Choosing a Coach

Dernière mise à jour: 03 Dec 2024

How can a coach help?

A coach: a head chef with an assistant holding a packet of seasonings
image d'un sachet d'épices, remplacé par le terme coaching, rehaussez le goût de votre coaching

This is usually one of the first questions people ask me when I introduce myself.

Coaches can be found in practically every imaginable field—from “weight-loss” coaches to “cooking” coaches, and even makeup coaches.

Moreover, the distinction between coaches, therapists, and mentors isn’t always easy to determine, as the differences tend to be subtle.

And then there are coaches—usually certified by a recognised organisation—who will support you in working towards your chosen goal, encouraging you to discover deep within yourself the mechanisms, ideas, emotions, limiting beliefs, and true motivations influencing your progress, so that your success aligns with your expectations. This applies whether in the realm of private life—often referred to as “life coaches”—or in the professional and corporate domains.

The range of services a coach offers is extensive:

    • Develop leadership skills, acquire new competencies, or prepare for retirement
    • Decide on the terms of a role change, a career transition, or even a complete life transformation
    • Achieve a goal that is close to your heart and that you’ve been postponing for years…
Coaching: the word "impossible" crossed out to become the word "possible"

As for me, I am a coach specialising in career development—progression, career transition, life changes—and techniques for developing Emotional Intelligence to successfully achieve these goals.

But couldn’t I be my own coach?

Of course, you can be your own coach. After all, you’ve learned to navigate on your own all this time, and you’ve done very well by yourself so far…

Self-coaching: image of a wooden footbridge over a wild moorland

But is being your own coach always effective?

Haven’t you sometimes felt that, while setting off on a promising journey of self-discovery, you were merely skimming over the field of possibilities like an airline pilot: too high up to grasp the details, too fast to fully enjoy the experience, and, above all, with the sense that you didn’t get to choose the destination?

A coach will start by helping you identify the real need hidden behind your apparent goal. Is it about reaching a measurable target? Feeling an emotion? Sharing a mindset? Letting off steam? Asserting yourself? Pushing further to explore your limits? Or is it “simply” about feeling better?

Together, you will then explore your experiences, resistances, limiting beliefs, successes, and joys. The coach will guide you in discovering your strengths, hidden resources, and potential, enabling you to reach your goal as efficiently as possible. They will help you find personalised and practical solutions with tangible impacts.

Life coach for leaders, managers and project leaders. Professional development. Certified International Coaching Federation coach, work-life balance coach and Mental Fitness coach, InterQualia Flow assessment. Certified coach in Switzerland, Lausanne, Yverdon, Geneva and Online. France & Canada © 2018 – 2024 – Design and production Alternatives et Transitions Coaching