How to Become a Life or Career Coach

Life or career coaches use their knowledge, insights, life experience and charisma to help people reach their full potential--either in everyday life or in their path to career fulfillment. Becoming a life or career coach is a moderately easy process, provided you focus on gathering research from current practicing life or career coaches, professional organizations that credential and represent coaches and groups that train coaches.

Instructions

Become a life or career coach

• 1

  Decide which area of specialization you would like to cover. Life and career coaches cover very different areas, and each emphasizes different core coaching skills. Life coaches come from a variety of backgrounds and rely on their life experiences and knowledge combined with coaching acumen to help clients. Career coaches usually have a background in recruiting, human resources or organizational development. Although you do not have to have a background in these topics to become a career coach, it may be a good idea to include coursework in these areas to prepare.

• 2

  Research life and career coaches in your area or attend a life coaching seminar. Talk with professional life or career coaches to learn more about how coaching works and to determine whether it is something you would want to do professionally. Online research sites--including tools and resources for coaches or those interested in becoming coaches--are also good options.

• 3

  Sign up for a life coaching course online or at a local college. Basic Internet research can yield numerous opportunities for coaching courses, or you can search through the International Coach Federation, the coach credentialing and professional organization recognized worldwide. You may also take additional coursework--either online or at a local college--in specialized topical areas, such as human resources, psychology or human behavior.

• 4

  Train and develop the 11 core competencies that all certified coaches possess. Ethical standards, professional practices, communications skills, active listening, powerful questioning, facilitating learning and helping the client achieve results are just some of the essentials you will need to build a solid coaching practice. In addition to helping you become an effective coach, developing these core competencies will also help you gain experience and prepare for the final step in becoming a coach.

• 5

  Get credentialed once you have completed your training. Training to become a life or career coach is only the first part of the journey. Credentialing helps show clients that you have completed a set amount of training and that your practice meets minimum standards set by a global professional organization that represents coaches. Credentialing also proves to clients that you are maintaining your training to keep current on coaching trends and practices.