Choosing an Executive Coach: Why Credentials Alone Aren’t Enough

“In India, it is very difficult to know if a coach is good, before hiring one. Everyone calls themselves a coach, these days!” said she.

A global leader, Fortune 100, said this to me the other day.

She was telling me why her company hires executive coaches for their top leaders from Singapore instead of hiring in India.

I was taken aback, not going to lie 😱

But the more I sat with it.. the more I could understand it.

Post-COVID, coaching schools have multiplied in India. So have coaches. And organisations investing in their top leaders often have no real way to tell who is credible. How to tell them apart?

Hmm, if you are hiring a Executive Coach for a hi- stakes leadership coaching engagement, here are some basic checks:

𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝.
What level of leaders? What kind of challenges have those leaders dealt with? What kind of organisations has the coach worked for? Does the fit seem right (at least academically)?

𝐓𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬, 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞.
Not just “great coach!” What are the genuine words of recommendation from leaders who have been coached by the coach? Unlike the west, in India, leaders do not give testimonials easily and very few have the courage to boldly declare their growth journey. So this one counts a lot!

𝐂𝐨𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞, 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠.
Does the coach understand leadership and management from the inside, or only from the outside looking in? What kind of lived business experience do they have – This is important but nuanced. It needs to be given the right weight depending on whether you are looking for a coach or a mentor.

𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬.
ACC, PCC, MCC are not just letters. These are globally recognised credentials of coaching excellence. Each one means real hours logged: in coach education, in actual coaching experience and in a performance evaluation. And each level asks for more than the last. MCC or Master Certified Coach sits at the top. 2500+ hours indicating years of coaching practice, coach education and building competence in the craft.

These four checks are a good place to start.

There’s a fifth: the one you can only check once you are face to face.

More on that soon..

What would you add to this list? And which of these four would you check first?

#leadershipdevelopment #executivecoaching #abrighterlife #coachmusings #CXOcoaching

Yoshita Swarup Sharma

Master Certified Executive Coach | Leadership facilitator | NLP Practitioner | Inner Transformation Specialist | Co-founder & CEO – A Brighter Life

“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls a butterfly” Yoshita lives life by the famous lines of Richard Bach. She is a management graduate from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management and economics graduate From Hansraj College, Delhi University. She has been an accomplished marketing professional before embarking on a second career in the domain of people transformation.

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