What makes a good coach trainer?

Whether you are new to the coaching industry, or whether you’re someone who is looking to update your skills and qualifications, you’ll need to choose a coach trainer. But, just like any other industry, the level of service you receive can vary.

You want to be a brilliant coach, not mediocre and therefore, choosing the right trainer becomes essential – you want someone who is competent, intelligent and able to give you the best learning experience, as well as someone who will be able to get the best from you.

But how can you do that? What makes a good coach trainer? What sorts of things should you look for when choosing one? What factors make the difference between average and excellent? In this article, I reveal the seven factors you should consider that will ensure you find excellence in whatever coach training provider you work with.

1. Experience

When it comes to experience, you should remember that being a coach and being a coach trainer, are two very different things.

Both require a unique set of skills, and just because someone is a successful and competent coach, it does not necessarily follow that they will be an effective coach trainer. Equally, you wouldn’t want a someone who has little experience in being a coach to teach you “how”. Instead, you want to ensure they have experience and a good reputation in both areas.

It is also essential that your coach trainer has continued to study and expand their knowledge within their field. Just like any industry, coaching evolves. To become a great coach, you need a trainer who has kept their skills up-to-date and can demonstrate how this has worked in practice, based on their experience.

While someone will always have a specialism, it’s crucial that your trainer should have a range of qualifications covering numerous modalities.

After all, there is no such thing as one-solution-for-all.

Therefore, to offer your clients the best service and results, you need to have a range of tools and techniques that you can draw on. This can only happen if your coach trainer can offer variety in their training and teach you how to choose and use the most effective tool(s) to help your client make the transformation they desire.

2. Knowledge of Education Principles

You might also want to consider whether they have any qualifications and experience related to best practice in training and education. Knowing your subject well is not enough to create a powerful development experience. You also need to understand the different ways in which people learn, including their learning styles, how information is processed and applied.

And there is a difference between school teachers, who are trained in pedagogical teaching methods and those who are trained in adult education. Because adult learners have different needs to children when it comes to developing competence in any skill. Someone who has qualifications in adult education principles is far better equipped to create dynamic learning experiences than someone with a background in the classroom.

A coach trainer who has this kind of training, as well as experience in designing and facilitating a range of development programs for adult learners will ensure that they offer you the opportunity learn in a way that is most impactful and beneficial to you.

You want to be applying your new found skills and knowledge long after the program comes to an end. And someone who knows how to create and facilitate a learning experience that enables you to build competence and confidence as a coach will have you doing just that.

3. Knowing the small group of students

The value of this cannot be underestimated. Imagine for a moment that you begin to struggle with an aspect of the training. It might be a small concept, but it doesn’t quite make sense to you. Everyone else seems to have grasped it with ease, and you don’t want to make a fuss – it’ll probably come to you at some point, and so you continue. Yet, future training builds on the bit of information you didn’t quite grasp (learning is like that – a series of building blocks layered for competence, confidence and mastery).

If you are part of a program that has a hundred or so participants, the fact you’ve not understood something is going to go unnoticed. With so many people to engage with and pay attention to, the trainer won’t spot those early tell-tale signs that you’re falling behind. Instead, it will only become apparent much further into the training when it’s clear that you’re unable to fully utilise the techniques you’ve been taught.

Of course, when there is only a small cohort, the trainer develops a deep understanding of all their students. This enables them to quickly spot when someone is struggling or hasn’t quite grasped something fully. They are then able to offer immediate intervention and additional support to you, so that you can continue your progress with ease.

4. Focused on coach training

We’ve all seen it – somebody online proclaims to be a specialist in something and then the following month they’ve jumped niche, industry or focus and are now an expert in something else. However, with a coach trainer, you want someone who is an expert, someone who is dedicated to their profession and not jumping from the next best thing to the next best thing in a bid to get to 6 or 7 figures.

In the same way that you wouldn’t want your Neurosurgeon to have their attention split by other businesses or programs or offerings, the same is true for your Coach Trainer.

Coach training needs to be their “thing”. Because YOU deserve that.

Being an excellent coach trainer requires a dedicated, laser focus – developing exceptional coaches.

Nurturing, teaching and supporting coaches as they develop and embed new skills takes time. It’s literally a full-time job. And if someone is fully focussed on this role, then you know that they are prioritising you and your success over marketing the next thing to their audience.

If someone tries to offer coach training as well as running other businesses or programs then their attention is split, and this risks them not being able to give their trainees the support or quality experience they need to become an exceptional coach.

5. Continued professional development

It’s vital that your coach trainer has a thirst for learning themselves. You want them to demonstrate a desire to seek new knowledge and experiences and to translate and apply those in the real world.

Having a passion for education and making sure that they are up to date with the latest developments in research and best practice are key to you having the best possible learning experience yourself.

6. Business experience

It’s all very well receiving training to be a coach. However, all that training and learning becomes useless if you lack business knowledge. To be a successful coach, you need clients, and that means running a business.

Don’t worry, you don’t need a degree in marketing or sales, but you do need to develop these and other key skills. For example, you need to know to identify your target market and niche, be able to create marketing strategies that will get you clients and understand key financial information such as your profit margin and turnover figures. Then there’s the administrative side with contracts for clients and various policies. All of this can be overwhelming without the right support.

If a coach trainer is serious about helping you to be the best coach, they will also ensure that they also help you to build and run a business. With well over a decade’s worth of experience running businesses and in business training and development, I’ve ensured that this support is integrated within the Mindset Coach Academy training. That way, you develop and implement the skills and knowledge needed in a manageable way.

7. Chemistry

You will work closely with your coach trainer, and therefore, it’s essential to consider their personality and how that will fit with you. For example, my clients appreciate that I am caring and supportive but will also hold them accountable for getting the work done. This allows them to share when things are tough but doesn’t allow them to procrastinate and make excuses – they make progress and get results in a timely way.

They also comment on my warmth and genuine desire to help them achieve more. This has cultivated a real community feel amongst the group, which inspires them to continue learning and improving. For me, this is important as learning is extended within groups with members discussing and developing ideas.

Ultimately, you want a coach trainer who will inspire you – they should be a role model of excellence who encourages you to be the same. Rather than working with someone who tells you the sorts of things you should do, you want a trainer who shows you through their own actions. Anyone can tell you what to do, but living it is much harder. Look for someone who implements their advice and always seeks to be their very best.

Move away from the bandwagon

For me, becoming a coach or a coach trainer is not a decision to be taken lightly. It requires real dedication and passion. Since I became a coach and trainer over 20 years ago, I’ve continued expanding my knowledge. I’ve trained in a range of modalities such as hypnotherapy, timeline therapy and NLP. I gained an adult education qualification to ensure I could design and create a curriculum that gives my trainee coaches confidence, competence, and fantastic learning experiences. I’ve built my own successful business and supported many other coaches to do the same.

Becoming a coach trainer is not something you do on a whim. Sadly, it is fast becoming the latest bandwagon – business owners who want to make even more money see it as the next shiny thing they should try.

Unfortunately, that makes your job of finding the right one, much harder. However, these seven tips will help you to identify credible and successful coach trainers. Before committing, make sure you have a call with the trainer and ask them questions based on what you’ve learned in this article. If they’re not willing to share details or they try to dodge your questions, then move on – they should be happy to share.

And of course, if you’re interested in training to become a Mindset Coach, you can find out more about my Mindset Coach Academy here and book a call with me here if you’d like to ask questions – I’m more than happy to answer them.

Originally published at https://mindsetcoachacademy.com