Daily Archives: 16 February 2011


As a coach, how are you judging if you are doing a good job? 1

It’s possible that the scenario that you are coaching in is likely to partly influence the focus and perspective of how you judge a specific coaching session.

If you are coaching where you are developing and practicing a specific ability in a training environment then perhaps you will use how you performed a specific technique, coaching model or skill as a way to judge.

If you are coaching in a business context as an internal member of a team then perhaps the judgement about how well a coaching session is influenced by other aspects of the expectations of your job role.

If you are coaching in a business context as an external provider then you may have other influences about how you judge a session was a good one.

Broadly speaking there are 5 different scenarios you may find yourself coaching:

  • In a training situation to develop a specific skill, technique or style.
  • A “formal” session in a business where you are also a team member – An example of this is a manager running a coaching session for a team member.
  • A “formal” coaching session in a situation where you are “paid” by someone other than the person you are actually coaching.
  • A “formal” coaching where you are “paid” directly by the individual you are coaching.
  • An “informal” coaching conversation with family, friends or colleagues.

For the purposes of this list by formal I mean a session where both you and the person you are having a coaching conversation with are aware that you are coaching.

By “informal” I mean a situation where the other person may describe it as a chat at lunch, or an interesting conversation in the corridor etc. – As a coach you may have been very aware that you were having a conversation that would easily be identical in a formal coaching session. It’s just not necessarily the label the other person would use.

The question I ask today is as a coach, how are you judging you are doing a good job? I appreciate that potentially the scenario and context you are coaching in may influence your judgement.

Do you form a judgement given what you have personally seen or heard? Perhaps you just get a specific feeling that tells you that you’ve done a good job.

Maybe you let your client(s) be the guide about if it was a good session and use the feedback from those directly involved.

Another aspect that some people use to judge is criteria either given directly to you by someone other than your client (ie a trainer/organisation). Alternatively, you can judge using a comparison with someone else.

You may have noticed that I specifically used the word judging, as in “to form an opinion about,” in my question.

Each method of judging can have an impact on how confident you feel about your coaching and the action that you take which can positively or negatively impact your business.

As always, if you are judging if you are doing a good job, and that way is working for you then do keep doing what you are doing. If it isn’t working you may want to consider how you are forming that judgement and what you are doing with that opinion.

Here are a few questions and observations that will apply more to some judgement methods than others:

  • Not confident about your coaching? Leonard Orr’s said “What the thinker thinks, the prover proves.” (Otherwise known as Orr’s Law.) Are you ignoring “evidence” from another perspective?

Just for fun, if you were to consider the opposite to your judgement, what “evidence” could you find? If you were to use that judgement what would you do differently?

  • Comparing yourself with someone else? What are you doing with that comparison? If you are using it to beat yourself up with “I’m not as good as” thoughts, is that a useful action?

I’ll also mention that many people pick someone with years of experience and thousand of hours of practice to use as a comparison – hardly a fair comparison if you haven’t also got years of experience and thousands of hours practice as well!

  • Totally ignoring what your clients are saying and preferring to make a judgement using other methods? Just for a moment consider the question: “What actions would you take if you let your clients guide that judgement?” What impact would those actions have on your coaching practice, either your literal business or how you approach coaching?

If you haven’t already I invite you to consider how you are judging your coaching and the impact that is having.