How To Find The Coach You Need

Do you think a star athlete has a super coach behind them?

Sports stars and titans of business alike leverage the knowledge, experience and unique skill sets of professional coaches.

Photo courtesy of Forbes Coaches Council and Shutterstock and a version of this article was originally published through Forbes Coaches Council.

A coach is your sounding board, your confidant and your safe place to grow and explore, to challenge yourself and see yourself in ways perhaps you take for granted or cannot yet see in yourself. You and your coach peek under the covers and do a bit of navel gazing. They’re working with you to meet your goals, holding you accountable and supporting you when you stumble. They’re also your champion and cheerleader, standing beside you, celebrating you and your wins. It sounds amazing, doesn’t it? Coaches can be like your secret silent partner, tucked away in your back pocket.

Coaches offer services on many topics, with some specializing in areas like leadership, business, communication, work and life fit, health or wellness, while others are generalists.

The opportunity to find a coach to fit your needs is limitless, so how do you find the best coach for you? First, let’s take a look at some of the exciting changes that are happening in the profession.

Real Or Make Believe?

Recently, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) launched an investigation and is taking fraudulent coaching practices to court: a move strengthening the coaching profession.

Coaching is a relatively new profession, and more and more, coaches are becoming certified with credible organizations like the International Coaching Federation, which offers a registry where you can check a coach’s credentials.

Your Coaching Checklist

Are all coaches equal? Unfortunately not — so here are some proven ways to help you navigate hiring the best coach to get the results you want and deserve.

Credentialing And Credibility

1. What is their professional designation? This is important to know, as you want to work with a coach who’s received credible professional training and accreditation.

2. Where did they study? As there are many ways to obtain coach education, be sure to ask what school they attended so you can assess the depth and quality of their education.

3. What are their professional affiliations? Beyond their studies and accreditation, ask what organizations they belong to. Are they members of a local business board of trade or other professional associations or volunteer organizations? This will give you a sense of who the coach really is and their broader interests.

Assessing Expertise

1. How long have they been in practice? Are they a seasoned veteran or new to the profession? What level of experience is important to you as you select your coach?

2. Do they have an informal coaching background? It’s good to know if the coach has informal experience through special projects in the workplace or with volunteer organizations.

3. What is their area of expertise, and how long have they been specializing? You’re looking for the best fit for you, with personality matching and experience at the top of the list. Many coaches specialize in a particular field, like work-life balance, career transitions, stress management, business and professional coaching.

4. Is contacting their current clients possible? References are best checked and verified. Be prepared in advance and have your questions ready. This is a valuable way to gain a clearer understanding of the coach and how they work with their clients.

5. Are peer and colleague reviews available? Who does the coach associate with, and how do their fellow coaches hold them in regard? As we generally interact with similar, like-minded people, this knowledge will help you to see their broader circle of influence.

Peeking Behind The Curtain

1. Request a sample session and test-drive the coach so you have a real and live experience.

2. Did the session meet your needs? Were you comfortable?

3. Were you the primary focus or was the coach too self-focused?

4. Did you arrive at the session with a topic, and was your goal met?

The Fine Print

1. Do they have professional errors and omissions (E&O) insurance? This is another measure of their professionalism and commitment to their business and to you, the client.

2. Is there an agreement you can preview? Transparency is tops, so be sure to ask about important items, like payment terms, cancellation policies and confidentiality.

3. Ask for a link to their code of conduct and standards of ethics.

4. Listen to your intuition — what’s your gut telling you? Is this coach the best fit for you? If not, who can they refer you to?

Now What?

If there’s a fit, and you agree to work together, the flow might look something like this:

Do you need to be a titan of business to hire a coach? Heck, no. Us ordinary folk benefit from coaching, too. Many people come to coaching because they are already successful and want more, and I hope these tips are valuable to you as you explore your untapped potential and search for your professional coach.

Download your Coaching Checklist.

Meet Christine

Christine coaches with ROI top-of-mind and clients have seen upward of 200% ROI. Many companies who leverage her coaching produce quick and long-lasting results transforming people, processes and culture, impacting their bottom line.

