How to choose your professional coach

I speak with a lot of executives, middle managers and HR partners, who are thinking of getting coaching sessions for themselves or their company and employees, and all of them are not sure how to choose the right specialist, the one, who will be professional, affordable financially and will not make harm to the person?

So, I thought it might be beneficial to talk about the professional coaching, what to look at when you are choosing a specialist and what to avoid. There are several professional coaching federations, such as ICF (International Coaching Federation) based in USA and established in 1995 by a Professional Coach Thomas Leonard, and EMCC (European Mentoring and Coaching Centre), rebranded in 2002, but originally launched in 1992 by David Megginson and David Clutterbuck as a EMC (European Mentoring Center).

These institutions are non-profit and are keeping the standards of coaching at a high level. There are metrics, specific competencies and their markers which a professional coach needs to demonstrate before he will be granted a certification of a successfully passed exam. Both organizations are closely monitoring the level of their alumnus. The applicant to the professional coach needs to pass a 3 hour test, needs to pass assessment of a coaching session, which is done by high-level professional coaches and mentors and has to demonstrate a high level of congruency and empathy.

Ethichs. A professional coach is working according to the coaching ethics and his main concern is to do no harm to the client. Coaches never suggest to their coachees (another word to describe a client) what to do, how to act, will never criticize, objectify or judge the client or someone the client is referring to.

A professional coach who follows ethics, is working with a 50% or 100% pre-payment but always is open to return to the client the unused amount of the money in case the client is not willing to continue coaching, the situation has changed, the need is not there or any other reason.

As well as if the client is not happy with the professionalism of the coach, they always can complain to the organization about the particular coach. In my case, my certification organization is ICF and if the client is not happy with how do I follow ethics and keep the confidentiality agreement – the client can complain to the ICF.

“Chemistry Session”. A professional coach is always (!) have a chemistry session with the client. It is important, because during this session the client gets to know how coaching is working, what it is doing and what is not, learning all the do’s and don’ts in coaching and what coaching is good for – yes, it’s not a universal aspirin which you can use when you have a cold and when you have a headache.

The “chemistry” session can be paid or not, paid in case you will also get a short demonstration of how coaching is done. But it’s not a rule.

Confidentiality. Coaches are similar to psychologists – they do keep the confidentiality of what they are discussing with their clients. There are only several occasions when they can break it – if they sense that the client is not feeling well and might think of some kind of a self-harm or in court, when they are summoned.

GDPR. Coaches do keep track of their clients and the hours they have worked as coaches – this is how they can confirm to the federation that they have really spent that time coaching. So every client of a professional coach is asked to sign a GDPR document, where agrees that some of the personal data will be stored in a secure place by the coach in order to prove the work they are doing.

Result guarantee. A professional coach will never guarantee you a particular result. Why is that? Simply because a coach can’t be responsible of the client’s results, as this is completely up to them. A coach can help become aware of the blind spots of the client, but can not gain more motivation, passion or skills to go and get the goal. Hope you agree with me!

Feel free to ask more through a contract form if you’re looking into a professional coach and currently is in the process of choosing one for yourself or your organization.