As unique as coaching is, the path to becoming a coach is also personal and not always conventional. At. At times, life coaching is an interest that develops after other careers or after finding that you enjoy and find purpose in listening to others. Life coaches have a genuine desire to help others.
Whether working in an industry where you naturally end up listening to people, like massage therapy or hairdressing, or spending time with clients, can be an unconventional way to become a coach.
It Takes Trust
When trust exists, people open up about their relationships, their jobs, and other personal details. Coaches who end up in this field often find they have a knack for sitting in conversations without judgment. Life coaches are not fixers, but listeners who allow people to share and reflect in a safe space.
Coaching is More Than Conversations
Although being good at conversation is valuable in coaching, it is not the same thing. Once coaches are out there, marketing themselves and working with clients for money, clients are expecting results, and rightfully so. Getting results takes training and certification through reputable programs. The International Coaching Federation (ICF) is the most renowned and reputable coaching certification program in the world. When new coaches put themselves out there, and the ICF certification is on their website and business card, it opens doors.
Preparing for Success in Coaching
Those who pursue coaching without the training and background may find themselves quickly in over their heads. Coaches have to know when to steer a conversation and when to ask probing questions. Coaches need to know what a breakthrough looks like and that agreeing with clients will not ultimately help them. Having confidence is part of being a coach, but it isn’t the only thing. Coaches who want to bring real value to their clients’ sessions and make a career in coaching need to invest their time and energy in acquiring the knowledge, education, and resources they need as their careers unfold.
This is where the ICF credential comes in, and it’s worth walking through what it actually asks for, because most people who’ve never gone through it assume it’s a certificate you get for attending a few sessions.
Certification Expectation vs. Reality
Contrary to what some people think, life coaching isn’t a weekend decision, and by Monday, you have a certification. The best coaches recognize that the value they bring stems from their extensive training and hands-on experience. In reality, the program can take months to complete and will include:
Coach-specific training with world-respected curriculum.
Logged coaching experience, which is usually paid.
Mentor coaching sessions with a credentialed mentor. This is why it is important to choose a trusted ICF partner who can provide the curriculum and also has wide-reaching mentors and resources who have gone through their program.
An honest and detailed performance evaluation in which trained assessors listen to recorded sessions and check them against a skills list.
A final exam. Don’t worry if you don’t like taking tests – the program is designed to equip you to succeed, and your mentors and partners are with you every step of the way!
So, it isn’t a weekend thing. It’s closer to a supervised residency, built around the idea that coaching is a set of observable behaviors somebody can be trained in and checked on, not just a gift some people happen to have.
The Impact of Hands-On Coaching
The impact of hands-on coaching can’t be overstated. These hours of working with a mentor and receiving coaching are when natural talent is quietly corrected. Coaches without certifications can enter their careers thinking everything is going great because they don’t recognize that they are steering their clients’ decisions during sessions. A coach’s job is not to make decisions for their clients and disguise them as their own. The goal is to genuinely help clients overcome challenges, set goals, and become the best version of themselves in whatever capacity they are seeking a life coach.
Clients don’t always know what to expect, which is why the consistency of certification and quality training keeps this career professional and effective in clients’ lives. They can verify a credential and what an organization like ICF requires before issuing one, which opens doors and builds trust.
Real-time feedback from mentors and coaching professionals offers something unique that would not occur organically in a coach’s career. Coaches are asked to explain their own decisions out loud to someone qualified to push back. Many naturally gifted coaches have never had to do that. Ask them why they asked a particular question at a particular moment and you’ll get a shrug. It felt right. That’s fine until it isn’t, until a client is stuck and the coach has no idea why, because the whole method lived in instinct with no name attached to any part of it.
Coaching certifications put structure around coaching. Certification with ICF builds confidence and backs it up with the skills to be successful. So, no matter what the path to coaching looked like, it can be brighter working with Life Purpose Institute, which offers several ICF certification programs and has an expansive network of mentors and coaches.