Her time with clients generates powerful results in:

• Business and Personal Development
• Communication and Relationships
• Sales and Sales Leadership

Watching and learning at the feet of titans of Canada’s Wall Street and other business leaders, Coach Christine was influenced by their success and built a corporate career and coaching business founded on proven business practices.

She is an award-winning business woman and contributor to Forbes publications; is an accredited coach with the ICF; a practitioner of Conscious Business practices; is certified by the IMPACT: Coaching with ROI program; holds her First and Second Degree Reiki and has studied Aboriginal healing for over 20 years.  Christine loves the adventure of travel and has a knock-out collection of snazzy women’s shoes.

When you want more, are ready to bust obstacles and build your juicy, big life, contact me, Coach Christine Culbertson.

Together we’ll step into your untapped potential.

If You Hate To Delegate, Here’s How To Get Out Of Your Own Way

POST WRITTEN BY

Expert Panel, Forbes Coaches Council

Top business and career coaches from Forbes Coaches Council offer firsthand insights on leadership

Delegation is a necessary practice for entrepreneurs, who juggle countless responsibilities each day. However, not every business owner is comfortable handing over their reins to team members, regardless of how much they might trust their workers.

Letting go of control over certain areas of your business might make you feel uneasy, but it’s crucial to giving yourself more time to improve and grow your brand. To help you, our expert panel of Forbes Coaches Council members offered their best advice for entrepreneurs who don’t like to delegate.

Start Small And Check In Early

Trusting someone else with your baby (business) is not always easy. Start building the muscle of delegation by delegating small tasks to your team, but check in early in the process to make sure they are on track. Your teammates will appreciate your trust, and you will free up your time to focus on other areas for the good of everyone. – Billy Williams, Archegos

Delegate Your Least Favorite Thing

Identify the areas you feel least confident about (or interested in) doing yourself. The best way to encourage delegation is to focus on an area where you don’t have expertise because these tend to be projects you will more willingly relinquish control over and be somewhat forced to develop trust in others because you don’t have the time or skills manage it directly or effectively. – Tonya Echols, Thrive Coaching Solutions

Check Your Ego At The Door

I often ask over-involved leaders to explore the trick their ego may be playing. Holding onto work that others could and should be doing can be a sign of coming from a “better than” place. It can look to others like an arrogance or ego that is seemingly demeaning and dismissive to others. If that is not their intention, and it most often is not, this new self-awareness can shift their perspective. – Julie Colbrese, Hot Coffee Coaching

Treat Delegating As A Leadership Activity

Leaders who avoid delegating often are looking at it as a management activity, rather than a leadership activity. Our role as leaders is to provide learning and growth opportunities to stretch team members. If our people don’t make mistakes, we’re not providing challenging situations for them to learn and grow. Change your thoughts and beliefs about delegating and it will be easier to let go. – Laurie Sudbrink, Unlimited Coaching Solutions, Inc.

Ask Yourself If You Want Control Or Growth

Many entrepreneurs don’t grow because they are unwilling to get out of their own way. Their way often focuses on control, micromanagement and oversight. After all, that’s how they got to where they are, so they often believe it will be how they get to “the next level.” But therein lies the problem. If the entrepreneur wants to grow, it’s imperative they trust others. – John M. O’Connor, Career Pro Inc.

Figure Out What You’re ‘Getting Paid’ To Do

Frame delegation with this perspective: What do you get paid to do? Many entrepreneurs spend their time completing tasks others are paid to do and could do more efficiently — if given the opportunity. List what only you can accomplish and what is the most valuable way to spend your day. If you are bootstrapping, this becomes even more critical: What are you paid to do — or not? – Leila Bulling Towne, The Bulling Towne Group, LLC

Conduct A SWOT Analysis

So often, I coach entrepreneurs who want to hold on to everything because they “love what they do and don’t mind long hours.” But a funny thing happens when they do a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis. The realization that they can’t focus on the prize if they are doing all the jobs is an eye-opener. You have to let go to focus on your own ROI. – Laura DeCarlo, Career Directors International

Practice Delegation As A Daily Habit 

Good habits are hard to create, and creating a good habit starts with awareness. First, take three minutes at the end of each day and jot down what tasks/projects you worked on that day that you could have delegated. Do this for a couple of weeks and this will give you a list of things to delegate going forward. Then figure out who has the skill, time and passion to do that task well. – Cindy Pogrund, Paradigm Pursuits

