Coaching is a powerful tool to help you achieve personal and professional success. It can be a tremendous resource to help you realize your goals, be more productive, create better relationships and shape a better future for yourself from the fitness blog.
But that doesn’t mean it will work for everyone — coaching is personal, just like your relationships. You won’t find one type of coaching that works for every person or every issue in their lives. What works for one person can be ineffective for another. So you must figure out what coaching best fits your goals and needs.
This article will help you ask the right questions to determine what coaching is right for you. Several different types of coaching are available: life coaches, executive coaches, personal trainers, career coaches, health coaches — the list goes on. But despite all this diversity and access to a wide range of coaching options, most people don’t know how to choose the right type for their needs and goals.
To help facilitate this process, I’d like to share a list that you can use to guide your thinking about the type of coaching that will work best for you.
The most important question you should ask yourself is: What type of gains am I looking for?
Before choosing a coach, you should know precisely what you hope to get from experience. Ask yourself: Why do I want to pursue coaching? What will it help me to accomplish? What gains will it bring into my life? Be specific about your goals and write them down, so you don’t forget them or lose sight of them. Clarity of purpose is crucial.
You may also want to look at this goal statement by Tony Robbins:
What would it mean to you if you could achieve all of these goals? What would impact your life, relationships, and career if you could reach them? Asking yourself these questions in advance can help direct your thinking as you evaluate your options. The clearer you are about what’s important to you, the better equipped you will be to choose a coach who can help achieve that.
The next question you need to ask yourself is: What type of rapport do I want with my coach?
Rapport is an essential part of the coaching relationship. You want to feel comfortable and safe with your coach. The best way to assess whether a particular coach can provide the rapport you’re looking for is to check out how you feel when you work with this individual. Do you feel safe sharing your ideas? Are they truly listening to you? Do they respond in a way that makes you excited about your goals? If so, this might be the right coach for you.
Sometimes rapport is created through similar age or experiences — for example, a young woman working with a female coach. Or shared goals and interests can build rapport — like working with a marathon runner who shares your love of long-distance running. The more similarities you have, the better your chance of creating that special rapport. Sometimes a good alignment in values can also help facilitate good connection, even if there are other differences between you and your coach.