Why You Need a Coach

The best performing people in every human endeavor have coaches. This includes business leaders, athletes, artists, salespeople, and entrepreneurs. Here are some of the reasons you might need a coach and how they can help you grow faster.

You need to clarify your values and beliefs. A good coach can help you identify what is most important to you. They can help you dig out your real purpose, that thing you should be doing that would create meaning in your life. They can also help you understand your own beliefs, the ones that empower you, and the ones that limit you. A coach can help you pay enough attention to your values and beliefs that you experience the exponential growth that comes from improving them.

You can’t see your own blind spots. It can be very difficult to see the internal obstacles that are preventing you from reaching your goals, especially your beliefs. When you believe that something or someone is preventing you from reaching your goal, you disempower yourself, taking away your agency, your ability to act. A good coach can help you become aware of those blind spots and find new choices.

You need to be reminded of your resourcefulness. You were born with the capacity to be creative. You are an idea-generation machine, one with the ability to bring its visions into reality. But it is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day and forget that you are a source of ideas. You were born with the ability to solve problems, but you sometimes need a nudge to restart that engine and identify solutions to your problems—and other people’s problems.

You need someone to hold you accountable for new actions. Some people do better when they are held accountable for changing behaviors. The simple fact that they have to report on the activity they took on a regular basis is enough to drive them to action. Some people hold themselves to such a high standard in one area of their life that they don’t want anyone to ever ask them about their results. But these same people can struggle in another area. A coach can be that accountability where and when it is needed.

You need to test your ideas. A good coach is a great listener. You might need someone to listen to you so that you can process your thinking. A coach with experience in the domain in which you are being coached can listen and act as a sounding board, helping you test your ideas, recognize risks, identify alternatives, and determine a course of action that works for you.

You need help with your transformation. Transformation is the ultimate goal of coaching. It’s supposed to move you beyond where you are now and transform you into that better future you. A coach is someone who can help you create breakthrough results. They can help you transform, and they can help you make that transformation faster.

If you aren’t being coached, you are probably not producing the results you are capable of. If you have the time and resources, it’s a worthwhile investment in your personal and professional growth.