Consider The Cost Of Delegation Versus The Potential Business Gains

Make a list of all the things you do. Methodically ask your HR manager, or research yourself, what the hourly cost would be to hire a person to do the job. For example, if you like to do the bookkeeping, the hourly rate might be $35 an hour. Now, identify where your time is best spent. You can spend three hours networking at an event where you close a deal for $3,000 — that’s $1,000 an hour. – Rick Itzkowich, Vistage Chair San Diego

Match Your Tasks To Your Team

To gain comfort with delegating, do your best to match the task or skill to a team member who either has that skill set or who would like to grow into that skill and get practice doing that task. This will not only ease your workload and burden, it will also help develop your people and show them that you as the leader care about their professional growth and illustrates how much you value them. – Lisa Downs, Downs Leadership

Create Standard Operating Procedures

There are three things that hold a person back from delegating and letting go of the reins. First, perfectionism and the need for it to be exactly right. Second, control and the need to micromanage all steps of every activity. Third, the fear of unknown. All of this is helped by creating a standard operating procedure document for every job, post and task. – Tracy Repchuk, InnerSurf Online Brand & Web Services

Experiment And Evaluate

Experiment by delegating one small task that has little consequence using this recipe for success: Give clear directions, set clear expectations, define timing, and assess the results: How did you feel before delegating and after? What worked? What didn’t? What will you do differently? Now, do it again and each time you refine your experience, you reduce risk and build successes. – Christine J. Culbertson (Boyle), Coach Christine: Building Business, Leaders and BIG Lives

Meet Coach Christine

Christine coaches with ROI top-of-mind. Many companies who leverage her coaching produce quick and long-lasting results transforming people, processes and culture, impacting their bottom line. Clients have seen upward of 200% ROI.

Her time with clients generates powerful results in:

• Business and Personal Development
• Communication and Relationships
• Sales and Sales Leadership

Watching and learning at the feet of titans of Canada’s Wall Street and other business leaders, Coach Christine was influenced by their success and built a corporate career and coaching business founded on proven business practices.

She is an award-winning business woman and contributor to Forbes publications; is an accredited coach with the ICF; a practitioner of Conscious Business practices; is certified by the IMPACT: Coaching with ROI program; holds her First and Second Degree Reiki and has studied Aboriginal healing for over 20 years.  Christine loves the adventure of travel and has a knock-out collection of snazzy women’s shoes.

When you want more, are ready to bust obstacles and build your juicy, big life, contact me, Coach Christine Culbertson.

Together we’ll step into your untapped potential.

YES! I Want More!

8 Ways to Bust Obstacles and Build Your Strengths

Imagine overcoming obstacles

knocking down barriers and leading valuable

timely conversations that are a win-win for all

Originally published through the Forbes Coaches Council.

Winning-Ways and rich relationships that are robust and productive come from clear communication. What do we need to do and who do we need to be to become master communicators and have strong relationships?

We tend to first look at others’ behaviors and attitudes, but it is the skillful leader who first turns the lens within, discovering soft spots and ways to build and grow themselves. Becoming a leader whom others want to follow (like potential clients, colleagues or teams) is about understanding the needs and wants of others while meeting your needs and expectations.

Our first order of business is understanding our mindset and attitudes and the impact they have on our personal and professional lives. If you’re in a leadership position in business, or you’re a community builder or an entrepreneur, you too will find these grit- and grin-building tools valuable.

Compass Points

Your mindset is your belief of the world, how you perceive the world and how you fit into the world. It shapes your thoughts, forming beliefs, attitudes and behaviors that create your actions.

Psychologist Carol Dweck of Stanford University wrote about two mindsets . A fixed mindset is rigid in belief and action and believes that basic characteristics, like intelligence, are a measure of success or failure. There is a continual push to prove oneself, as failure is seen as a negative. On the other hand, the growth mindset is flexible, believes in hard work, seeks to excel and doesn’t avoid failure, using it instead to improve.

Obstacles and Opportunities:

Here are important questions to ask to help understand your obstacles and grow your opportunities:

• Which is your operating mindset?
• How does it serve you?
• What’s needed or possible to change or improve?

