Article published in NY Times
This article is about a 27 year old part time actress who became a life coach to help finance her acting career. Although the article appeared to be a puff piece, and frequently inaccurate, it encouraged over 233 comments that were much more interesting, most often better written and very revealing. (Unfortunately the link to the article no longer works.)
The Comments To “Should a Life Coach Have a Life” Were Priceless!
The Times closed the comments, which I feel was foolish, because they were much better than the original article, and closing them eliminated additional reasons to return to the site. The comments addressed these questions:
Samples of responses to “Should Life Coaches Have a Life First?
“ReadingBetweenTheLines” exposed the hypocrisy of the “Master Coach University.”
Doug Wilson discussed how coaching certifications do not make a better coach.
Lori describes how coaches manipulate and create fear, after using 3 coaches, but then admitted she liked coaches “who do not judge.”
Then “Dogged Optimist” asked “I’m confused. Aren’t all these coaching functions part of the role of friends and family?”
Shay Kostabi’s response was on target, “Life Coaches have the ability to offer an objective point of view, completely detached from personal opinions stemmed from the emotional connections and past history that Friend and Family may have!” but it got lost in all of the noise.
Conclusions from comments made
Are life coaches controversial? You bet!
Confused? Very much!
Consistent? Hardly!
Misunderstood? Constantly!
Con Artists? Too often!
Hypocritical? Again, too often?
Competent? Infrequently!
Respected? Not often!
Life Coaching Is Developing A Negative Reputation
Because life coaching is misunderstood and poorly done. These comments exposed the confusion about what real life coaches do and do not do, and sadly the many undesirable encounters with people claiming to be life coaches. It’s no wonder that life coaching is getting a bad rep.
I am not a life coach, I do not train life coaches, and I feel the life coaching industry is a mess, even though we actively participate in the same industry.
These comments have been invaluable to us, because they explain a lot of negative reactions to a life coaching, but they also confirm there continues to be some superb and dedicated life coaches out there.
Life Coaching Works Extremely Well When Done Right
Being coached is not right for everyone. Just like being taught German is not right for everyone. But when people engage their life coach under the Keys to Successful Coaching they will generate remarkable life and career improving results.
I have been very lucky to have been coached by an excellent coach, Thom Politico who was a protege’ of Thomas Leonard who invented the Life (Personal) Coaching process and he did it right.
Getting the truth out about life coaching is getting more difficult. The increasing confusion about life coaching along with the louder negative reactions to encounters with life coaching imposters is making it more difficult to recognize the truth about life coaching.
Conclusion
Yes, you want your life coach to have a positive life away from coaching. The more stable, mature, and relaxed your coach is will increase his or her ability to provide clean, unbiased, uncomplicated, clear reflections to you, so you become the absolute center of attention to discover true self awareness. In fact, the more grounded your life coach is will enhance their chances of having the special “gift of coaching,” virtually all excellent life coaches have.
We, The Coach Connection, have been educating people about life coaching for over 24 years but the negative noise has been increasing every year. But we will learn from these comments to clarify the misunderstandings that these comments exposed.
Blog Author
Brought to you by Bill Dueease Founder/President of The Coach Connection who struggled through 27 coaches in 6 months to find the good life coach who was right for him. And find him he did. Bill is not a coach, but a thrilled coachee. Through the remarkable life coaching self-awareness process, he discovered his passion and talents were to create and operate his own business so that others would be able to find and select their ideal life coach with only one call and avoid all the pitfalls he encountered. He started TCC in 2001 to fulfill all his goals and personal requirements and never looked back. He shares his full story in his online book entitled “Go To Play Every Day and call it work” which he has been enjoying since 2001.
