Photo by Laura Tancredi

Coaching is a very transformative experience. And it should be. Getting a certificate costs a small fortune and rightfully so. There is an incredible amount of knowledge and skills packed into the process.

So, usually you are paying a coach a hefty fee for their time. You expect the intended transformation: getting a promotion, changing your career path, getting ready for a new stage in life or getting un-stuck from something which plagued you for years.

Transformations in coaching are expected. However, I’m in awe of the “byproduct transformations” which I observed too often to be just an accident. More than a few times, my clients got some insight completely unrelated to their coaching goal, and the simple expansion of their self-awareness was enough to get rid of some serious stuff. A couple of examples:

Social Anxiety

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Photo by Michael Burrows

In one of my previous articles, I explained how to find a good business coach. This article is complementary to that one. The stuff I share here is a secret coaching sauce unnoticeable for people who aren’t coaches themselves. I’m not covering the obvious points – that a good coach has a habit of using open-ended questions or doesn’t shower you with advice. I’m talking here about relevant small habits that can make or break the whole coaching process. And most of them pertain to the crucial coaching competence recognized by the International Coaching Federation called contracting.

Contracting

What is it? A skill of creating kind of a deal between the coach and coachee. Like with deals, there are some standard elements and some optional.
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Photo by Karolina Grabowska

When it comes to personal development, believe me, I have done it all.

Visualizations, chanting affirmations, reading books, listening to audio programs over and over again, till I knew them by heart, watching videos (even though I hate learning from videos), attending seminars and events…

Working on my mindset, on my fitness, productivity, relationships, spirituality, finances…
Setting goals, crafting a vision for my life, developing daily habits, creating a morning routine and an evening routine, journaling, reading motivational quotes, teaching others…

I’ve been there, and I’ve done that. I know what’s effective, and what is not. And, quite recently, I discovered something that works WAAAY better than anything else.
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Photo by Andrea Piacquadio

Coaching is the most powerful tool I’ve ever encountered in personal development (thus business development – for solopreneurs, authorpreneurs, freelancers and other entrepreneurs whose business depends solely on their performance).

It’s the more effective the better is your coach, assuming there is the right chemistry between the two of you. So, how to find a good coach?

Let’s go over some common sense tactics, guidelines of the International Coaching Federation (ICF), and secret practices of coaches to find a good coach for you.

Common Sense Tactics

Those are things any sane person would go over when hiring someone in any capacity. However, some of them can be misleading or not so obvious (see point #3)
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Photo by The Coach Space

Most people have no clue what coaching is or how extremely powerful it is.
So, I’ll try to explain what coaching is and what it can do for you in this article.

Definition of Coaching

Here is how The International Coaching Federation (ICF) defines coaching:

partnering in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires a person to maximize their personal and professional potential. The process of coaching often unlocks previously untapped sources of imagination, productivity and leadership.

Do you feel convinced now? Do you feel the unstoppable urge to get a coach right now?!
Nope?
*sigh*

The above definition is as precise and good as one can make. However, if it doesn’t speak to you, I’ll try to convey what coaching is with a few parables.
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