Top 10 Qualities of a Great Coach

Most of us know what great coaching looks like: the person being coached learns, develops, and performs at a higher level. But what do great coaches look like?

Spirit of Generosity

They see their leadership role as primarily facilitating the high performance, learning, and development of others and liberally share their attention, time, and energy.

See the Best in Others

They choose to look past the shortcomings of others to focus on their positive qualities, even if deeply hidden.

Healthy Degree of Self-Esteem

They continue to develop themselves so they do not use the coaching relationship to feed their egos.

High Degree of Emotional Maturity

They are very self-aware, understand how to master their emotions, and are able to connect with others at a deeply personal level.

Interpersonally Courageous

They boldly confront those they coach, say what needs to be said, and always seek the path to the truth, wherever it might lead.

Uncommon Compassion

They are truly empathetic and understand the struggle and pain that often accompany personal learning and change.

Lifelong Learners

They have an explorer’s mindset and voracious appetites for new knowledge, learning, and self-development.

Strong Enough to Bend

They have a unique blend of flexibility and resilience that allows them to weather the disappointments, setbacks, and conflicts inherent in the coaching process.

Extraordinarily Accepting Nature

They recognize, accept, and silence their judgmental voices that are a natural part of the human condition.

Perpetual Optimistic Bias

They are driven by the idea that we all have the power to create a tomorrow that is better than today.

The challenging question for all of us who seek to coach is this: Would others use the statements above to describe me?