Understand there are different coaching niches: business coaching, personal coaching and psychological counseling needs. Invest your money properly and be honest about what type of coaching will best benefit the needs of the organization. Psychological counseling places an emphasis on diagnosis, healing, might include prescribed drugs, and involve family members. Unlike the psychological counselor, an executive coach can be helpful in leadership development, succession planning, or in identifying a habit or behavior preventing the executive from performing at full capacity in the executive suite.

CB "Cork" Motsett, President of Business Development Specialists, Inc. and a highly experienced Executive Coach, identifies the difference between a psychologist and a coach by noting that "the psychologist primarily focuses on what is broken, not working, while a coach works on building strengths".

Some examples where a business coach might be of value is helping the coachee become self-aware of career stalling behaviors, how to develop others, develop skills to overcome perfectionism, procrastination, poor time management skills, inadequate communication skills, lack of team building skills, conflict management, or anger/frustration outbursts, etc. Still different, a personal coach typically has great listening skills when one needs to think aloud about issues.

Confirm level of industry experience the "specific" coach has served. Ideally, the coach should have experience at or above the level of the coachee. One of the biggest mistakes an organization can make is selecting a coach who does not understand business politics and corporate environment at the appropriate level.

In the book, Executive Coaching, author Richard Kilberg states, "There is only one credible source for executives who seek coaching: other men and women who have also served in similar executive roles." Hiring a coach with no industry experience would be like expecting a veterinarian to be successful in caring for a human. The vet might have moderate success.

Kraft Foods, Inc., is an organization that promotes the use of "industry-experienced" business coaches. Each executive develops an action plan with his/her coach to ensure a developmental focus is established. This idea of a coaching program took place while Kraft was examining their annual succession plans. They began to question the leadership skills of their middle managers. James Kinney who is a senior vice president and CIO for Kraft Foods Inc. says " We have found that coaches familiar with our industry help our managers craft an action plan that literally encourages growth and progress professionally, socially and technically. We also found the industry-experienced coaches continue to read our professional journals, challenge our managers with "real time" strategies and know our competitive strengths/weaknesses."

Spherion Corporation, headquartered in Fort Lauderdale and owner of the famous Saratoga Institute, also subscribes that "one coach does not fit all needs." Spherion provides coaching services and their specialty teams coach fellow professionals in technology, finance, legal, accounting, insurance, energy, telecommunications, and government.

Verify that meaningful diagnostic instruments will be used. Just as a physician orders diagnostic tests to validate his/her medical suspicions, the use of diagnostic instruments add increased accuracy and confidence to ensure developmental areas are correctly identified.

Jacksonville coach Cork Mossett, states, "Proficient coaches use validated assessment instruments like DISC Behavioral and Communication, Personal Interests, Attitudes and Values (PIA&V), Soft Skill Competency assessments and 360 feedback systems to allow the coachee to better understand their own behaviors, motivators / competencies. The 360 multi-rater feedback helps individuals see how others view their proficiencies and provides a fuller portrait than just self-disclosure. Data from the 360 feedback becomes a starting point for development or growth initiatives."

Another Executive Coaching firm, The Curtis Group International, uses The Lominger Leadership Architect Suite, an integrated 360 developmental product. The following example of a senior executive helps illustrate the value of this assessment.

Will, a senior national Account Executive, held high standards for himself, his employees, and the company. Will taught the sales team how to negotiate major contracts resulting in revenues above projections. Despite the huge revenue surge, Will's employee turnover was high and the CEO was concerned that while Will was bringing in big bucks through the front door, the cost of replacing employees was draining revenue out the back door through lost client relationships and the organization's reputation for being a revolving door. The CEO hired an executive coach with a proven background in strategic planning. The coach used a 360 PC-based feedback assessment that identified Will's career stallers. The 360 instrument revealed that Will sometimes had scathing outbursts of anger. Will's initial reaction was, "I was hired to bring in revenue, and not for my people skills and I've increased revenue by 30 percent above projections." However, the assessment did get Will's attention and he agreed to move forward with the coach on ways to improve his interpersonal skills.

Assessments must be part of a business coach's tool kit - do not hire a coach that relies on a crystal ball or one that coaches from the heart.

Understand there are differences in specialty niches of coaches: business development, executive, spiritual, career counselor, therapeutic, personal, sports, etc. Each possesses different skills.