#129 So, you want to quit your job and become a coach?
Let’s look briefly at why you want to do this, what you will need to do and how you might approach doing it.
Why?
Perhaps you are frustrated working for a large organisation, want to help people and think you’d be good at coaching. Maybe this career change will replace your regular income, or perhaps it’s more of a lifestyle choice, and the money is not as important. What is important is that you know why you want to do it.
What?
You will need to replace or let go of everything that working in a large organisation gives you (a regular income, security, a support network), obtain some coaching qualifications and establish a business. Each of these will require significant effort and commitment.
How?
You will need to build a new community around you, get comfortable with marketing yourself and commit to staying on top of your game. Your new game is being a professional coach.
I recommend:
Reading:
Deciding to Coach, by Joanne Wheatley and Zoe Hawkins.
Subscribe to Unleash Your Coaching Talents, on LinkedIn.
Training:
There are loads of training organisations, from sole practitioners through to universities offering master's degrees, and I cannot opine on all of them; however, I have direct experience with:
In Good Company is a multi-award-winning coach training company.
The Coaching Revolution provides business development mentoring for coaches.
Networking:
Join The Coaching Conversation, on LinkedIn.
Join local communities of coaching practice, coaching circles, or co-coaching groups.
Find out where your ideal client hangs out and hang out there!
Listen to podcasts: Again, there are loads, but I like The Coaching Inn, which is particularly good.
Staying on top of your game:
Once you’ve got your practice up and running, there are more and more top-up courses out there for coaches, and some of them are even worth doing.
But nothing beats engaging reflective practice – ‘we do not learn from experience but from reflecting on our experience’ (Dewey, 1933).
Engaging in reflective practice can start as soon as you think about becoming a coach.
Individual reflective practice will only take you so far.
Coaching supervision is ‘a safe, relational space co-created by coaches and their supervisors for encouraging, enabling and externalising the coaches’ reflective practice’ (Lewis, 2024).
If you are considering engaging in supervision, click here for a complimentary coaching practice review and receive a one-page summary with recommendations and a free initial session, or check out the rest of my website.
