According to an article on CNN.com published in August 2007, the International Coach Federation (ICF) claimed to have over 12,000 members worldwide – double its membership of five years earlier. Today, the organisation’s website boasts over 17,000 members in over 95 countries, and that’s just a single organisation.

Clearly, whether focusing on professional, personal or business clientele, coaching is a growing profession and anyone seeking a coach to assist them in their self development has a wide selection to choose from— So how do you choose?

Coach Selection

Coach selection can involve several parameters: The coach’s area of expertise, personal charisma and working methods – not to mention rates, location and years of experience. But when you are at a crucial crossroad in your life and about to make a very important decision, shouldn’t there more concrete guidelines for selecting a coach?

We went straight to the coaches themselves, to see what counsel they have to offer on the matter. Bearing in mind that while they are serving up advice, they are also subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) marketing themselves, here is what we found:

Keeping it simple, the heads at Lifecoaching.com recommend three important things to look for in your potential coach: Certification, references and a good match between coach and client. Breaking it down a bit more for us at Job Mob, this article by Rita Ashley offers seven rules to finding the right job search or career coach, although she adds that the same rules can be applied for finding any kind of coach.

Meanwhile, at the Working Resources blog run by Maynard Brusman, a consulting psychologist and executive/career coach, a recent post suggests how to select the right executive coach. Brusman warns of the difficulty in finding a truly qualified coach in what is a relatively new field, offers two questions that can help in screening someone out, and lists the three essential competencies an effective coach must demonstrate.

Marshall Goldsmith, another blogger, highly recommends finding a coach who specialises in the area around which you wish to work. He goes on to discuss the issue of being a pro-active client, and how responsibility for one’s success lies strictly in one’s own hands. And here, Coach John G. Agno reveals the dos and don’ts of coaching as well as what a person can expect from the first few sessions.

Working with a Coach

Finally, in this article by Margaret Page, readers get the ins and outs of working with a coach, including a helpful “how to prepare” checklist and six points to be addressed during the interview itself.

However, whatever guidelines you choose to follow, make sure to always listen to your instincts. They can often tell you more than any other set of assessment tools you might have.

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