There has been a proliferation of 'coaches' in the market, not helped by dozens of short-courses, often expensive, promising a new career for limited actual skill enhancement and minimal kudos, since their qualification are often meaningless outside their own businesses. It is not helped either by a whole host of purely commercial, profit-motivated businesses that call themselves Colleges, Institutes, Schools, Academies, Associations and Federations when they are nothing of the sort.

Your information gathering is also corrupted by an ignorance of what coaching is perpetuated by massively inaccurate t.v. and media opportunists who show coaching as a form of, at best coersion, at worst, bullying.

What Do You Want

The first base is not even to look for a coach but to define what you need and then sort out what type of support you are looking for to match that need in you.

It may be that you do want a guiding hand to show you their journey to learning, talk you through their steps to your enlightenment and success. There is nothing inherently wrong in that and many so-called 'coaches' who can do that with or without integrity, with or without associated bullshit.

Guidance will be teaching or directing and one way to sample that is to to go to a group situation on a course rather than 1-2-1. That gives you back up as you are not on your own. If you do want a course, real experiences of that course by real people will be helpful in deciding which one (or more) is for you.

You may dislike the group idea and still want a guiding hand. If so, the coach will speak to you and have literature or a website that has a certain style - if you know the code, you can get a clearer idea of what you are in for! The guidance-people will have lots of established models for change. Perhaps they will be selling you one or more guided journeys through which they will lead you. In that case, the information you get from them will be offering solutions based on their own ideas of how personal development works in their own world-view. There is nothing wrong in that - if it appeals to you, this may be a good first step for you - you will know. To make that decision, you may need to ask for more detail and your questions may or may include things like:

• What proportion of effort will be spent with you and how much do I have to do on my own?
• Can I work to my own time needs or do I have to work to yours?
• What specific areas of my life will I be working on and can you give me a couple of examples of what those will be like?

You may be someone who believes that you already have lots of ideas but lack experience or confidence to know which ideas can be safely committed to. In that case, a more facilitated-style of support may be better for you. A mix of true 'coaching' and mentoring may then be best for you. Coaching will be mainly based on forms of questioning and challenge to make you think more deeply and to help you to have new and motivated perceptions about what works and what will not work, specifically for you. Mentoring would be offered when you  are stuck, when you lack either the experience or the context to understand the area of personal development that is being offered to you. Coaches will also provide you with honest feedback - this can be challenging but a good coach will be sensitive to your needs and coach you through that to a better, healthier place.

Some coaches offer models and tools as homework. This can be very worth while, particularly when these are chosen specifically for your needs, rather than a one-size system. This facilitated, or true coaching approach is, as you can appreciate, very different from the one-size fits all view of human development that is often sold as coaching, but is teaching and directing.

So, Now I know I want a Teacher or Coach - what next?

Avoid those who are self-obsessed and full of themselves. People with a selfish perspective are more interested in their own 'brilliance.' Their motivation to 'fix' you will be money, power and/or part of their own need to be 'successful.' None of that is about your needs (however engaging and believable they are in selling and enticing you into their parlour)!

Ask for real references. Advertising that says 'wonderful coach' is meaningless and may have been invented. You are better to look for a quote that has a full name or business associated with it. And do ask for a copy of the full reference, not just the nice bit that they selected for your entrapment.

Put the word out to friends and friends of friends, seek confirmation that others have had a good experience.

And, if you know you are likely to need specialist knowledge, make sure your coach or teacher has actually been there. If you are struggling with board-level politics, you may need someone who has been there to have an instinct for survival and progress in difficult environments!

Lastly, a coach will be interesting in you. Who talked most? If it was them, go for someone else!