If you have found this page, you are probably thinking about how to hire a coach, and particularly, how to hire the right coach to reach your goals.
But before we get to how to hire a coach, let’s consider why you want a coach.
Why Hire a Coach?
Here are three questions to help you answer that question:
- How will you feel if you never get any better than you are right now?
- What are you likely to accomplish if you never learn anything more than you know today?
- If you are comfortable in your current role, how do you feel about stretching out of your comfort zone into the next level of ability and achievement?
If you feel you are as good as you can be, not interested in learning anything new, and ok staying right where you are for the foreseeable future, then there is no need for you to hire a coach.
But if the idea of breaking through your comfort zone excites you, if learning intrigues you, and you know you can be even better, you are ready to find the right coach who will guide you to your next level.
Why Surgeon Atul Gawande Hired the Right Coach
You might think Atul Gawande would be the last person to hire a coach. He’s a Stanford trained endocrine surgeon and also a MacArthur Fellow. He works in conjunction with Harvard and writes for the New Yorker Magazine.
By every measure, Gawande has achieved more success than most. And yet, he hired a coach. Why?
In his TED Talk, he talks about his first years as a surgeon, where his results improved year over year. After about five years, his results flattened out. At that point, he asked himself, “Is this the best I will ever get?”
Unwilling to stop improving, he hired a former professor to observe him in the operating room. It was difficult, he says, having someone watch him and give feedback. His coach had two pages of notes, observing small things that make a difference. An elbow going up. Insufficient light in the wound. Gawande saw himself from a new perspective and started making changes. Within a year, his results were improving again. He had discovered the benefits of coaching. (Watch his full TED Talk here.)
Between the Threat Zone and the Comfort Zone Lies the Learning Zone
Why do some people keep learning and others plateau? The secret lies in how we challenge ourselves. After hundreds of interviews of highly successful executives, Lombardo and Eichinger discovered: “One of the truths of the human psyche is people try hardest when there is between one-half and two-thirds chance of success. More and it’s too easy; less than one-half, and we start to cut our losses.”
This gives us a clear sense of where the lines for challenge, threat, and comfort lie. The threat zone is activated when the chance of failure is greater than the chance of success. At that point, most people feel only a stress response—fight, flight, or freeze—and start to cut their losses. This can cause burnout, withdrawal, and a lot of unnecessary office drama.
The comfort zone is where we think we’ll succeed two out of three times. Here, there is no stress at all. However, in this state, most people lose interest, become bored and disengaged. Often, we get lazy and make needless errors. In fact, Gallup research shows that about 16% of workers are actively disengaged and just coasting.
In the middle lies the learning zone. When a challenge has a about a 50/50 chance of success, maybe a little better, the stress feels motivating. We know we might fail, but we are slightly more likely to succeed, and so, we try. That’s when our stress hormones activate a tiny bit, not so much that we stress out, but just enough to sharpen our ability to focus and work harder. For most people, that little jolt of adrenaline feels great and helps them learn.
Why hire a coach? To help you stretch out of your comfort zone safely. To support you in taking smart risks and accelerate your learning. To offer perspective that you can’t get on your own. To experience the benefits of coaching and reduce the growing pains.
Are You Ready to Find the Right Coach?
So, if you feel you have a lot to learn, are interested in getting better, and want to fine tune little things to improve your results, then you are ready to find the right coach.
However, if you like your comfort zone and don’t want to change, don’t bother.
How to Find the Right Coach for You
This is the first in a series of blogs about how to hire a coach. Together they’ll help you understand the coaching process and profession, so you know what to look for. Some posts will help you clarify your goals and assess a coach’s ability to guide you in the direction you want to grow. Others will explore what great coaching looks like—and how to make it work for your situation and budget.
Read them all or pick what’s most helpful to find the right coach. I’ll keep adding to the series as I write.
- What Business Coaching Is and Why It Works: The Proven Science That Helps Good Leaders Get Even Better
- Coaching vs Teaching vs Therapy — What Is Better for Me?
- If You Can’t Find a Good Mentor, Get a Great Coach: How We Really Learn at Work
- Executive Coaching vs Leadership Coaching: What Is Better for Me?
FAQ About Why Hire a Coach
Q: What are the benefits of coaching?
A: Coaching helps you identify goals, build self-awareness, and develop new skills that improve your performance, confidence, and decision making.
Q: How do I know if I’m ready to hire a coach?
A: If you’re motivated to grow, open to feedback, and ready to stretch out of your comfort zone, you’re ready for coaching.
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