Athletes have coaches, actors have coaches, and executives have coaches. But what about everyone else? Professional (or “life”) coaches exist to help people move from goal to action with shared accountability.
If you’re between 20-45 years old, you’ve probably seen professional coaching advertisements on social media. Maybe you’ve gotten the suggestion to see a career coach or executive coach to work on confidence or communication skills. Professional coaching may be a foreign concept to some or seem “woo-woo” to others, but in reality, it is a results-based relationship.
What does it mean to be a professional life coach?
A professional coach is a wellness professional. Their main focus is to help people make progress in their lives and attain greater fulfillment. Coaches can help you clarify goals identified obstacles holding you back or creating action plans to move forward. The primary goal for most professional coaches is to help their clients make significant, long-lasting change. While people generally seek a professional coach to work through a barrier or an issue they’re facing, people also pursue professional coaching to identify their passion or career path.
Professional coaches can focus on a variety of niches like career, relationships, or spirituality. Some specialty niches include:
- Nutrition and fitness
- Health and wellness
- Family life
- Financial coaching
- Business or executive coaching
Note: A good coach can coach anyone around anything. The purpose of a coach is to help a client successfully maneuver through their issue. A coach is not a consultant or a therapist so it doesn’t require experience in that particular problem or issue.
What is the difference between coaching and consulting?
Coaches help provide a new insight or a different perspective on problems. But a coach is not a consultant. What this means is that a coach doesn’t insert themselves into the session. Rather than give advice or put themselves into the conversation, coaches ask open-ended questions potentially offer several options but the focus is not on there lived experience rather the clients’ current experience.
A coach is a partner where a consultant is an advisor. In a coaching relationship, the client has the power to drive the conversation and choose the action. In consulting, the consultant usually holds the power in the relationship because of their knowledge and experience.
What is the difference between coaching and therapy?
Wellness professionals in a variety of fields tend to overlap. This completely makes sense because the focus on wellness, better lifestyles, and self-care practices blend over the borders of a lot of different fields. But while there may be some overlap between working with a professional coach and a therapist, they have distinct roles and serve distinct purposes.
Again, a life coach or a professional coach’s purpose is to help a client achieve their growth goal. This means that sessions are often focused on identifying obstacles or resistance to change, fostering excitement or motivation, and creating an action plan. A therapist often focuses on healing or treating mental health conditions or helping people work through trauma.
In other words, coaches are focusing on the present to the future whereas therapists oftentimes focus on how past experience influences the present.
A coach should not offer advice around mood disorders, mental health conditions, addiction, etc. Therapists are required to have a degree and license and adhere to legal, medical, and ethical codes and therefore are able to treat mental health conditions. This is important because professional coaches are not required to have any formal qualifications or academic training. They are also not required to follow any ethical guidelines. This means that anybody could call themselves a coach.
Professional Coach Training & Credentialing
If you are looking for a professional coach to help you achieve your goals keep in mind that while coaches are not required to complete any formal training or follow guidelines, many choose to attend an accredited coach training program. Those training programs can last anywhere from 30 to 125+ hours. Not all coach training programs have been accredited or validated by an outside body (allowing for a rigorous review of curriculum and practice).
There are two popular credentialing boards for coaches, both of which have been around for 25 years–the Center for Credentialing & Education and the International Coach Federation.
Center for Credentialing & Education
The Center for Credentialing & Education has a Board Certified Coach (BCC) credential. While not specifically a coaching organization, the CCE’s mission is to, “advance professional excellence through credentialing, assessment, and business services.” This certification also requires education through a certified coach training program, experience, and passing an examination. However, only 30 hours of coaching experience is required. This certification is valid for 5 years as long as the coach complies with CCE policies and procedures including a code of ethics.
International Coach Federation
The international coach federation (ICF) has three levels of coaching credentials–Associate Certified Coaches (60+ hours of training and 100+ hours of coaching experience); Professional Certified Coach (125+ hours of training and 500+ hours of coaching experience); or Master Certified Coach (200+ hours of training and 2500+ hours of coaching experience). Coaches credentialed through ICF are required to adhere to a code of ethics to help self-regulate the field of coaching through guidelines, accountability, and enforceable standards.
Coach training and credentialing are not required to sell coaching services to the public. While not required, it is definitely something to look out for if you are considering entering into a coaching contract with a professional coach because they are required to have training, passed an examination, and uphold ethical standards.
What areas do coaches focus on?
Life coaches have gotten much more popular in the last 10 years. People are seeking guidance to navigate significant life experiences. You are not going to go to a professional coach to get a diagnosis or solution to your current problem, but you may go to talk through an area of difficulty.
Some signs that working with a professional coach could be good for you include
- Frequent irritability
- High levels of stress
- Inability to break bad habits
- Lack of fulfillment
- Persistent dissatisfaction at work
- Sense of blocked creativity
- A new goal without an idea of how to pursue it
- Feelings of confidence
- Difficulty communicating
There are several positive outcomes or benefits of working with a professional coach including better work-life balance, illumination of long-held fears or anxieties, and enhanced creativity, improved communication skills, more satisfaction in life, better relationships with family or friends, caught increased self-confidence, improved self-care or lifestyle practices, increased accountability, etc.
Trained coaches are oftentimes in a better position to help clients assess their circumstances. Research shows coaching can incorporate several psychological benefits including:
- Positive Psychology: promoting specific interventions like journaling
- Cognitive Behavior Therapy: recognizing and overcoming negative thinking or behavior patterns
- Appreciative Inquiry (AI): questioning that explores and emphasizes the best in a person or situation
- Motivational Interviewing: people develop their own reasons for change
- Emotional Intelligence: improve awareness and application of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management
- Design Thinking: implementing creative solutions to problems through a guided-thinking approach
How does coaching work?
A coach-client relationship generally is comprised of a series of sessions on a regular basis for a specific period of time. Sessions can last 30 minutes to an hour and a half as often as every week. Unlike therapy, coaching relationships are generally a temporary set up because the client is looking to achieve their goals. So once there is an action plan and progress towards those goals, the coach is not necessarily needed for future advancements. Coaching sessions can occur face-to-face, over the phone, or via a video conference. There is no best practice, clients should choose their preferred style.
A life coach should help you attain fulfillment, satisfaction, and wholeness in your life. By doing so, you will use all your skills to reach your full potential and getting the desired outcome easily and efficiently.
Professional coaches can help you answer three fundamental questions:
- WHAT do I want from my life?
- WHY am I unable to achieve it?
- HOW will I be able to achieve it?
Can You Benefit from a Professional Life Coach?
A professional coach can benefit you in a variety of ways, including:
- Realize your strengths
- Work on your weaknesses
- Develop skills and techniques
- Focus on values
- Create action or business plans
- Improve communication skills
- Achieve desired results
- Understand feedback
Coaching can be a form of self-care if you’re looking for direction, feedback, and support. Their primary goal is to help you accomplish your goals by reaching your full potential. Coaches seek to understand what’s really going on and what the client really wants to help move the conversation and action forward.
While professional coaches may share expertise in a customized and targeted manner, they work to provide the client advice when needed through a series of possible options. Coaches ask more than they tell–so if you’re looking for advice, you might consider a consultant or subject-matter expert to help instruct you. If you have past or current trauma, consider approaching a therapist or counselor.
If you’re looking for direction or accountability to achieve a goal that’s important to you, consider giving coaching a try. If you have any questions about my coaching journey or my journey to coaching, please reach out! xoxo Mo
