Oh yeah? Prove it!

Josh Mehlman
30 January 2009

When we started working on this month’s business coaches feature, there were plenty of people who told me business coaches were all snake-oil merchants and self-help gurus like Brad Goodman in The Simpsons: “I may not have a lot of ‘credentials’ or ‘training’, but I’ll tell you one thing: I’m a PhD in pain. Now let me show you how you can change your life.”

However, as the number of business coaches increases, so does the diversity. Business coaches come from a variety of backgrounds and bring with them a wide range of capabilities. If you’re lacking motivation, there’s someone who can gee you up. If your accounts and business processes are a mess or virtually nonexistent, they can help you restore order. If the problems are in sales, marketing, human resources or IT, you can find a coach to work through them with you.

As one of the coaches we profiled explained, a consultant solves problems for you; a coach gives you the skills and confidence to find your own solution.

On the other hand, coaches can get a bit prickly when you ask them to prove their credentials in a practical sense. A long list of satisfied cusotmers is a great sign, but sometimes more concrete proof is required.

When we initially approached coaches to participate in the feature, we floated the idea of setting them a series of tasks, such as negotiating a discount on office computers or motivating staff in an outgoing call centre. If you’re going to teach people these skills, we reasoned, surely you’d be comfortable demonstrating your abilities.

Coaches wouldn’t have a bar of it. “That’s only a small part of what we do,” was the most common objection.

But even when we softened the requirement and just asked them what proof of concept they would perform for a customer, some were still uncomfortable with the idea. If you don’t believe in us, they reckon, we don’t want to work with you.

Fair enough, I suppose. But when it comes to convincing the cynics, coaches still have some work to do.

Nett has been going for more than a year now, but we’re not patting ourselves on the back too much. We’ve made some changes to the design and we’ll keep adjusting the editorial in response to your feedback.

Let us know anything that’s on your mind!