Do you have what it takes to become an executive coach?

Here are 10 ‘tell-tale’ signs that you have a calling for this challenging but rewarding career.

1. You are curious about people and how they behave. You take people as they come, not judging them or trying to fit them into psychological models, but just wanting to know what makes them ‘tick’.

2. You are observant. You notice things about how people behave, especially small gestures that tell big stories.

3. You have empathy with other people. If someone tells you about their feelings, you can feel these things too. This does not mean you are swamped by the emotions, but you are aware of them.

4. You want to help people – a bit, anyway. Too much desire to help others can lead to ‘rescuing’, charging in with advice or offers of assistance, when a coach’s job is to get the client to help him or herself. But a bit of this desire is necessary: if you don’t care about others’ misfortunes, your motivation to coach will be weak.

5. You value businesses and organisations. Sadly, some people who go into coaching ‘look down’ on business and organisational life, seeing it as somehow inauthentic or exploitative. You do not have these hang-ups; instead, you have a real passion for business which your clients will sense.

6. You understand businesses and organisations.When a client talks of a workplace issue you have enough business knowledge to know if the remedy requires deep personal change or the acquisition of new skills or information.

7. You have inner strength. You will need this when clients play ‘games’ with coaches, have painful stories to tell, or need to be but not want to be challenged.

8. You are patient. Coaching is not an instant fix. Change has to come from within the client – coaches are there to facilitate this, not to ‘fix’ people – and this can take time.

9. You believe that people can change. Some people believe maxims like ‘leopards don’t change their spots’, and regard coaching as a way of managing people and getting them to change superficial behaviours. It is much more than this.

10. You have lots of personal integrity. Last, and I believe most important of all, to be a coach is to be in a position of responsibility. Clients need to be able to reveal their weaker side, in the complete confidence that this will be respected and not abused.

Robbie Steinhouse is head of training at NLP School, http://www.nlpschool.com/. His most recent book, How to Coach with NLP, is published by Prentice Hall.