Who Should Be My Coach
The Right Coach is Key to Success
Knowing you need a coach is easy – after all, you know there is a skill you want to improve. If you missed it, my recent post covered why everyone should have a coach. Finding the right coach is the challenge. The goal of this post is to provide some information to help you identify the right coach for you.
NOTE: You can learn something from everyone, the point isn’t that the wrong coach won’t teach you things. The wrong coach just won’t teach you the right things.
The Expert May Not Be the Best Coach
Let’s say I want to have a better understanding of physics (I don’t, but it is a good example). The natural inclination is to find the best physics mind in the country to be my coach. A coach like Einstein or Richard Feynman (yes, I know they are dead, just bear with me for the sake of the story). I’ve found this is often a mistake.
An expert is great because they have the best knowledge, but are they the best for YOU. If you are beginner, you will have a hard time following an expert. The expert may not be able to put themselves in the shoes of someone who knows so little. They may not be able to relate to you and explain things in a way that a beginner may understand.
The Idea of Levels
I love to use a 1 to 10 scale to measure things. Skill levels and the need for coaching are no exception. A few notes on the scale to help you:
The ratings for the scale are not an exact science. Sure, knowing nothing is easy, you are a 1. Knowing everything is easy, too – you are a 10. But what about everything in between? A guess at best.
The scale isn’t meant to be a precise measurement. It is meant to clarify the way you think about the skill.
Everyone’s scale will be different. That is fine. I may rate myself a 5 on a skill and someone else may rate me a 7. Doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is my rating. (Although, you might want to find out why someone rated you differently as it could be a good knowledge point for you.)
The scale will change. You may rate yourself a 5 today, then you learn some new skills and you decide to rate yourself a 4. Why? As you grow, your knowledge of what you don’t know will grow as well.
Using Levels to Find a Coach
Picking a coach becomes easier when you start to think about levels and how it guides you in thinking about skills. The key thing to remember – the most effective coach is one who is 1 or 2 levels above you.
Here is the process you follow:
Determine the general skill you want to learn. For example, I use Canva to make all my graphics. I’ve used it for awhile, so I would rate myself a 6.
Decide what knowledge/skill would make me a 7. For me, I know how to use many of the tools, but I really don’t understand filtering and how it can add to the quality of my graphics.
I think about the people I know who use Canva who I would consider a skill level 7 or 8.
Once I identify them, I reach out and ask if they use filtering and how comfortable they are with it.
When someone says they are comfortable about filtering, I ask if they will teach me what they know.
A few things to notice about this process:
The skill rating is not relevant, but it helps me define the skill I want to learn to improve. The question that comes out of step 2 is the key thing “what will help me get to that next level?” Notice it wasn’t “what will make me a Canva expert?” That is too broad and general. It won’t help.
The rating that the prospective coach would give themselves is not relevant. I think the person is a 7, but she may rate herself a 5.
It doesn’t matter if you ask the person to teach you a specific skill or to be a coach, the point is the learning. Sometimes saying you want them to coach you might be a bit intimidating.
Conclusion
Picking a coach can feel like a difficult task. Picking the wrong coach may lead to frustration and failure. Hopefully this way of using levels to select a coach and skill help.