Let's start with the origin of the word "coach", because that can bring us closer selection criteria. In the Hungarian town of Kocs, the best horse-drawn "coaches" were once built for the more elevated people. Since these came from the town of Kocs, the word coach developed in German-speaking countries and the word coach in English. A passenger coach is still called a coach in English: something that takes higher-placed people from where they are to where they want to go.
Higher ranking people? Well, at that time only small class of population could afford these special carriages. Coaching, of course, is not about who is higher up, at least not as a person. But it is still the case that you have to be able to afford a coach and that it can be quite normal that the person being coached has a better economic position in life. Coach still means: Can I get ahead with this help, ideally to where I want to go? Unlike the mentor, who is already there or has experienced what the client wants to achieve, the coach does not necessarily have to be where the client wants to go. In this respect, the coach can sometimes only be a guide.
Different forms of coaching
The example of the carriage clearly shows the different forms of coaching. First of all, when you think of a carriage, you think that you only have to sit in it and then you will be taken to your destination.
But this doesn't work for health or fitness coaches - they can't get healthy for the client or train for them - nor in the business sector. There, a distinction must be made between interim managers, trainers and consultants who take over areas of responsibility within the company. Coaching is instruction to do. And a good coach demands that his instructions are followed. If this relationship of trust does not exist, coaching should be terminated. Bob Proctor says so well, "When I coach you, you must do what I tell you. Otherwise, I become your assistant. And I don't want that."
Let's imagine that with Jürgen Klopp as the coach of the football team in Liverpool, the players would not follow the instructions. That way, the team would never get on the winning track. Ergo: The coach is not on the pitch himself, he gives instructions on how to play the game.
So the coach has to be good to give the best instructions. He doesn't have to be able to do everything better himself. He must be able to lead his team, his coachees, to success. And that is a special gift.
In English, training is called education. The word has a Latin origin and means "to bring out." A coach is good when he can awaken the inner potential, the unique ability of the team member, the coachee, educate him and bring him to perfection. Nothing should be imposed, grafted on. Therefore, when choosing a coach, one should pay attention to whether one should be carved in the image of the coach, just buy his program, or whether it is really about developing the uniqueness of the client. This is usually a very individual and skin-deep process. Jürgen Klopp could not do his job remotely and not with video courses alone.
The coach should not be chosen solely on the basis of material success. It is logical to also look at how this success was achieved, what values underlie it. I will explain this below using the purpose quadrant.
Also, we have often talked about different levels of consciousness. Whether I go according to Spiral Dynamics or other models is the same for the basic criterion of the level of consciousness. More importantly, can your coach take you to a next level? He must at least be able to show you the right wall for your ladder and maybe hold the ladder. I have often had coaches that I chose at the level I was at. But many of the so-called top coaches at that level were incapable of taking me to the next level because they didn't know and understand it at all. That's where coaching often actually hurt me. Not only did it cost time unnecessarily (money anyway), but it often undermined my self-esteem, because the result was not really about me and my advancement, but about imitating me on a level I wanted to leave.
Selecting a coach with the Purpose quadrant
Therefore, I recommend today to select a coach also on the basis of the purpose quadrant. I've used this chart a lot here, and in itself it's self-explanatory, and I've used it a lot ... but how does it work for coach selection?
First, let's give the quadrants numbers. Left bottom 0, right bottom 1, left top 2 and right top 3. Now feel inside yourself in which quadrant you are - in the context of the desired coaching. Let's start from the context of business and career. If Purpose and your true self do not play a big role, you are probably in quadrant 0 or 1. You can easily tell which one you are in by your bank balance. Do you have to work hard to survive (0) or can you afford a lot and even not work for months or years and still live (1)?
On the lower left, quadrant 0, we have crossed out in red, because we do not wish anyone to live there. But it can happen - I was born there, for example.
The lower right quadrant, quadrant 1, is what we internally call the investment banker quadrant. If I conform to the prejudice and do anything for bonuses, I betray my soul.
At the top left, in quadrant 2, one is in good to very good contact with one's soul. Here there are many who discard matter, it is called mendicant quadrant, because these deliberately renounce matter. Here are also many people who help with their professions, but are afraid of money and luxury.
In the upper right quadrant, quadrant 3, we are out of the dilemma. Here, economic success can be lived with emotional fulfillment in harmony with the soul. *Purpose driven profit* is what we call this.
Where are you in this representation and where do you want to go? Then you already get a good approach for your coach selection.
In other words, people in quadrant 0 usually stay there. If they do change (which happens rarely), then often only after 1, in order to get out of the money trouble first, the purpose does not yet play a dominant role. I also changed from 0 to 1, from poor to rich. When I realized the missing soul connection, I then went to 2, from off-purpose to on-purpose-but at the same time from rich to poor. Radically, I had given up and transferred my law firms, my office building. In the book *Lieber die ganze Welt gegen mich als meine Seele* is recorded some of this process.
One could also go from 0 to 2. But this seems to me to be much less often the case.
From 1 to 2 I have gone through myself. But I also have clients today who go from 1 straight to 3, maintaining economic success from off-purpose to on-purpose. You don't have to go back to poverty first. Transformation doesn't require poverty, just the courage to do business differently with a new worldview and new set of values.
From 1, you can also fall back into quadrant 0. From money back to poverty, that happens often enough.
From 2 to 0 hardly ever happens, at least I don't know of any case. From 2 to 1 and 3 is possible. You can have your soul bought or you go to 3 because you realize that 2 is not a good model for the world.
Again as an overview:
| From ... | ... after |
|---|---|
| 0 | 1 and 2, rarely after 3 |
| 1 | 0, 2, 3 |
| 2 | 0, 1, 3 |
| 3 | 1 and 2, rarely after 0 |
So: Now find out which quadrant you are currently in. Then decide which quadrant you want to switch to. And then choose your coach carefully. Is he at home in the quadrant you want to change to? The quadrants are large areas. For example, in 3 you can put more emphasis on purpose and less on economic success. Or you can have very great material success there, but Purpose just above the zero line.
First, the most important thing is that your coaches are always at the level you want to be at. Then when you are there, you can look there again for the next coach who will take you further. Sometimes you have to change coaches if you want to grow yourself but your coach does not.
If you want to have an above-average quality of life, I always recommend a coach. You select him specifically, as described above? - Very good! With top coaches you will reach your desired goal faster, more comfortably and more smoothly.