Your mindset is one of the points on your compass, but not the only one. A positive mindset leads to resilient, gritty behavior. Resilience works in tandem with a flexible mindset, where obstacles are course-corrections rather than roadblocks.

Attitudes and Impact:

Your attitude carries a lot of weight too. Preston Ni  of Psychology Today talks about different negative attitudes and their impact on personal and professional life. Here are eight warning signs of harmful attitudes and how to bust obstacles and build your strengths:

1. Negative self-talk: “I’ll never make quota.” “I just know I’m going to fail.” “No one is interested in my opinion.” Every time we send ourselves a negative message, we undermine our confidence and even self-sabotage our success. Pay attention to the messages you give yourself — find your grit and grin beyond negativity.
2. Negative assumptions: Sometimes things go wrong. Traffic jams develop, spills happen, phone batteries die. None of these are inherently positive or negative but our response to them can be. Your choice of response can make you happier or more stressed and luckily your response is completely in your control.
3. Negative comparisons: There will always be someone with a bigger car, a higher salary, a shinier watch or a bigger boat. If you constantly measure yourself against others, you will end up stressed, dissatisfied and depressed. Focus on your accomplishments!
4. Negative ruminations about the past: We all have moments that we wish we could rewind and do over. If you botched a big presentation, instead of replaying it on a constant loop, learn from it and move on. Focusing on past failure prevents you from seeing new possibilities. Be resilient, own the past and keep moving forward.
5. Dealing with difficult people: Some people are jerks, bullies or have made passive-aggressive behavior an art form. They intimidate, threaten, manipulate facts and situations and often take advantage of others. What’s the point in fighting them, right? They always win. Except, they don’t. Instead of reacting and feeling like a victim, you can learn to use strategies and techniques to counter their behaviour and stay in control.
6. Blaming: We all know people who deflect responsibility to anyone but themselves. They are late for a meeting because the guy in the car in front of them was driving too slow, not because they didn’t allow extra time for delays. It’s often easier to blame someone else than to take ownership and accountability, but it leads to bitterness and resentment. Take ownership of your choices and actions.
7. Neglecting to forgive yourself: Mistakes happen. Learning to forgive yourself for past mistakes can be difficult. As Ni says, “There may be an accompanying sense of self-blame at the blunders made, damage done or opportunities missed. You might think of yourself as a ‘bad’ or ‘flawed’ person and wallow in guilt. During these moments, it’s extremely important to be compassionate with yourself, knowing that now that you’re more aware, you have a chance to avoid repeating past mistakes, and to make a positive difference with yourself and others.”
8. Fear of failure and making mistakes: Taking a risk and stepping out of your comfort zone can lead to great new opportunities or spectacular failure. The fear of making a mistake and failing is often tied to perfectionism. Setting high standards can be motivating and, with a flexible mindset, mistakes are opportunities to learn and course-correct. The fear of failure can be debilitating or motivating. What would you do if you weren’t afraid?

Being a leader whom others want to follow takes personal grit and strength

Though it may sound challenging, it’s very doable. Our greatest strengths are being resilient, having a growth mindset and a positive, can-do winning attitude. Take time to discover your soft spots and grow them. And remember to celebrate your strengths and Winning-Ways. Let’s keep you on track for more success and a bigger life.

Christine coaches with ROI top-of-mind. Many companies who leverage her coaching produce quick and long-lasting results transforming people, processes and culture, impacting their bottom line.

Her time with clients generates powerful results in:

• Business and Personal Development
• Communication and Relationships
• Sales and Sales Leadership

Watching and learning at the feet of titans of Canada’s Wall Street and other business leaders, Coach Christine was influenced by their success and built a corporate career and coaching business founded on proven business practices.

She is an award-winning business woman and contributor to Forbes publications; is an accredited coach with the ICF; a practitioner of Conscious Business practices; is certified by the IMPACT: Coaching with ROI program; holds her First and Second Degree Reiki and has studied Aboriginal healing for over 20 years.  Christine loves the adventure of travel and has a knock-out collection of snazzy women’s shoes.

When you want more, are ready to bust obstacles and build your juicy, big life, contact me, Coach Christine Culbertson.

Together we’ll step into your untapped potential.