Training provides a solid framework which helps form the coach, and without which a coach risks developing a 'wild coaching' practice with its associated ethical risks. To be able to adapt to the particular needs of a client, all coaches still need a grounded baseline of theory and practice to adapt from!

What continuing professional development did you complete in the last twelve months?

Regardless of the quality of a coaches initial training, their practice needs to be continually refreshed and refined and their participation in continuing professional development will reveal their overall attitude to learning. Learning requires humility and openness to change, knowing that we are always evolving and can never be 'the finished article'. Coaches who engage with their own continuing professional development are better placed to encourage their clients in the their own development process. A coaches continuing professional development track record, will also reveal the themes that may inform their current practice and therefore the possible 'fit' to an assignment.

What are your supervision arrangements?

Supervision is a fundamental requirement for good coaching practice. It allows the coach to have a sounding board to help make sense of more complex or emotionally demanding assignments, and ensures that their own practice remains ethical. In supervision coaches may develop new perspectives on their clients and themselves and discover new ways of working. They can reflect fully on their own motivations and on the extent to which their own needs (psychological or material) may influence their work. Supervision is in itself an indicator of whether a coach takes their own practice (and therefore the wellbeing of their clients) seriously. I would be wary of any coach who does not have access to a qualified and appropriate supervisor, on at least an adhoc basis.

In any coaching assignment, we place our trust in the capacity of a coach to guide their clients through their developmental journey...whatever that happens to be. The coach may use tools or techniques, but the outcome will always be a test of the coaches own craft. A coach that takes that seriously enough to invest in it may well be worth trusting.

Laurence Barrett has coached senior leaders and led change programmes for international organisations for over 30 years. He trained as a coach and a supervisor at the Tavistock Institute. He holds an MSc in Analytical (Jungian) Psychology from the British Psychotherapy Foundation and an MBA from Lancaster University. He also holds a Foundation Certificate in Group Analysis from the Institute of Group Analysis and a Certificate in Ecopsychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute...and he is in weekly supervision with a Jungian Analyst!