Once you have decided that you need to work on yourself with a confidence coach, hiring the right one is of the utmost importance. Nowadays, almost anyone with an eloquent tongue can pass themselves off as a coach. Their idea of coaching may be giving a pep talk and offering you a shoulder to cry on, which adds no value to you and leaves you feeling just as uncertain as before.
To add to the difficulty of finding a good confidence coach in London or online is the lack of clarity about what to expect from the sessions spent with them. Are their sessions structured or free-flowing? Do they utilise proven strategies and steps to help with your particular problem, or are they selling you some newfangled ideas with no basis in rationality?
Confidence coaching does not come cheap. It is a significant investment, and nobody wants to waste their resources on something that promises much but delivers little.
This resource will help you cut through the noise and identify what you really need, and show you how you can choose the perfect confidence coach for yourself.
WHAT IS A CONFIDENCE COACH?
A confidence coach is someone who works with you to help you achieve a greater sense of self-belief and confidence. A confidence coach does for you what the coach of a sports team would do for his or her players — correct rookie mistakes, stop you from reinventing the wheel, create a customised playbook, train you, set achievable milestones towards the end goal, and hold you accountable. With a confidence coach, you will benefit from having a human sounding board to help you make difficult decisions in certain aspects of your professional or personal life. A good self-esteem coach may even be a domain expert for professional guidance, or someone to hold up a mirror to you and point out your blind spots. The work of a confidence coach may not sound quantifiable at first glance, but the process of confidence coaching is highly structured, and the ROI, though not measurable, shows itself in time. Confidence coaching uses widely established tools, techniques, and strategies from cognitive behavioural therapy, NLP, and other psychological theories. Coaches use these proven ideas to help you break out of your limiting beliefs and negative mindsets. It helps you work through whatever is holding you back from personal growth, success, and workplace satisfaction. At NLP Impact, we mostly use ideas from Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) in our coaching process, and that has proven very beneficial for our clients.WHAT KIND OF CONFIDENCE COACH DO YOU NEED?
When seeking a confidence coach, keep in mind that confidence coaching is an umbrella term. Confidence coaches offer variations in their services. For example, the most basic form of a confidence coach is a life coach. A life coach is a generalist, and it requires very few qualifications to be one. However, if you require coaching in a particular area, for example, decision-making or help with imposter syndrome in the workplace, a life coach may not be able to help you achieve the level of breakthrough you require. Based on the domain in which they have expertise and prefer to work, a coach may have a different title. A few variations of a confidence coach are highlighted below. Try to discern which is the right fit for you.Relationship Coaches
A relationship coach is crucial for businesses with more than one founder or for core teams where interteam dynamics play an important role in the outcome. A relationship coach works to improve communication and perceptions among co-founders and other core members of an organization. Many relationship coaches have a background in business, organizational, or industrial psychology. If you have struggled to communicate with your superiors, peers, or team, or have failed to achieve a level of understanding with them that is crucial for a strong team, then this is the kind of coaching you should seek.Executive or Business Coaches
Executive coaching helps a middle or senior-level employee improve their leadership capabilities, develop in their role and navigate organizational dynamics. While executive coaching does not require deep domain experience, it helps if the coach has worked in that industry before. For instance, if the coach has previous experience in how the finance sector operates, the associated pressures and expectations of the job, then they are more suited to work with those in that sector. Business coaching helps you negotiate better, lead teams confidently, and become a versatile entrepreneur. With a business coach, you’ll learn to have faith in your decisions and become a more reliable leader. Dispel your inner self-doubt and imposter syndrome with business coaching. If you are looking for 1:1 executive coaching, then hiring a coach who has previously worked in the same or a similar sector can turn out to be an asset. They will be invaluable as a sounding board, a thinking partner, and can easily challenge your decisions since they have comparable, if not higher, levels of domain expertise.Skill Improvement Coaches
In professional life, presentation is key. First impressions make or break a personality. Confidence is contagious and an optimistic mindset attracts greater opportunities than a pessimistic attitude. Confidence, presentation, and communication are core components of soft skills, and soft skills, luckily, can be mastered. Improving these core soft skills ends up impacting personal productivity and self-esteem while also making a pleasant impression on others. If you have struggled with the fear of public speaking, a.k.a. glossophobia, communication, or presentation skills, then this is the type of coaching you need.Career Coaches
Almost everyone has a bit of a career crisis when they reach middle or upper management. The pressure is on. The daily grind is hard. The doubt begins to burn you. It’s at this point that people wonder if the career they chose is the right one for them. Even those who have just entered a particular career have plenty of doubts about whether or not that’s the right one for them. Career coaches help you to settle on a career and outline a career trajectory that is both fulfilling and rewarding for you. They assist with interview preparation, resume development, and networking. Career coaches are usually former recruiters or those who have managed to rise to top positions early on in their careers.CEO/Founder Coaches
Some former CEOs and start-up founders often transition into coaching roles to support the next generation of leaders. Since CEOs and Founders are time-pressed and can rarely set up time for coaching, these coaching sessions are usually quick, on-the-go feedback or mentorship, or simple advisory-based calls. Always choose a CEO/Founder coach whose professional decisions and contributions you have respected over the years. Since you already admire their leadership, you are more likely to respect their professional judgments.Confidence Coaches Specifically for Women
Coaching women is a different ball game altogether. They are the prime “victims” of Imposter Syndrome and undermine their worth in the workplace much more than men. Women also face several unique challenges in their careers because of societal and personal expectations. That said, it is often women who benefit the most from 1:1 coaching for their professional lives since they are more receptive to new ideas and easily follow playbooks.HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT CONFIDENCE COACH
Every self-esteem coach has their own approach to coaching. Coaching is intertwined with the coach’s personality. Some are quite tough and can call out character weaknesses, while others prefer a more gentle, nudging approach. Both have their pros and cons. This is known as the coaching style, and it is something you need to feel comfortable with before you begin working with them. Certain coaches have a zero-tolerance attitude towards human weaknesses, which may not work for some. Usually, you’ll get to know about the coaching style through word-of-mouth or their social media pages. The primary thing to look for in a confidence coach is chemistry. Do the two of you gel? Do you hold the same values in high regard? Do you both have more or less the same belief system? Here is a brief checklist you can use before you settle on any particular self-esteem coach.- What sort of coach do you need? Refer to the above section and try to identify the aspect of your personal or professional life that you want to transform, and look for a coach who is an expert in that.
- Does the coach have credible testimonials? There are plenty of scammy coaches out there, so go through any testimonials on the website and try to authenticate the person through your own network if possible. Ask to see their references and follow all their social media pages. Good coaches do not shy away from being public figures since their credibility rests on personal integrity.
- Ask upfront what will happen during each session and what the overall game plan looks like. While it is difficult to give you an accurate picture of how long it might take for you to feel more self-assured in your skin, you can ask for details of what happens during each session.