What you need to know about working with a coach
For many people the world of coaching is cloaked in a veil of mystery, misconception and marketing tactics.
Given that coaching is a relatively new (and largely unregulated) industry there are often more questions, at least at dinner parties I attend, about what coaching is, than there are clear answers.
The coaching industry is growing exponentially year on year. In 2023 the estimated global market value from coaching will be $15.2 billion in 2023 (which is up from $2.849 billion in 2019).
Here at The Ask we support ambitious, entrepreneurial professionals like you to make the right decisions and moves when it comes to your career — and for many those plans and decisions will at some point include working with a coach whether now or in the future.
Especially given the age range of people most likely to work with a coach being above 35 years old (which is also the average age of my readers!)
To make better decisions, you need better information, and so in upcoming articles I’ll give you the inside scoop:
Understanding what coaching is, exactly
How to identify the right coach for you (or if you in fact need therapy or mentoring)
What you can expect to spend on coaching
It’s a longer post so feel free to skip to the sections you’re most keen to learn about!
What is coaching, exactly?
Coaching at its core is a goal-focused and collaborative relationship between a coach and their client.
It is typically:
Short term
Formal and structured
Specific and measurable
Performance driven
The coaching process involves a series of regular 1-2-1 sessions designed to uncover solutions to a problem or challenge the client is experiencing. These challenges are standing in the way of a goal being achieved.
Oftentimes, the client has attempted to solve these problems alone, without success, before coming to a coach. That’s because despite our best intentions, breaking an existing pattern of behaviour or finding clarity, can be hard to achieve alone.
There is an accreditation you can take in coaching, regulated by the International Coaching Federation, also known as the ICF. Not every coach is accredited, and not everyone with an accreditation has got one through the ICF. There are many coaching schools out there. (This is why the coaching industry is unregulated — anyone can slap ‘coach’ on their Instagram bio because there is no singular body checking standards).
An ICF accredited certification, such as the one I took in 2020, is grounded in learning about how to help people.
It’s based on the foundations of psychology, structuring conversations effectively, and asking the right questions. Decent coaching certification programmes span many months, practice hours and exams. Sure, I didn’t ‘need’ my coaching certification to start my business but I am so glad I have it and know I’m a 10x better coach for having those tools and experiences under my belt.
One main reason behind choosing the name ‘The Ask’ for my coaching business is because the right questions create clarity.
There is nothing more rewarding than asking a client a targeted question about their unique situation and seeing the lightbulb moment happen. Where the client realises what was standing in their way all along, or has an exciting idea about something they can do differently.
I also believe great coaching is about staying the course with a client until the problem has actually been solved. Information alone is rarely the reason we make a change; consistency and accountability make all the difference.
Here’s how an author from Psychology Today put it:
You can’t judge the success of coaching based on a one-off session or two alone.
It is a period of collaboration and with a proper programme of work. Most problems tend to stem from a range of root causes that need to be tackled independently… for example I may see a productivity challenge rooted in a lack of clarity, and then perhaps a lack of clarity problem rooted in low self-belief.
A great coach should be able to identify these things and then empower the client to find solutions that they can take into their day to day life.
Have you ever taken advice from someone, nodded at how rational their advice was, but then done nothing about it? I’m sure you have even in the last week alone.
Rarely is that because you don’t respect their opinion or think advice could indeed help you… but more often, it is because you haven’t internalised that advice as being the best course of action for you.
So there is an unconscious block when it comes to taking this advice.
The point of coaching is that the client typically knows what is best for them and the coach can help to draw this out. That’s not to say that a coach won’t share wisdom, anecdotes, ideas and suggestions from time to time (I certainly do).
Something else to note about coaching, is you shouldn’t need it forever, either.
Done well, it means ending a coaching relationship. That’s because not only has the coaching goal been achieved the client will now have a newfound toolkit to tackle whatever challenges may lie ahead thereafter.
A bit like a video game or a mastery at your favourite workout, you can enjoy the winnings or perhaps move ahead and advance to the next level. At this level, perhaps you are good to go, or you want coaching still, there may even be a different coach who is a better fit for your new goal and its associated challenges.
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So, how do you choose your coach?
How to find the right coach for you (or do you need a therapist or mentor, instead?)
Choosing the right coach is about their niche, your relationship with them and being sure you need a coach (not a therapist or mentor).
i) The Niche
Assuming you want to work with a coach, the first decision to make is whether you want them to specialise in anything in particular. If you have a professional problem, a coach with experience here is going to be a better fit than a general life coach could ever be.
I loved this diagram we got shown in my coach training school Animas which shows that the roots of coaching are the same, no matter what coaching specialism someone has:
If your coach is trained with the coach training school Animas, they will have studied the same coaching ‘roots’ listed here such as adult learning, self help and psychology. However they will later branch off into their own specialism.
I knew going into my training that I wanted to do career and business coaching, but I still had the same curriculum as my peer Pippa, who has become a dating and relationship coach, for example. That’s because coach training doesn’t teach coaches about specific problems in relationships or careers. It teaches coaches how to help people make change.
