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Episode 18: How a career coach can help you — and, how to pick a good one

Want to know how a career coach can help you? Or, worried about how to pick a good one? You’re in the right place today, because we’re talking all about career coaches, what they do, and how to pick a great one for you on Episode 18 of The Career Clarity Show with Lisa Lewis!

If you’ve hit a plateau in your career, you should think about reaching out to a career coach. Career coaches can help you move forward whenever you’re feeling stuck. 

You might be ready to keep rising and enter the realm of top performers and industry leaders, but if you’re not getting specialized help to get you to the next level, it might be a lot harder than it seems. 

Or, you might have done some research about how high performers break through their “stuck” periods, and a career coach can help you to figure out how to get your mojo back…or even make a big, scary, exciting transition.

But, you’re also a smart cookie and you want to make a good investment. Quality coaching can be expensive, and this might be the first time you’ve intentionally invested in your career.

I remember the first time I invested in coaching. I was in my mid-20s and had been devouring everything that Tony Robbins was putting out. (He totally was my coaching gateway drug.) I happily handed over my credit card for his online Breakthrough University self-guided course, loved it, and wanted to go deeper. So I reached out about coaching.

I spoke to a Results Coaching Consultant, who told me about a holiday special discount they were running. 40% off coaching packages but only if I acted RIGHT NOW! I felt my pulse quicken and my breath get shallow. Buy now…or lose this opportunity? It felt dire. So, I invested $320/hour for a packaged 6-month coaching engagement and was assigned to my first coach. No options, no opportunity to compare or veto, no money-back guarantee.

I did an intake form, took the DISC assessment, and the coach and I established some measurable goals together on the first call. Week after week, the 30-minute coaching calls flew by. Was I making progress? Was I getting clearer? It was tough to tell.

The entire experience was…fine. I definitely got some support and clarity, but I felt like my coach and I didn’t totally click. She seemed to be so focused on my stated goals that she was missing some of the nuance to my dreams. At the end of the 6 months, I wasn’t getting much out of the sessions anymore, so I stopped scheduling them (or would, sigh, cancel at the last minute).

I want to save you from having a “fine” experience with your first coach. You deserve to be transformed, blown away, and jumping up and down with joy like a 6-year-old on a trampoline!

Just like with romantic relationships, haircuts, and index funds, there are no guarantees with coaching. But if you go into it with a clear intention of what you want, pick out a great coach to partner with, and do the work, you’ll probably walk away satisfied.

The trick is doing just enough research to get the sense that you’ve got a good coach on your hands without driving yourself into analysis paralysis. (Or worse…compare and despair mode.)

But, how do you know you’ve found a good coach for you?

A great coach may not have a ton of testimonials, but the ones they do have should resonate with you. (If they seem like all their testimonials are from 50-year-old men working their way up the corporate ladder…but you’re a 30-something woman trying to decide if you should jump off the ladder, this is probably not your coach. Look for someone who has case studies of helping 30-something women navigate within the corporate environment AND helping entrepreneurs get their start.)

And…spoiler alert: there aren’t any certifications that will guarantee you’re getting a quality coach. (Truthbomb: sometimes, a ton of certifications are actually a coach’s way of trying to deal with their insecurities around their capabilities by hiding in the library instead of putting miles on the car through practitioning.) Instead, pay attention to the ways this coach is showing up in the world. Do you feel connected to (and excited by) their articles, podcasts, videos, or public speaking? (Do they even have any published content, or is their website a digital ghost town, complete with virtual tumbleweeds and a copyright date of 2016?)

Even better: do you know someone who’s worked with them? If so, what was their experience like? (If not, start asking your overachiever friends who they get their coaching or mentoring from.)

Finally, when you get a chance to hop on the phone with the coach, do you feel deeply heard and encouraged in the conversation? (This’ll feel exciting, like you’re not doomed forever, and might even creep you out a teeny bit because it feels like they’re reading your mind.) Is this person patient with your questions, and do they explain their philosophy around coaching and career pathing? If so, you’ve got a keeper.

Didn’t get to talk to the coach because there’s a sales-minded gatekeeper standing between you and the coach? Buyer beware: investing before meeting your coach is like accepting a job offer before you’ve have gotten to see the company’s offices. (Remember: what looks good on the outside might be misaligned on the inside.)

If they make you feel ashamed of where you are (or worse, bullied into making an immediate payment), I’d steer clear. If someone has to send you into a panic to book you as a client, your morality and integrity warning bells should be going off BIG TIME. Just imagine how they’re going to treat you for the next 6 months. As the goddess divine Maya Angelou says: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”

Now, if you’ve done your due diligence and you’ve identified a coach you’re excited about but you’re still feeling a wee bit nervous…that’s totally normal!

Investing (in anything) is a skillset, and it’s natural for the process to bring up some worries — no matter if you’re just started to invest in yourself or you’ve been buying up “you” stock for years. You’re asking someone to help you push yourself outside your comfort zone and grow in ways you’ve never done before. That oughta bring up some fears!

