In the past few years, life coaching has become one of the most trending careers in the world, as gaining a life coach certification was the ultimate goal for anyone who is interested in life coaching, and for someone who wants to be a professional life coach and take life coaching as his ultimate career. 

However, the ugly truth that must be accepted by the majority of people is that life coaching, in general, is not a profession that is made for everyone!

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Individuals seeking life coaching as a profession must look beyond the title and the prestige it gives in terms of social perception. 

Evidently, life coaches are perceived as wisdom holders who know what to do with their life and constantly have it the right way. 

However, as people do not know, rather, they do not believe the struggles that life coaches go through as well, they thrive to pursue such a career, as all they want to do is how to be a life coach regardless of the struggles that they might face during their journey of becoming a life coach. 

That is why in this blog, we will highlight some of the essential characteristics that a life coach should have. Becoming a life coach requires certain characteristics for someone to be a successful coach.

In the following paragraphs, we will explore the 3 characteristics of a successful life coach: 

1. Strong Psychological and Emotional Protection 

Coaching, regardless of the specialty that one would choose to pursue, can get very deep and challenging as clients get more and more vulnerable with their coach. 

When the client is granted confidentiality and the freedom of expression, their form of expression can escalate all the way from talking to tearing to a complete breakdown which can lead to the termination of the sessions at times. 

Therefore, coaches, and life coaches,  must have the ability to completely protect their energy and feelings, not only that but also to disconnect completely after the session as if the coach was not exposed to anything during that coaching session. 

2. Input and Knowledge Collector 

Coaches, whether they are life coaches, career coaches, or any professional coach  with input as a strength are inquisitive and have the craving to know more which means that they can successfully coach a situation that they were never exposed to, however, they can successfully perceive it the way anyone who had been exposed to would. 

They constantly collect new information about things and situations around them and thrive to ask a lot of questions to be able to relate to all types of situations which can help their intuition as coaches. For instance, a relationship coach who successfully coaches married couples while he or she is single or was never in a relationship before. 

Their knowledge does not stop when earning a certificate or a new credential, they constantly must comply with the ICF (International Coaching Federation) ethic that coaches must always educate themselves and deepen their knowledge as they pursue their career. This is obligatory as it is part of the coach’s social responsibility. 

3.  Empathy, not Sympathy or compassion

There is a huge difference between empathy and sympathy. Empathy is derived from emotional intelligence where the coach can understand what the client is going through and feeling without adopting those feelings as his own. 

On the other hand, sympathy is adopting the client’s feelings as his own feelings which can mess up their judgment and their power of questioning as their overall state becomes clouded with unnecessary emotions. 

Lastly, compassion is not only adopting the client’s feelings but trying to take action to end their suffering which can be a red zone for the coach. Evidently, if a coach, and especially, a life coach becomes compassionate toward the client, this can lead to suggestions or even advice which are the greatest sins of coaching. 

Of course, a life coach must always be passionate about their career and serving others. They must be in harmony with their own values in order to be able to serve others and strengthen their intuition when a client is not in harmony with his own values. Life Coaches should thrive to protect their psychological and mental health before, during, and after their Life coaching sessions. 

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