“Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.”
Albert Schweitzer

The articles about coaching are multiplying, and it seems that a competition has broken out in providing definitions about what a coach should and should not do, what coaching is and is not, what should and should not be the techniques used, what is and is not the optimal training path, what is and is not the best federation, etc.

I am not adding my voice to this chorus, especially since I have re-read my articles from last year and I can only confirm – with more force, if you wish – what I have already written: “a coach is first and foremost a personal trainer, enabling you to reach a level of performance that would be impossible to achieve working alone, and it is the focus on performance and concrete results that define coaching as I understand it”.
Eventually, based on this definition, I can’t hide that I remain very skeptical when I see how much attention is given to the formal aspects (federations, pathways, procedures, training hours, etc.) and how little to what really matters, i.e. what results are actually achieved by the clients who turn to us.

I mean, sorry if I insist on this concept, but if I read that the most important thing to choose a coach is to know which federation he belongs to and how many hours of training he has, it’s like choosing a song by checking which association the composer belongs to and how many hours it took him to write it: this criterion seems to me to be far from my concept of quality, and it doesn’t convince me at all. Once again, all I find interesting are the concrete results that are obtained, the rest is just chatter. Of course, this is a strictly personal opinion.

Having said that, I am quite often asked the question “what is, in your opinion, the main personal quality a coach must have if he wants to be successful in his work and get – precisely – results from the client?”
In this respect I have not the slightest doubt, and the answer is – for many – as disturbing as it can be: the “sine qva non” condition to be a good coach is coherence between what you say and what you do!

“Do as I say, not as I do” seems to be a widespread attitude at any level, and maybe that explains why so many people want to do consulting, training, coaching, counseling, mentoring, and who knows what else. Perhaps it is considered more convenient to tell others what to do than to do it ourselves.
It’s true, you can be a very good doctor and still be sick yourself; you can be a great couples counselor and still have your personal life be a disaster; you can be a basketball coach and still be in a wheelchair.
But still these are somewhat exceptions and in other areas it doesn’t work at all: would you accept financial guidance from a starving man? Would you take dietary advice from an obese person?

So, because of the specifics of coaching, I find the inconsistency between what a coach says to clients and what a coach does devastating for the relationship with a client and, more importantly, for the achievement of performance results.

In my view, a coach is, first and foremost, a role model for others and not only for clients; it is someone who inspires you to do your best, sometimes by their mere presence (and I think we all know people who have this effect on us, and who may never have heard of the word “coaching”)

And the only way to get that result is to communicate through our own actions that certain traits of success, health, balance, self-esteem, results – the winning traits, if we like the word – can indeed be achieved by following the path we propose to others. People should realize, by our own personal example, that “it is indeed possible to live better”.

Whereas if all we offer is a lack of integrity, carelessness, carelessness and inconsistency, our work will not have the slightest positive effect.

So let’s try using the “Walk what you talk” technique in our work as coaches: we may find that it works better for our results and our CV than 12 certifications and 500 hours of intercontinental telephone training…