Recently Milana Leshinsky sent out an email with the subject line “breaking the silence about coach training.”  

She makes the following statement: 

“There is NOT a single coach out there who is successful because they went through coach training or received their certification.” 

Many of you know of Milana, but since this post is written to prospective and new coaches, let me clarify.  Milana Leshinsky is widely known as a consultant to coaches on setting up successful businesses - go to http://www.accpow.com/, for example - to see some of her work.  

So back to Milana’s statement:  “There is NOT a single coach out there who is successful because they went through coach training or received their certification.”  

I agree with her.  

In her email, Milana goes on to market her products that address business success, making the point that if coaches don’t manage their business well they won’t be successful.  I certainly agree with her point.  And what she’s suggesting can certainly apply to those who want to run a successful coaching ministry as well. 

Coach training and certification alone will not make anyone successful in business and ministry.  While important components of success for a coach, training and certification will not guarantee success.  Business management, effective marketing (branding, target marketing, list building, web marketing, i.e.), and multiple streams of income are just a few of the business practices to master for success. 

Acknowledging the importance of effective business management doesn’t devalue coach training or certification - both are essential components to excellence and success for a coach. In fact, many coach training programs address the business skills necessary to set a foundation for success.  However, it can be difficult to effectively master these skills during the training.  Excellent options for help in generating business success include hiring a mentor coach or participating in a practice building coaching group after you complete training. 

So does training and certification plus business savvy equal coaching success? 

No.   

There are other components of success as well.  I invite your comments here at this post with your thoughts and questions on success factors.  Share your thoughts.  And then check back for a future post with my thoughts on remaining success factors.  

Until then, don’t forget the most important success factor - your dynamic relationship with God through prayer, attentiveness to Scripture and worship.  There is nothing more important to the true success of your business, ministry or your life than making choices based on your relationship with Christ - as you consistently acknowledge and live in God’s presence, wisdom and love.

So what were my initial questions to Judy Santos, founder and director of the Christian Coaches Network?  Lots about training and certification.

Before I spoke with Judy, I had researched the ICF accredited programs and was seriously looking at the Hudson Institute, CTI and Coach U.  I now know that there are excellent Christian coaches who have trained in these and other ICF accredited programs.  I was considering this myself. 

In talking with Judy, I learned about the Christian Track of the Institute for Life Coach Training program.    At the time we spoke, the Christian Track was just about to be accredited by ICF.  This accreditation was important to me (I’ll tell you why in a future post;  in the meantime I encourage you to do your research - consider carefully what you believe God has called you to and, light of that, learn all you can about the profession - before you decide what training to invest in).

I was thrilled to learn of the ILCT Christian Track, taught by Judy Santos and Christopher McCluskey.  All I had to do to learn more about Chris was to refer back to Christian Coaching by Gary Collins.  I signed up, took the classes and have been completely satisfied with my training at ILCT.  The classes far exceeded my original hopes for coach training.  I received excellent training within a Christian context that gave me what I needed to establish a successful coaching business.

If you go to web page to investigate ILCT’s Christian Track you will discover that the program is designed for counselors.  Don’t be deterred if you are not a helping professional and you are interested.  Just look for the link to a form you can fill out to see if you qualify. 

As I said, check back for a future post on the value of considering accredited training and ICF certification.