Coaching is becoming more popular and many people who have the benefit of their experience, skills or special knowledge, coupled with the ability transmit the benefits of that experience, skill or knowledge, would be in a position to offering their own brand of coaching. Unless your particular knowledge is unique in its nature and you are the only person in the world who knows that knowledge, you would most probably need to enhance your offering to the world and your target audience.
Here are some pointers I have for coaches seeking to improve themselves as coaches. I found these to be particularly helpful in developing and working with professional coaches.
Small Business:
Your coaching business is a business. Which means structure, offering, clients, marketing, delivery and all those wonderful things that come with owning and operating a practice of clients whom you service. While coaching is a wonderful skillset, it is an entirely different operation to develop a coaching practice and run it as a business. Sometimes, coaches are not well versed in business or practice management so they would have to boost their skills and knowledge in that area. You may start out small, but who knows how far you can take it?
Personal Development: I cannot emphasize this enough. You have to be a BETTER PERSON. Not a skill-monger, not an expert, but a better person. Everyone has blindspots, even the best of us. And what makes the difference is the willingness of the coach to keep improving themselves and seeking to be the best version of themselves that they have to offer to their clients. Find something to your taste, some people like deep inner work, some like reprogramming themselves, others like motivation boosts. They fundamentally work on your relationship to yourself, your existential equation, your mission and purpose, your attitudes, and how you conduct yourself around people. Such a development tends to resolve any inner conflicts that you may have as an individual seeking meaning or purpose in the world, or as someone looking for a deeper kind of fulfillment.
Unique Approach:
What’s unique about your coaching? What can you offer that another coach cannot? What would you like to be known for?
Your ability to attract the clients you desire would depend on how you offer yourself to the market. Do you have a unique process? Do you have a unique skill? Do you have unusual but valuable experience? Do you have special knowledge of a particular segment of the market or of a specific industry? These make you valuable as a specialist while you improve your skills as a coach and your knowledge about the processes of coaching.
Disciplines:
Contrary to most people who do not understand what it takes to be a coach, Coaching is a set of disciplines by itself. It has many required skills which can make or break a coach, and distinguish whether a coach is effective with their clients and can produce results as well as developing insights that are necessary shifts for the clients. A coaching school can provide many of those skills and that differs from school to school. While it is true that many coaches rely on their personality to coach, consider the difference if a coach had both. Get yourself trained if you want to be an excellent coach. Better still, get yourself mentored such that you can develop expert knowledge and a unique approach to your coaching.