Finding, Choosing, and Working With a Coach
Three essays and three fill-in sheets for someone deciding whether to hire a coach, choosing one, and then working with them. Nothing here is a pitch. Each piece stands alone; together they follow the order a buyer actually goes through.
1. Decide Whether Coaching Is the Right Purchase
Coaching, mentoring, advising, and consulting solve different problems. Start here if you are not sure which one you need.
The Decision Before You Hire a Coach
Whether coaching is the right kind of help at all: what a coach actually does, when a mentor, advisor, or consultant is the better purchase, and the two questions to answer before you interview anyone
Read the essay →2. Choose the Coach
Three candidates, a free fit conversation with each, and one sheet to fill in as you go.
How to Evaluate a Coach Before You Hire One
How to evaluate a coach in three moments, before the fit call, during it, and after the first sessions, and why the working alliance predicts a good outcome better than credentials or personality match
Read the essay →The Coach Evaluation Sheet
A one-page sheet for choosing a coach: the kind of help you need, what to ask on the fit call, what to expect stance by stance, and the self-check that tells you afterward whether it is working.
Read the one-pager →3. Agree the Terms
What to settle in writing before the first session, including what your employer will and will not see.
The Coaching Agreement Checklist
A one-page checklist for what to settle in writing before session one: goals, confidentiality and its limits, the three-way agreement when an employer pays, fees, how either side ends it, and which roles the coach may occupy.
Read the checklist →4. Check Whether It Is Working
Run it once at the start and again after the first month, and compare.
Is Coaching Working? A Self-Check
A one-page self-check to run at the start and after the first month: readiness, who fills the silence, the relationship itself, side effects to watch for, and when to raise it.
Read the checklist →The Evidence Behind All of It
What the research actually supports, and what it does not.
Does Coaching Work? What the Research Actually Says
What four meta-analyses actually show about coaching, why the headline number needs a footnote, what predicts a good outcome, the side effects, and why the ROI multiples cannot be trusted
Read the essay →If You Are Considering Me
I coach senior technology leaders, and everything above applies to me too. The fit conversation is free, and the evaluation sheet is the one I would want you to bring. See how I work with clients.