If you are like me, you would love learning and growing and taking challenges.   And you want to go outside of your comfort zone and do things you have not done before. Whether it is to scale a mountain, track a path, start your own business, lean a new skill or backpack around the world.

How do you do that successfully and in the shortest time?

I would hire myself a trusted and proved coach and get some reading references and stay in forums and master minds groups. I will shorten my learning path and time and learn from the mistakes others have made before me. I am willing to pay in money so I save in time and heartaches.

Sure you can learn on your own and figure things out. I think most of us will be able to do that and it may also add some sense of achievement and umps to the ego.

However, if you are talking about starting your own business, the stakes are too high for you to play around with time and resources.  You need to manage your time (a very precious, limited and irreplaceable resource and commodity) and energy and your capital investments. You cannot afford to waste any of these.

So what do you look for in your coach?
Consider the following top 3 criteria:

Integrity – This has to be a man of his words. His words have to be gold and carry weight. If he says something and does not mean it or does not carry it through then it is hard to believe that he is living in alignment with his own integrity. Because how you do anything is how you do everything.

It is one thing to be flexible it is another thing to go back on your words or not mean what you say. If a coach loses the credibility by not honouring his words, he will have a hard time earning trust from others. A coach needs to be a living example, a model for others to learn from and copy after.  Trust needs to be earned.

Passion – You need someone who is passionate about what he does and has a big enough reason for doing what he does – coach. The passion will come across in his coaching and teaching. If one is not burning with his desire to help and add value and make a difference; his work will not last, and he will not endure.  You would want to follow and model after a coach that continues to blaze the trail for others and who pass on the burning flame.

Has the Know How – A life coach may be able to help you look within and come up with your own answers. A business or marketing coach will need to have more than just coaching competencies.

Look for someone who has the expertise and experience and who has been there and done that.   You do not want to be a guinea pig.  You only want to follow the "best" coach for you at that time in the area you want to pursue. The more successes and results that he has achieved and can point to, the more people that have benefited from his coaching and training and the better his track record is, the more confident you are that he is the right coach for you.

Does that rule out rookie coaches? Well, not really, they would satisfy criteria 1 and 2. And if they have personal success and social proof, they may just be the right coach for you at this stage in your growth.  I am sure fresh coaches given the opportunities can also help you do wonders.

In the interest of writing, I have used the masculine gender in this article. I do intend to include the female gender and have high regards for female coaches and trainers.

If you are looking for a great business coach, write to me and I will point you to him. If you are looking for a great life coach, just book a complimentary sesison with me here.

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