Coaches ‘niche’ into one of these specialisms because it makes things easier — easier for them to market themselves and find clients but also easier to get incredible at spotting behavioural patterns within their given niche.
I have seen countless people at a career crossroads and Pippa has seen many anxious daters, for example.
Working with similar clients many times over it soon becomes easier to spot patterns and know what solutions are best. Not to mention build up a body of specific tools and frameworks that can help this client’s needs.
A tight niche has given me the ability to build up a body of resources on topics like career clarity, strengths, career transition, job searching, business planning, finding customers… etc.
A coach often brings their own prior life experiences in their field, too. I do what I do because of my experience working at the intersection of careers and entrepreneurship before becoming a coach.
The icing on the cake of this foundation we build, is the self-directed learning we accumulate over time about our niche. So you can bet I’m always listening to a business podcast, book or talk.
Choosing a coach that has good experience and knowledge of the problem you have, is a great starting point.
Here’s a final factor to consider, too.
ii) Your Relationship with the coach
One of the ways to choose a coach, is looking at your relationship with them.
Maybe you don’t know them that well yet, but how did you feel with them during your chemistry call (also known as a discovery call, connection call etc) — the point being you should find out if you feel that you can work with them.
Coaches in demand may not be able to give you countless hours of free connection time, but you can probably get a sense of them from the work they put out there in terms of their content, podcast interviews or workshops they are in.
Become a stalker of your coach, if you are unsure ;)
Credentials and experience are great, but if you feel you can be open with your coach, you trust and like them, this counts for so much more than you might realise. However — this relationship is about respect more than them being your best friend. My previous client Simon who went through a big transformation in our work together described me as ‘1% bully’; whether that is a compliment I’m not sure (!)but his point being that I pushed him to make difficult changes and he remains ever grateful.
So consider the style of coaching you’d be best suited to and go from there.
iii) Check you want a coach and not a Therapist or Mentor
Let’s say you have a problem and you know that you want it solved (soon!), but you are still unsure if working with a coach is the best solution.
Of course you can try books, courses, and self reflection exercises, but the most effective methods are often ones available in the form of personalised 1-1 support (which therapists and mentors can indeed offer too).
Here’s how to decipher what you need:
You need a therapist if…
Your problem is highly emotional, anxiety-inducing or traumatic.
Therapists are licensed to provide mental health support, and coaches are generally not. If you think there are some underlying issues that need addressing then do seek the emotional well-being support of a therapist who will help you to find a greater semblance of balance, happiness or stability first.
When it comes to making changes, some therapists are able to offer solutions and techniques, but many do not ‘advise’ and simply help clients to better understand. So you can always come to a coach, after that.
A current client of mine has a confidence gap compared to where they would like to be. They came to coaching after finding therapy unsuccessful in taking action that actually tackled these long-held beliefs.
The therapy was a good starting point to address the root cause of the issue but coaching is usually more goal and future focused.
You need a mentor if…
You want to achieve something very specific, and often, more complex or technical.
A mentors job is to ‘teach’ and ‘guide’ you to do something, often with the exact steps laid out, or using their own experience of doing that thing.
This is a better option when there are more clear dos and don’ts to follow — more like learning a set skill.
Here, the power dynamic is such that the mentor provides the path forward whereas in coaching, the coach doesn’t ‘tell’ someone what to do but helps them to find the steps that are best.
I am often seeking a hybrid of coach and mentor when I work with someone for my business, because I want to know some of the short cuts and learnings that have gone on behind the scenes, for my coach (aka business guide) to be able to share these with me.
I don’t have ALL of the answers inside my brain.
Similarly this is what I offer clients if they want it.
At The Ask, I give about 80% coaching, and 20% mentoring. I am able to provide mentoring in situations where a client wants to achieve a result I already have, for example a career pivot (I’ve made two), finding a job (I’m an ex headhunter and head of talent), starting a business, becoming a coach, hitting the next income level, building a brand, or newsletter.
These are topics I am able to offer specific steps, and will do so, with a client’s permission in sessions.
If there are times when the ‘advice’ isn’t landing, I would put my coaching hat on, and find out what is blocking them from taking action.
If that specific approach sounds like what you need, you can book a chemistry call and explore coaching programmes together, via this link here.
What you can expect to spend on coaching
If you google ‘cost of coaching’ you will get a wildly different range of answers. That’s because the range is wildly different.
The price point depends on so many factors, such as the coaches’ focus and niche, their level of experience, location, and whether they are self employed or operating as a coach within an organisation.
Another really important factor to consider when it comes to the price of coaching, is that a coach is not coaching every hour of the day — so if you divide an overall salary into an hourly rate (which works for many ‘normal’ jobs) it would not be representative. That’s because a coach has to prep for sessions, review and type notes after, do their own learning and development and usually, manage their book of business e.g. sales, marketing and financial admin.
