“Coaching is not just about how to do something; it’s about how to be someone.”
— Esther Derby, Writer and Teacher
The International Coaches Federation currently lists in excess of 100 officially recognized types of coaches, including the fields of Health & Wellness, Personal & Life Coaching and Career & Business Coaching.
VIM Executive Coaching frequently encounters coaches who fall into all of those categories (in fact we’ve coached several). Of the broad specialties shown above, there are innumerable sub-specialties. For example, those who are writers have coaches who help them edit, design, market, manage their social media, help them write grants and even help them write. Athletes seem to have an unlimited number of coaches including performance coaches, speed coaches, psychological coaches, strength, diet and nutritional coaches.
Actual numbers of these coaches in the U.S. alone are almost impossible to quantify however, sites such as LinkedIn and Reddit estimate several hundreds of thousands who describe themselves as “coaches.” Name the profession or calling and there’s a pretty good chance a coach can be found who claims expertise.
The problem, of course, is credentialing. Many so-called coaches have no credentials, no real-life experience, no personal or monetary investment in the profession. Looking at athletics, for example, professional coaches must satisfy numerous professional and ethical credentialing. This is especially true of those who work with younger athletes. There are solid expectations. However, we all know of stories from sports history where shady “nutritional” or “performance” coaches have crossed into unethical or illegal bounds.
The Business Coach
The overall size of the business coaching market may astound even the most skeptical of the industry size. By 2030, it is estimated business coaching as an industry may reach an annual $161 billion. There were, at last count, more than 73,000 business coaching entities.
Within this broad category are motivational speakers, authors, publishers, seminar leaders, conventions, podcasters, teachers, courses, coaches, “coaching camps,” schools, social media managers and web designers of all stripes.
Regrettably, the business (career) coaching industry suffers a major identity problem. Say Reddit.com business coaching forum experts:
“No matter how many feel-good stories circulate, the industry faces a glaring problem that doesn’t get enough media attention: People just don’t trust coaching.” Potential clients are running away in droves.
The website Life Coach Snark has an active Quora thread with (currently) more than 40 open debates raging around this simple open question: “Is life/career coaching a scam?”
Why do people feel that way? It can be reflective in the quote used to start this post. Most every day of the week, groups of employees are force-fed information by “experts” at employer’s councils, industry trade shows, through motivational speakers or on millions of remote screens.
Most of the verbiage they hear enters their consciousness, rolls around and immediately leaves. Why? Because they are told how to do something in a one-dimensional, spoon-feeding manner. The audience is given a convenient path, usually with coaches having limited experience in an actual workplace.
Information is easy, so is an “expert” who likes to rattle off their perspective as truth, e.g., “From my perspective as an Indy race car driver, you should go about executive management problems by just down-shifting and going for the finish line!”
Mindful Career Coaching
We view our clients with far too much respect to force them into information download funnels or the mind-numbing burden of a standardized perspective. We believe in transformation through guiding clients through the discovery of being.
A 2015 Forbes article was “spot-on” with its piece on three levels of coaching:
“There are three levels of coaching: 1. Information, 2. Perspective and 3. Transformation…. Transformation involves healing, and you cannot heal someone’s unresolved issues until you work on healing your own. Transformative coaches always do their own inner work.”
We feel that no career coach is effective with a client unless we can take the journey with the client. It is easy to “dump information,” easy to throw out irrelevant perspectives but it is far more important to guide the client to “be,” through guiding their personal growth and unique discovery.
Along the coaching path, a good career coach must continue to learn as much about themselves as we impart to each client. It is an honor and privilege to take that journey.