Does a Coach need to be able to walk the talk?

Scott,

My personal opinion is if I were to pay a coach for helping with my business or online money making opps., I would like someone with experience.

I'm sure there are exceptions to this, but I wouldn't feel comfortable with someone that hasn't done something themselves and trying to teach me to do it.

I work with a seminar and information publishing company and all of our coaches have a lot of experience in their choosen niche.

Yes, a coach needs to be an expert at what he teaches. Not neccesarily a "guru."

In sports, most coaches at least have experience coaching winning teams. They usually start out as assistant coaches to gain experience. It's different with sports because you may be an expert on strategy but may not have the physical ability to play.

On the flip side, my college basketball coach was a former standout player but was one of the worst coaches I ever had. Just like an IM guru is very successful with his own business but may suck at teaching Internet Marketing.

I'm one of those basketball coaches that couldn't play the game if you put a gun to his head. I understand the game. I understand strategies. I understand how to analyze my players and the players of the opposing team. I can recognize what the other coach is doing and adjust my strategies.

I've still got a LOT to learn and I employ the help of some very qualified assistants and get advice from other accomplished coaches. So I'm getting coached while I'm coaching.

Am I any good?

My Jr High boys team was #2 in the state of Texas for Home School Basketball. We were undefeated in our district against other home school, private school, and public school teams.

We ranked 5th in the nation against other Home School teams. (I think we could have won but had a couple of key players get very sick just before the semi-finals).

Parents of some of my players have told me that my coaching style and personality are one of the reasons their boys love the game of basketball and would rather play for me than any other coach.

Comments like, "He will work harder for you than any other coach he's had" really make my day. I love helping these boys succeed at this game. It can teach them a lot about life.

There are also some parents and boys that don't like the way I coach at all. (Typically, complaints come from those parents whose boys never practice and don't apply what they're being taught. No mystery there.).

In my case, I was thrust in to the world of coaching due to a shortage of coaches in the organization I was with. I was asked to step in and help. I took on the role and I thrust myself in to studying and learning as much as I could. I assisted other proven coaches and I asked a lot of questions. I watched videos, read books, and learned as much as I could.

Then I got to put what I had learned in to practice by teaching it to the team and executing the plan on the court.

I had some amazing athletes on the team so that certainly helped.

When I started, there was a LOT of skepticism about my chances of success as a coach. Other coaches wanted that team. Other coaches had experience. I think my leadership is a big part of why I got that opportunity and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Personally, I think it's possible that this same thing could be applied in the world of being an IM coach. But like most people, I'd sure like the person coaching me to have some real-world experience.

Some of the most successful personal development coaches have stories of how they lived in their vehicle, were broke at one time (or more), didn't have a job, etc... But they found their inspiration and wrote a book, started public speaking, started personal coaching, etc...

My bet is that some of our best military generals couldn't fire half the weapons available to their troops. But they can strategize, lead, inspire, and direct. And that's what leadership and coaching really come down to, IMO.

With IM, it's really only about startegy, tactics, and basicly what's between your ears.

Unlike athletics, and a lot of other endeavors,there's really no other special skills really required to implement those ideas - everything else is fairly easy to either learn or outsource.

So any IM coach or teacher who doesn't 'walk the walk' is about as helpful as someone trying to teach you to tie your shoes, when they don't know how to do so themself!

If the coach hasn't had success in discovering what methods work on the net then how is he going to give you them most value for your money?

The net is one of those places where you have to do an inordinate amount of work to sift through garbage in order to find the gems. There is just too much misinformation out there to settle on a second-rate coach.

I suppose I'm opposite of the general consensus here.

I think that a coach needs to be someone that can motivate you to accomplish a task. That's it.


In fact, many times coaches and teachers don't have even half of the talent or potential as their students at the given task... that's why they're coaches and not doing it for themselves.

What a coach SHOULD possess is excellent motivational skills and the ability to bring the highest potential out of any person that they're "coaching".

Granted, someone that knows nothing about a given topic shouldn't be coaching people on it... but you don't have to be the best. Sometimes someone can have all the knowledge in the world and just not know how to apply it.

Think of how many people surpass their coaches ability on a regular basis, but still require "coaching".

Think about Tony Robbins.... he's got personal issues like everyone else, but he's damn good at motivating people to make the best of themselves... and he's made billions doing it. But he still has regular problems just like everyone else.

It's about motivational ability, and less about knowledge IMO.

My regular coach has pretty much nil expereince in IM
However he is fantastic at spotting levels of performance, and suggesting where I can improve and grow
He's not an IM expert
But he is a person, and business expert. And he works

Personally I think a coach should have real world experience in whatever they are teaching. I would be very upset if someone was giving me advice they "think" is correct. What's funny is I see people who some consider guru's give advice in areas they really don't know about. They just parrot what they hear...

Much love,
Dave.

I think a coach in the online world has to walk the walk. IF not, why bother with them? It's not the same as an athletic team.

I think it's more about moving up maslows hierarchy for online coaches then the money. Most coaches would make a lot more if they just focussed on their own business and didn't bother teaching anyone else. But when you hit the point where money doesn't motivate you as much anymore, you need something to keep you going. That's when you seek ways to expand your personal growth and that usually involves giving back and helping others. (although not for everyone I suppose). Plus you learn from the people you're teaching too and it's a mutually beneficial relationship that is created.

Depends on the topic.

