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The Myths About Coaching
By
Terri Levine, Comprehensive Coaching U
1.
Coaching is a new profession
For sure it is not… it has been around as long as the human race with
great coaches like Socrates, Olympic coaches, religious icons worldwide
and other philosophers.
There
is nothing new about people assisting
people to greatness and the word coach has been around since the early
civilization.
2. Most coaches have a full-time
practice.
Most coaches do their work part-time or integrated into other work such
as consulting, training, teaching, workshops, writing, speaking, etc.
Coaching clients is part of what they do.
3. Mental health care
practitioners don’t make good coaches.
Oh yes they do! They are incredible listeners and already have many of
the basic coaching tools of powerful questioning, sharing observations,
speaking the truth, co-creating relationships and come from a place of
caring and empathy with their clients. They are way ahead of the game.
4. Coaching ISN’T consulting.
Certainly it is. It is a form of consulting with additional skill sets
learned by training as a professional coach.
5. You have to have certain
credentials to be a coach.
This is your choice. Clients aren’t looking for people with
credentials; they want people who get the job done.
If you
want to go
through a credentialing process, you can, but you can be a coach
without that as it is a form of consulting – NOT a licensed profession
with a lot of regulation
6. You must belong to a
professional trade association to be a coach.
You make your own choice. If you find value, there are organizations
you can join. If you aren’t an organization type person, there is no
need to be a part of any coaching organization.
Trade
organizations are
choices individuals make and there is no requirement to belong to any
organization.
7. You have to have years of
training to be a coach.
There are programs that take into account your college credits, life
and work history and then determine what core skills you need to be a
coach and some of the programs can be done in less than 8 months!
8. You have to take telephone
classes or go to workshops to be a coach.
There are programs that allow you to use your peak adult learning
styles, and co-create with a mentor, how you best learn and provide you
the opportunity to determine which learning you want to do.
For
example: research, work experience, community service, reading,
attending workshops, training, etc.
9. Coaches get clients because
they use the laws of attraction and they
don’t “sell”.
I bet those coaches don’t have a lot of clients and don’t make a six or
seven figure from coaching!
Everyone
in a business that wants to have
clients uses the laws of attraction combined with sales. Coaches who
make a living from coaching do sell their services and combine the laws
of attraction for an inner/outer approach to reaching clients.
10. Coaches focus on word of
mouth marketing and that creates a full
practice.
I ask you “what is a full practice?” If you want a few clients and to
pick up an extra $1-2k a month, rely on word of mouth marketing.
If you
want to make a six-figure income plus (even only 50k plus!), you’d
better combine word of mouth with Internet, written communication, ads,
mailings, publicity, etc.
11. Everyone is a coach.
Come on! We can all think of lots of people who we would not consider
coaches…. People who aren’t successful, who are negative, who we
wouldn’t want to give us assistance.
No –
not everyone has the ability,
skill set, or composition to coach others to success.
12. The coaching profession is
for people 30-40 years old.
While many coaches fall into that age bracket, retired folks make great
coaches and have lots of extraordinary work and life experience.
13. Everyone needs a coach.
I wish everyone the chance to try on coaching and see if they like it
and if it is for them. Many people may not feel they need a coach or
may not accept coaching or be open to change. Not everyone will need or
want a coach.
14. Coaches should develop a
specialty niche where there is a need in
society.
Instead, they can think about their past career and life experience and
the what they are knowledgeable about and coach that area or people in
their industry.
Forget
about what people need and focus on what is
easy, effortless for you and where you know the greatest number of
people.
15. Coaching is about having a
lot of forms, resources and checklists
to give clients.
Coaching is a relationship with a client and is client directed so how
or why would the coach be giving clients this information?
From
listening to the clients deeply, the coach will assist the client in
identifying client-directed, NOT coach-directed resources.
16. Anyone can make a living at
coaching.
Anyone who has coaching skills, previous work/life experience, has a
vision and strong desire and passion to coach AND is willing to do some
selling blended with the laws of attraction and that is NOT everyone
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Terri Levine, The Guru of Coaching SM, Ph.D., MCC, PCC, MS, CCC-SLP, is
the Founder of Comprehensive Coaching – The Professional's Coach
Training Program - and is a popular Master Certified personal and
business Coach, sought after Public Speaker, and author of bestsellers
"Stop Managing, Start Coaching", "Work Yourself Happy", "Coaching for
an Extraordinary Life."
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