Best selling author John G. Miller had me as a guest on his radio show recently and asked me what people should look for when hiring a professional coach.  I thought it was an interesting question because I don’t think many people think it through ahead of time.  They might get wrapped up in a marketing message or the highlighting on a coach’s website without taking the time to think it through.

Here are the four qualities I think your coach should have.

A Great Listener

Your coach needs to be a great listener.  Yes, he needs to be able to fix but if he can’t listen then he’ll end up trying to fix the wrong thing.  I fight myself in this struggle frequently.  I love to jump in and fix problems but I know that if I do, I don’t have the entire story.

“People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.” – John Maxwell

Coachable

Your coach must be coachable himself.    I wrote about this a year and a half ago and it struck a chord with readers.  I often speak about it and it seems to turn some of the coaches in the audience off.  Recently I had a woman tell me she stopped listening when I told the audience “if you don’t see the value of hiring a coach then you shouldn’t be coaching people.”  She eventually came around when she realized what I was really talking about.

If your coach thinks he’s at the top of the food chain and isn’t working with another coach, mentor, consultant or mastermind, do you really want to be working with him?  Obviously he doesn’t value coaching very highly.

Visionary

I have many ideas but I love when someone else can help me think bigger about them.  Some of the most profitable things I’ve done in business have been run by coaches I’ve hired and other people who can help me craft a solid vision.

Results Driven

Your coach should be focused on producing results.  It’s not enough to dream about the future, you have to get there.

A coach is not responsible for doing the work for you but is responsible to help you dream, plan, execute, adjust and execute again.

Without results little else matters.

What about you?  What would you look for when hiring a coach?