Today, coaching has become an internationally known profession, which is due to the successful massive acceptance. At first, it was an activity performed mainly by well-known people such as politicians, TV presenters or big businessmen. But it turns out that nowadays anyone can become a coach, so here we will show you about the training you need to become a professional coach.
What is a professional coach?
Before knowing how to become a professional coach, you must know what a professional coach is. A professional coach is the person in charge of guiding, helping and accompanying a person or a group of people so that they can achieve a purpose.
A coach is in charge of actively listening and asking concrete questions in order to help. Everyone has problems, and it is always good to find a support to overcome them and move forward. However, a coach should not be confused with psychological help, which should not be replaced. Therefore, the coach is a complement for those who are emotionally stable, but want to improve or achieve some goal in their life.
How can you become a professional coach?
In spite of the fact that it is a relatively new profession, there are many people who work as professional coaches. However, it is necessary to stand out from the rest to be successful as a coach, so you have to work hard.
To begin with, one of the main requirements is to undergo professional coach training in a school that is accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ICF). But having a degree is not enough. Since a coach interacts with other people in order to help them, it is essential to have good mental health. So, some of the main requirements are:
- Emotional and psychological stability: a coach must not have any pathology at the psychological level, so it is important that a coach have a therapist as no one is free from having problems. In this way, a therapist will help to overcome them. A coach should be able to recognize that she/he is not perfect and that she/he has also needed and received help like the rest. A coach should be able to help other people.
- Empathy: this is indispensable to have the objective of helping people to achieve personal or professional goals.
- Good communication: a good coach must have certain communication abilities such as knowing how to convey their ideas, having some skill to communicate with their audience, capturing the attention of listeners and being able to captivate them. A coach must also have the ability to listen to questions, listen to what people have to say and then be able to give useful answers.
- Responsibility: to a certain extent, a coach becomes a role model, so it is necessary to be someone responsible, which includes being punctual, because it is the wisest way to demonstrate responsibility.
These are just some basic requirements, but depending on the training institution, there may be additional requirements.
What does a professional coach do?
First of all, it should be clear why someone is looking for a coach, and it is not about looking for someone in order to solve their personal problems. It is about looking for someone in order to achieve some goals, which can be personal or professional. For this reason, a professional coach is a support to:
- Define objectives: it is not as simple as simply indicating the objectives to follow. The coach is in charge of giving certain tools that will allow the client (coachee) to find their own objectives.
- Obtain personal fulfillment: first of all, the idea is that the coachee will be happy when achieving their goals, so personal fulfillment is very important and sometimes, some goals may interfere with it. This means that the coachee must rethink the situation to find the real goal that will allow them to achieve that personal satisfaction.
- Find learning opportunities: a coach is characterized by learning constantly, and that is very important to transmit to the coachee, since learning is the key to progress.
- Discover own skills: sometimes someone may have skills that were overlooked. For this reason, reflection and thinking are very important in order to discover them and develop those skills that make us unique.
Now, you know what a professional coach does, and you are probably wondering where a coach works. A coach can work in a private or independent way, and she/he can also work for companies; in the latter case, a coach may be able to maximize the productivity of a company by helping to improve time management, communication, dealing with work stress, among other things.