Most coaches I know don’t do more than three to four coaching sessions in a given day, as it can be quite exhausting mentally.
So the price…
Think of price as related to value that is created as a result of the coaching.
Executive Coaching, for example, which does what it says on the tin, enables high executives to achieve top levels of performance with their work. It might also be known as Corporate Coaching. In the UK, the [average cost] of an executive coach was £1100 for a two hour session (this ranged from £500 to £1,475).
When you consider the impact an executive can have on an organisation’s overall financial performance this figure makes more sense in that context — the right decisions being made can make or break entire departments and budgets.
On the other end of the spectrum, Life Coaching, is designed for individuals who are usually paying out of their own pocket and so the fees are much lower.
Data from Life Coach Directory (a matching platform for life coaches and clients) shows fees to be about a fifth of the price of the Exec coaching rates.
Remember the coaching ‘tree’? I would say relationship, wellness and spiritual coaching into this bracket, too.
For career and business coaching, I’d look at the pricing as something in the middle of the two extremes. You won’t find many decent career or business coaches charging on the lower end of that life coaching spectrum (£85/hour) unless they are really new to their coaching. My first ever paid session was for £40, but that was during my training.
If we exclude the extremes on the bell curve like celebrity coaches who might charge $30k for a day, I would put the average hourly rate of a career or business coach in the UK to be between £150- £600. Most coaches offer 2 sessions per month so that would be £300-1200 per month on average — whilst I’ve based this figure on my own research and experiences, you can find similar rates quoted online.
Different careers and business paths require vastly different knowledge and support, and so it makes sense that a business owner of a £10m revenue business would seek a higher level of coaching support than a graduate level career coach. I recently enquired with a coach for myself, whose rates were £1k per session.
You will absolutely find coaches quoting rates outside of those listed but I wanted to give you a good steer on the averages.
Many of you reading will be thinking — that’s ridiculously expensive!
The fees are always contextual to the value that the coaching can bring to a client’s life, too.
If a business coach helps a clients new business survive year one, that value could be seen as equal to the salary they have forgone quitting a job
If a career coach helps you get 20% pay rise, you may make the investment back in one month’s salary
If a relationship coach saves a marriage or helps you meet the love of your life, can you put a price tag on that?
Coaches who are good charge a lot because they are incredibly experienced and talented at the work they do helping people create meaningful and hopefully long-lasting change and impact. They charge what their service is worth to others, as well as what they need (or want) to charge to make a living doing this work — its basic supply and demand and because a lot of the coaching industry is unregulated there is no real set fee that a coach needs to base their work on.
If you think of what a coach earns compared to a salary, this is a useful rubric to base the maths on.
Let’s take a coach charging £300/ hour as an example. According to data from coaching platform Practice, the median number of coaching clients a full time coach has at any given point in time, is 12 clients. (For reference, when I hit 16, I consider myself fully booked and at the time of writing have 15 regular clients active).
So this means that in a given week, a coach might see every client once, which would be £300 x 12 = £3600 per week.
That sounds like a lot of money, I know.
But most coaches don’t see their clients every week, but every other, as the client may not be able to afford weekly coaching nor need it, so let’s assume that is halved as they see them two-times per month. So the coach instead brings in £1800 weekly. If a coach works every week of the year (£1.8k x 52) that would be around £93,600 annual salary. Not bad.
But, this assumes the following things
The coach works every week of the year (they don’t, they need holidays, too)
The coach has enough demand to be fully booked every week of the year (they unlikely are)
The coach has no overheads to pay for (they do)
So the £93,600 after expenses, holidays, and paying tax, fast becomes a lot closer to £50-60k.
Rough math, but just to illustrate a very realistic point.
If you are paying someone to guide you to reach your professional goals you are likely to want to work with someone who inspires you and who has gone knowledge and experience. With £50k being the salary many graduates get in London within their first five years of working, it no longer feels quite so impressive.
Taking these factors into consideration — I hope the ‘hourly’ rate of working with an established coach with good credentials becomes easier to grasp.
A recent coachee, Marie, shares her thoughts on the investment and support.
For many coaches across verticals and industries, they are providing their clients with more than just the hourly rate itself — such as accountability, remote support, additional resources and what have you. I personally have a lot of back and forth with clients between sessions which means more accountability and action, as well as support in moments of doubt or fear when taking bold actions towards goals — sending that email or taking the next step.
Perhaps coaching is not in your budget right now — which is another reason why many coaches also offer other products and services like workshops, events, books, and courses which can deliver part of the solution to many of the same problems when done well.
So there you have it! Some mammoth reflections if you’ve read the whole way through I hope that you found it valuable and always shoot me any email with any thoughts, comments or reflections of your own.
If you enjoyed this post, keep an eye out for more takes on the coaching industry soon. In an upcoming post I will explore the business side of the coaching industry and how its lack of regulation has created some charlatan tactics and manipulation in certain circles, so that you can be a better informed consumer and spot the difference between good and bad coaching.
