The Foundations Of Great Career Coaching
by Andrew Abela · ForbesEvery great career coach draws from their own source of expertise. Matching that source of expertise with your own specific coaching goals can be the key to achieving your objectives.
Coaches draw from different sources of expertise: professional experience, often based on decades in a particular industry or function; formal training; research; wide network of relationships and contacts; and from a sense of deep empathy with their clients.
While many will draw from multiple sources, you can often identify one main source of expertise for each coach. Different types of expertise can be beneficial for different coaching needs.
Frameworks
If you are looking for help with a major transition, or stalled career, a coach that has a formalized set of frameworks for guiding people through such events can be very helpful.
Julie Gerdeman is Global Head of Data & Analytics for BNY (Bank of New York Mellon), and a client of coach Mark Nevins. She uses several frameworks that she learned from Mark, including the “stakeholder management plan.” According to Julie, “this involves understanding key influencers and the dynamics of engaging with them to accomplish your most important goals.” With Mark’s help, she created a map of all the key individuals in her network — her own personal stakeholders — and what roles they play in achieving the outcomes she’s working towards, and uses it to guide her interactions with them.
The “four questions pulse check” is a framework she finds helpful both for performance review season, and also, with Mark’s encouragement, in regular conversations with her direct reports. She attests that it is “very simple and usually generates a productive discussion.” The four questions, as told by Julie, are:
- What has gone well? What are you most proud of?
- What didn't go so well? What would you have done differently and what can you learn from it?
- What are your top priorities or Big Rocks (as Mark likes to call them)? What do you want to accomplish and what is the plan to execute?
- What do you need from me to help you achieve those results? Are there any roadblocks I can help with?
Julie finds this framework to be highly effective: “My team members open up quickly and appreciate the ‘safe space’ to share what might not be going so well and how we can work together to address them. Question 4 in particular is a great way to ensure I am doing what I can to remove obstacles to help achieve our objectives. I have found this framework to work every time, with everyone.”
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Coaches working from this source of expertise need the wisdom to adapt their use of frameworks to individual clients. Joel Bines is a retail expert, Managing Partner at Spruce Advisory LLP, author of The Metail Economy, and also a client of Mark’s. “Frameworks are critical to effective coaching,” he says. “At the same time, adapting frameworks to the situation, instead of dogmatic adherence to a framework, is what makes a good coach a great coach.”
That flexibility is key. “When I met Mark, the first thing I said was ‘I am uncoachable,’ but what I really meant was ‘I am different, so don’t try a cookie-cutter approach with me.’ Had he pushed a framework-first methodology, we would have gotten nowhere. Instead, he adapted his framework to my situation brilliantly, and as a result became an invaluable coach, friend and advisor.”
Research
For those in search of guidance on career fit, a coach whose source of expertise rests on a deep foundation of research can be the right choice, facilitating an evidence-based match between your own personality and preferences, and career alternatives. Jacque Merrit is a Senior Consultant and Executive Coach at Gallup who coaches based on the CliftonStrengths system. CliftonStrengths (formerly called StrengthsFinder) is built on extensive empirical research and identifies a stable set of strengths for each person, which are useful in guiding career choice and development.
Jacque has been coaching with CliftonStrengths since its inception in 1999. She notes that “CliftonStrengths not only enhances mutual awareness of my clients' natural talents but also helps them gain confidence in their abilities, understand themselves more deeply, and live authentically. This focus encourages them to appreciate the unique strengths of others, build diverse teams, and approach interactions with curiosity rather than judgment, ultimately paving the way for greater success in their leadership roles.”
Life Experience
A powerful source of expertise for coaches can be their own life experience. Working with such a coach can be particularly suitable for someone struggling to climb out of a difficult situation. Daniel Gasser knows about difficult situations. A heroin addict in his late teen years, the Zurich, Switzerland-based coach was able to overcome his drug addiction, only to fall into three decades of alcohol abuse. “I was a complete a**hole,” he says in his Swiss-German accent. A severe car accident some years ago was a wakeup call, leading him to reform his life successfully, and he now specializes in coaching women on how to deal with men who are like the person he was.
Network
Coaches not only draw from their source of expertise, they can also integrate their clients into it. This is the case when a coach’s source of expertise is their own large network, which allows them to stay current from a wide range of sources and make new connections for their clients. Choose a coach with this source of expertise when you are personally looking to expand your own network to find new customers and business opportunities.
Cory Warfield has half a million followers on LinkedIn, and coaches his clients on how to build their own networks. Alexey Navolokin leads semiconductor company AMD's commercial sales organization in the Asia-Pacific region. When he started working with Cory four years ago, he already had 70,000 LinkedIn followers. Cory “provided guidance on building and maintaining professional relationships through LinkedIn. He assisted me in creating engaging and valuable content that showcases my expertise and attracts followers, and helped to craft effective messages to reach my target audience and generate leads.” Following Cory’s guidance, Navolokin has surpassed his coach’s reach, with over 700,000 followers today.
Coaches themselves appreciate the value of a good coach. David Citron’s firm, expressocoaching.com, “helps adults with ADHD who are procrastinating their goals, unleash their superpower in 4 minutes a day,” according to David, and he is also a client of Cory’s. David was having great success with his existing clients, but wanted to reach a broader audience. Working with Cory helped him grow from 9,000 to over 100,000 LinkedIn followers in four months. He now has clients in 31 countries across 6 continents.
When you hire a career coach, you don’t just hire the person — you hire their expertise, experience, background, and connections. Make sure that this package fits what you are hoping to accomplish.