Today many people call themselves a life coach, personal coach, executive coach, business coach, or retirement coach. There are no restrictions or rules to follow. I estimate there are from 60,000 to over 100,000 people calling themselves “coaches” worldwide. I also estimate that the over 24,000 new “coaches” enter the industry every year. This estimate comes from assuming that approximately 50 people call themselves “coaches” after attending or graduating from each of the over 490 coach training schools each year. I have not included people who change their title from consultant, therapist, or teacher to coach. So you can see this number of “coaches” is growing.

How are people seeking their ideal coach able to initially sort through all of the possible coaches to find their right coaches? What criteria provide the best indicators that someone is a good, or even a great coach? Here are some possibilities!

Their specific coaching training?
Their certifications?
The number of books they have written?
Their fame or name recognition?
The success rates of their clients?
The number of years they have been providing true coaching?
The number of past clients they have coached to success?
Their close geographical proximity?
How much you connect and enjoy communicating with the coach?
How well they impressed you with a presentation or speech?
The number of real referrals they received from people you know?
They are licensed therapists, counselors or psychiatrists?

During the past 10 years, only 171 coaches out of over 2,100 “coaches” who have contacted us have passed our rigorous screening program. Sure our standards are exceptionally high, but you want yours to be as well. I am separating the above list of indicators into two groups. The first group includes the criteria that we have found to provide us the best indicators that coaches are going to pass our screening process because they are excellent coaches, from your point of view. The second group includes the criteria that we have found offer very little, if any indications that they are good coaches, even though some of these criteria are promoted as the most important.

Group One.

I feel all of the criteria in this group taken together as a whole will provide excellent indicators of whether a coach can and will really coach you to success. All five of these criteria count.

1. How much you connect and enjoy communicating with the coach.

2. The number of years they have been providing true coaching

3. The number of past clients they have coached to success.

4. The success rates of their clients.

5. The number of real referrals they received from people you know.

Group Two

I feel that these criteria provide very little indicators of whether a coach can and really will coach you to success. These are listed in random order.

They have specific coaching training

They have coaching certifications

They have written one or more books.

They are famous with high name recognition.

They live within a close geographical proximity.

They impressed you with a presentation or speech.

They are licensed therapists, counselors, or psychiatrists.

I will discuss how you can discover the criteria in Group One in my next blog. Not enough room in this blog to do so.