How to Become a Career Coach

Career or executive coaching is a rewarding and lucrative career pursuit for a human resources representative who has several years of experience in general HR, training and career development. Another educational starting point is psychology, since you will be evaluating behavior and personality typology in this field.

Instructions

1. Get your educational credentials. In order to become a successful career coach you will also need at least a bachelor's degree in a business discipline and a master's degree is even better. Some very experienced coaches do not have advanced degrees but do have many years of practical experience.

2. Work in the HR field as a generalist or as a training and development specialist for at least 5 to 10 years before specializing in career coaching. You will need a broad scope of business experience and at least some training ability to be successful in coaching. Study and practice in presentations, teaching and skill development will be your best preparation.

3. Study behavior in business and leadership. Many clients are in need of developing better people skills and nuances. This is why they consult with a career coach to begin with, to address issues in their own behavior. Often, the company will hire a coach to work with key people who have good technical skills or knowledge, but have difficulty in communicating or getting along with others.

4. Read up on adult learning theory as well as personality typology. You can become certified in administering these instruments by the companies who own the rights to the products. For example, Myers-Briggs is a very famous typology that you can become a facilitator for, and can use this product to help improve your client's behaviors and understanding of other people's behaviors.

5. Do a behavior assessment of the client upfront. Here you will assess issues, develop an individualized training plan for him and coach him on what he needs to change, why it is a problem and how to fix it.

6. Teach behavioral change like you would any other job skill. This involves introducing the concept, explaining it, demonstration, feedback and reinforcement.

7. 

   Reinforce positive and progressive change in your client's behavior. Work closely with him, serve as his mentor, and give him praise and feedback to correct and reinforce even the small changes. Career coaching is rewarding when you can see the results of your hard work.

Tips & Warnings

• Coach by example. Always demonstrate the best behavior and serve as a model of how to act and communicate.

• Don't expect immediate or dramatic results. Behavioral change takes time. Wait for it to occur and reward the changes whenever they do occur.

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish
• How to Teach a Job Skill