Here are some common worries people have before hiring a coach — and some helpful questions or mindset shifts that high-performers typically consider to help them make smart decisions in the presence of fear. See if any of these resonate with you as being “truer” (or more helpful) than your fear.

Limiting fear: I can’t afford coaching

  • Do you invest in your life in other ways? This could be working with a yoga/barre teacher, a personal trainer, a therapist, a nutritionist, or other practitioners to get your mind, body, and soul in tip-top shape. If you’re already investing in those areas but you’re feeling like you need some specific coaching to open up more joy and ease in your life, can cut back or pause some of these expenses to make this easier? (When I made my career change, I sold back my just-purchased new car and bought a used Toyota Corolla to free up the cash to be able to do it!)
  • Ask yourself: what’s the value of the outcome you want from coaching? If you want to be happier in your work (and right now you’re spending money on ways to numb out and avoid unhappiness like booking unplanned plane tickets to Iceland), what kind of long-term savings might a short-term investment in coaching create for you? (And can you even put a price tag on being happier day to day?) If what you want is clarity and a decision, how is confusion and indecision costing you right now? (This can be both financial and non-financial ways, like energy, missed opportunities, anxious thoughts, etc.) What would you pay to get clear and take action to create the career path you want?
  • Are you legitimately living paycheck-to-paycheck right now? (Not sure if this is you? If you can’t afford vacations, you’re carrying some credit card debt, or eating out is more of a pipe dream than a regular occurrence in your life, this might be you.) And if this hits home for you, it sounds like you might want to create a money strategy that gives you more options (and breathing room) in your life. If you haven’t mapped out your financial runway yet, definitely do so you’re 100% clear on the numbers for what you have, what you need, and the gap (plus your plan to shift it!).

Limiting fear: I don’t have the time for coaching

  • Do you want help creating the time? Feeling overwhelmed is one of the biggest factors that drives people to seek out coaching, and most coaches are trained to help clients tackle overwhelm first, so you create space in your life to achieve the transformation you want. So feeling like you don’t have time might be the exact reason to commit to coaching.
  • Do you really not have time? You pinky-swear promise that you don’t watch any TV shows or movies, go on Facebook, see your friends, go to religious services, go to the gym, take naps, or sleep in…ever? If that’s the case, I ask this out of love: do you actually have a life? Or, do you perhaps have the time, but you’re trying to convince yourself that the goal you have for coaching isn’t that important to you? We’re socially taught to minimize and downplay our desires (and even talk ourselves out of them) from a young age. What would it mean to become a person who intentionally creates the time and space for the things that are the most important in your life?

Limiting fear: I don’t trust coaching

  • How do you tend to create trust when you try something new in your life? If you’ve had a process for cultivating trust in the past (like asking other people’s advice, doing research, listening to your gut), now’s the time to deploy that same process.
  • Coaching is, at its core, someone asking you thought-provoking questions to help you identify your own truth and take action on it. So if you don’t trust being asked questions (because you tend to avoid introspection, have built up strong defenses to minimize what you think, or have long-standing issues with authority), coaching is probably not going to help you. But, man, if those are things you’re wrestling with right now, it sounds like the least you could do is explore therapy and get some support on letting go of a bit of that anxiety and stress.

Limiting fear: I don’t trust this coach

  • Not trusting a stranger at first is a normal experience. (I mean, we’re taught this at a young age for a reason, right?) Consider when you’ve trusted people in the past. What does your usual process of developing trust with a new person look like? Are you willing to be vulnerable and courage and choose to trust, or do you need a certain number of data points first? And if you need data points, what are they?
  • Or… have you not done enough research to tell if this coach would be a good fit for you as a form of self-sabotage, avoiding doing the research you need to do to make a decision and move forward in life?
  • If your spidey sense is kicking in that this person has bad ju-ju, look for the data points your intuition is using. Are you getting vibes from this coach that they don’t have your best interests at heart? If you are typically one to trust most people, don’t discount your intuition if it’s telling you to bail. There are other coaches out there!

Limiting fear: I don’t trust myself

  • This one deserves a whole article to itself, but the key question is: who taught you that you can’t trust yourself? What experience did you personally have that told you that your inner knowing is broken? (And a related question: would this coach be equipped to coach you on learning to trust yourself better? What kind of return on investment would that certainty and decision-making ability have for you?)

Want to learn more about us at Career Clarity and see if working together could be a fabulous fit? Here’s more information about our philosophy (talking about the roadmap to career satisfaction and the 4 pillars of career fulfillment), and details about our 1:1 coaching program

SHOW NOTES:

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About the Author Lisa Lewis

Lisa is a career change coach helping individuals feeling stuck to find work that fits. She helps people clarify who they are, what they want most, and what a great job for them looks like so they can make their transition as easily as possible. Lisa completed coaching training in Jenny Blake’s Pivot Method, Danielle LaPorte’s Fire Starter Sessions, Kate Swoboda's Courageous Living Coaching Certification, and the World Coaches Institute. In addition to that, she apprenticed with the top career coaches in the country so she can do the best possible work with — and for — you. She's helped more than 500 individuals move into more fulfilling, yummy careers and would be honored to get to serve you next!

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