What should you look for in a Leadership Coach?

It is interesting to see more and more people these days introducing themselves as a “Leadership Coach” or as an “Executive Coach”! The whole thing gets even more interesting (and certainly annoying!) when I’m going over their LinkedIn profile and I realize that the so-called “Coaches” have never spent a single day in the corporate world, and worst of all, they've never been through any internationally accredited coach training program yet.

That said and to help HR Directors, CEOs and prospective Clients (ie Coachees) determine what to look for during their search for the right Coach, I put together a couple of relevant questions for them to ask before proceeding further and partnering with a Leadership Coach.

Here you are:

1. Check their Business understanding and Experience level. What is their own background and core expertise? what is their thought leadership and their view on what Executive Coaching is about? are they equipped with industry experience that will prove useful to the coaching engagement?

2. Professional Certification. What internationally accepted credentials do they carry? Though there are many different coaching schools that issue their own credentials, there’s only one independent credentialing body in the industry that sets the standard for what coaching is and isn’t: the International Coaching Federation (ICF).

3. Coaching methodology: What does a “typical” client process look like if you were to work with them? to what degree are they able to provide you with clarity as to what working with them may look and feel like?

4. Outcomes: Will there be clear, measurable and agreed learning outcomes? How will the outcomes of the coaching engagement be measured and evaluated against?

5. What is their understanding of Ethics around Coaching? What about Confidentiality, how will this be ensured? The first International Coaching Federation (ICF) principle is about ethics!

6. Are they able to provide you with credible references and client testimonials? What concrete results have been achieved by their previous clients? What would be the investment involved for a Coaching engagement, what is included and what would be charged as an extra service?

7. What leadership/personality assessment tools will they use and what is the concrete value of using these tools to support the Coaching initiative and outcomes? Are they certified as a coach/assessor to administer the recommended tools? who will have access to the results?

Some of the most well-known and highly respected assessment tools globally: GLA 360, Hogan Personality Assessment, DISC Assessment, and Emotional Intelligence Assessment EQ-i 2.0?.

I’m sure that going through the above criteria will certainly increase the likelihood of you landing the ideal Executive Coach. The price of partnering with “wanna be” coaches who have never had the opportunity to “get their feet wet” and are not International Coaching Federation credential-holders is certainly too high!

For further details, kindly drop me a note at: [email protected]