How to Hire Your Ideal Personal Coach
By
Bill Dueease

Coaching is a very personal process. Getting the right coach for
you is also very important to achieving the successes you expect
and deserve from coaching. Most coaches may help, but to excel
in your achievements, you will want to hire your ideal coach. Here
are some tips to select your ideal coach.

Pick the right personal coach For You - not the highest rated or
"best" coach.
There is no true coach-rating scale. A coach can be the "best"
coach for one person but not be the "best" coach for another
person. The key is to focus on finding your ideal coach to suit
your needs, your goals, your personality, and your situation. You
should select a coach based solely on how you feel about the
individual from your perspective only. Recommendations of
others are helpful, but your ideal coach has to be ideal for you.
Take the time to get to know several coaches before you decide.

Focus on developing the ideal coaching relationship.
The coaching relationship is a true partnership and its success
is dependent on the interaction between both parties. An ideal
coaching relationship is born when the level of mutual respect,
trust and caring between you and your coach is extremely strong.
The better the relationship between you and your coach, the
better the results of your coaching process.

Pick a coach who considers you to be their ideal client.
You want to consider coaches who know whom their ideal
clients are. Coaches have different experiences, desires,
strengths, and chosen specialties. Unfortunately, one of the
more undesirable aspects of personal coaching is that most of
coaches believe they can coach anyone. Yet, this is rarely true
because the unique and special needs of an executive, for
example, are much different than those of an actor or parent of
an ADHD child. Just like the needs of a patient with a heart
ailment are much different than a patient with a foot ailment. You
want to choose a coach who can describe the specific groups of
people they are passionate about coaching and the goals they
want them to accomplish. You want them to consider you to be
their ideal client, before they know too much about you. You want
to know they are coaching their ideal client when they are
coaching you. They are much more energetic, fun and productive
when they are coaching their ideal clients. You create the ideal
coaching relationship when your coach considers you to be their
ideal client.

Interview coaches before making a selection.
The best way to get to know a coach before you hire them is
through a personal interview. Your interview should be at least
30 minutes. You should also consider interviewing at least three
coaches. This way you will have a solid basis of comparison.

Over 85 percent of successful coaching is conducted over the
telephone. The advantages of phone coaching are numerous.
Your ideal coach can be miles away, giving you thousands of
coaches to select from. It is extremely convenient and
comfortable because you can choose the place and most often
the time to conduct the sessions. It is also much less costly
because there are virtually no travel expenses or travel delays
and the telephone costs are minimal. However, you may feel
better by being coached in person. Most coaches will gladly
coach in person, but travel time, distance and economic issues
greatly limit the availability of in person coaches.

Tips to Use During Your Coach Interviews.
Let the interview flow. Allow each interview to become a sharing
process, where both you and your coach reveal parts of
yourselves. Feel free to ask the coach to describe their ideal
clients and the goals they are good at assisting them to
accomplish, before you describe your situation. They should be
happy to tell you about the types of clients they are passionate
about. Listen to see if they are describing your situation. Your
coach will want to ask you questions. Answer them as best you
can and to the extent you feel comfortable. Pay attention to the
questions they ask and how they respond to your answers. If you
want to ask a question, do so. The interview is not a sales forum.
Neither party should feel obligated to sell the other. The more
relaxed you are the better. While the interview process is
serious, it should also be an enjoyable experience.

Should you shop for the lowest priced coach?
Absolutely not! Finding your ideal coach is the most important
issue. When you find your ideal coach, hire him or her. The value
of the benefits you will receive from their coaching will be much
greater than the cost. Whatever you pay your ideal coach will
quickly become insignificant. You may also be surprised to
discover that your true ideal coach will not charge as much as
some other coaches. Likewise, picking your coach because they
charge more money, expecting more results, will not work. Pick
your coach because he or she is your ideal coach, regardless of
what they charge.

How should you make your selection of your Ideal Coach?
Use your intuition, your gut feel. Do not rationalize the coach
selection process. (Creating a spreadsheet or listing the pros
and cons of each prospective will cause you to select the wrong
coach for the wrong reasons). Pick the coach you want to share
yourself with and who will accept you without judgment. Pick the
coach whom you feel has demonstrated a passion about
coaching you. Pick the coach whom you can respect enough to
allow them to challenge you. Pick a coach whose challenge you
will want to meet. Pick a coach whom you feel places your
interest first, and focuses intently on you. Pick the coach whom
you feel really wants to see you prosper.

When you pick your Ideal Personal Coach, you will experience
the wonders of personal coaching by traveling a very interesting
and extremely fruitful path. Enjoy your trip!

Bill Dueease is a personal coach and president of The Coach
Connection. You will find your ideal personal career coach from
over 120 rigorously screened Member Coaches by contacting
The Coach Connection at 239-415-1777/800-887-7214 or by
e-mail at bill@... or at www.findyourcoach.com

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