In IM yes.

In sports, music etc... no

In those cases a coach only needs to help you access your potential, move past blocks, strategize better and/or create a better mindset.

No.

Every coach needs to be able to coach, understand people, what makes them tick and how to help them get results.

Coaching in IM is no different to coaching in any other area.

Just one example...Jose Murinho. The guy never played football (or soccer as it's called here in the US) and he is a great coach who gets results.

The 'guru' types in IM live off of their 'gurudom' because that is what the market is used to, wants and responds to (sad as it is) - In reality, 'gurudom' in IM is an 'old boys club', but that's gradually changing.

I was asked a couple of years ago to teach some eBay workshops for a local community center. I was teaching computer applications there, so I said yes, even though I had no experience at the time.

I did have a son who is a power seller - I picked his brain. A daughter who had an ebay store - I picked her brain. Then I read every book and tutorial I could find.

I started using eBay just because I didn't want to be a fake if people asked me questions, but I was upfront that it wasn't my preferred Internet activity. Bottom line: I still do so-so on eBay, partly because I'm not that interested. But a number of my students have done very well. Go figure.

I'll give you guys another example at this. Math is not my best subject. However, my classmates used to always get better grades than I did after I explained whatever we were talking about to them. Now I wouldn't go into teaching math, but I do plan to teach since I know I have talent in that area. I hope I have answered the question. Hmm maybe this is an article in the making...

I wound up writing a blog post about this question. Here it is: Learn Small Business Blog Archive Should a coach be able to walk the talk?
Do let me know what you think about it.

Hi Scott,

I think a lot of people confuse the term coaching with other terms like mentoring, consulting etc.

So you question really only means whatever people think that term means.

As a coach, a mentor and a consultant I've had a lot of discussions about this with other people in the business.

The 'general' rule for coaching seems to be that strictly speaking, most trained coaches are taught not to offer advice. It's a very strict differential and if you consider it - your comparison against football coaches wouldn't work, so there's clearly some room for miscommunication when it comes to coaching.

If you take someone like Tony Robbins who is a 'success' coach, he's no more a golfer or basketball player than you or I, but he's coached the best in the game and the same goes for politicians, business people and individuals.

So, while I understand why people would say that a coach needs to be an expert in that area - I don't believe it's actually required at all to get great results.

Most of the things people want to achieve really only require a shift in mindset and focus, so while it's great to have someone to get advice from and bounce ideas off - that's not what coaching is usually about.

As for IM coaching, as I do this too, I can say that what most people need is coaching, but what most IMers want is mentoring.

The reason being the same as always - they're looking for someone else to tell them how to be successful.

Coaching is about asking the right questions so that people come to their own version of what success is for them and create their own plan. This is fine - but it's not what most IMers are looking for when they ask about coaching.

It's partly due to this multiple meaning of the word coach, and also partly due to IMers offering 'coaching' without actually really understanding coaching themselves.

As usual, it's another area of IM where lack of understanding and over-inclination to try and make money with any technique has resulted in lots of people paying a lot of money for 'coaching' and getting something completely different and adding it to the list of 'confusing things about IM'.

Also since many people offering IM related services are focused on the money, they don't take the time to properly understand the things they're selling to others and are setting everyone up for failure - but since they still make the money they're charging, even failure fulfills the criteria of earning them money.

I love coaching and I'd love to see more IMers actually wanting it, but right now it's the same as most IM things - people want to be told how to make money and you can call it what you like as long as that's what they think they're getting.

This is the reason I have strict filtering procedures before working with anyone. I also like providing mentoring to get people skilled-up in IM areas, but that's completely different to coaching.

I use coaches myself and although I find it constantly surprising that IMers seem to confuse these things so much - it's is understandable when you look at all of the misinformation around.

Andy

When thinking fo a topic like this I always think of the old adage "Those who can do and those who can't teach".

I don't think an IM coach has to be successful in walking the talk but I do think they need to understand the walk and to have had experience in doing so I woudl say certainly makes a difference.

Personally I wouldn't engage an IM coach who had not shown they could walk the talk even if on a small scale. Many people can do things but would rather help others than do it themselves. There are those who's skill set really suits working with others and motivating them while others are better at getting the job done themselves.

We are all different aren't we?

I would suggest the best way for an IM coach to prove himself would be to runa company coaching a number of individuals and using their own techniques to achieve, but if this was successful would they want to coach others to compete with themselves?

I think it depends on the type of "coaching" you want. If you're looking for someone who is closer to a consultant than a coach, then you're probably going to want someone who has a proven record of technical proficiency. I don't think it matters whether that record comes from consulting with clients and helping them to achieve success; or whether it comes from personal success in that area. If the person is a really good coach--and, as a result, is making a lot doing it--then it makes sense that she'll spend her time finding ways to coach better, rather than providing endless demonstrations of her technical proficiency (and, in the process, choosing to earn less).

On the other hand, if you're looking for something more generic (like personal motivation), then it may not be terribly important whether the person has a track record of technical proficiency. If the person is capable of influencing whether or not people succeed by motivation alone--and if people find this useful enough to pay a lot for it--then I don't see why he needs to have a history of success in areas other than motivation.

It's not likely, but it's possible.

If someone offered coaching who had never done walked the walk themselves but honestly had a stellar record of repeatedly taking people at your level in IM to the next level and beyond then you'd be stupid to say no.