Character more important for a coach than skills and knowledge

Obviously, a bad experience like this not only does harm in traumatically shaking up the student’s confidence for a long while to come, but will also harm the reputation of the mentor, as it is inevitable that this experience would be shared with many other people. There goes his future!
Sometimes coaches forget that their success hinges many more times on their character than on their skills and knowledge. They look in the wrong places for ways to accelerate their growth.
Typically they go for more and more qualifications, do research for more knowledge, attend networking functions and so forth. But the area that matters most but is often neglected lies in building their personal character.
Ironically, becoming a coach has brought to them some undesired traits that only “kill” their coaching profession slowly but surely. So what are the common character killers? There are four that I like to share.
One is arrogance. Being a coach seems to give some people the wrong impression that they are above others. They think they have superior skills that can do magic for others. So they talk down to their coachees with their know-it-all superiority, make lots of judgement calls and give too much unsolicited advice even before they care to discover what is really bothering their charges.
Another one is adopting a negative outlook of people and their circumstances. Instead of supporting their coachees in seeing the bright side, they get into the detective work of finding further holes in their lives, causing them further emotional pain. How can one enjoy a coaching session when it is more like a hell ride?
Sometimes coachees wonder whether their coaches genuinely want to help them or are just after their cash. There is a third killer called lack of passion, which is shown in a lackadaisical attitude coupled with unshining faces, lifeless voices and lethargic movements, which do not help lift the spirit of their coachees and move them forward.
Another killer is the lack of a strong mental strength to live out their values. They compromise too much. To them, “anything is possible”. They do not stand up to rectify what is wrong but instead support it, and they don’t have a position that clearly exudes what they are.
The final killer is failing to take care of their own back yard. Their life is in somewhat of a mess. It is shown in the way they project and carry themselves in their words, appearance and behaviour. Somehow when you look at them you know that their own life is not working well. They appear to need more help themselves, so how on earth will people have the trust and confidence that they can help them?
So it pays to watch out for these character killers more than doing any other things before they doom your coaching profession.

Corporate Coach Academy is a coaching school in Asia to certify leaders of all backgrounds to become manager-coaches or professional certified coaches in this region. Log in to www.corporate-coachacademy.com or e-mail [email protected] for details.