If you’ve found yourself browsing coach training websites late at night, wondering whether there might be a different way to spend the next phase of your working life, you’re certainly not alone.
Every year we regularly speak with people who are considering a career change into coaching. Some are looking for greater meaning in their work or want more flexibility and freedom. Others have had long careers but find themselves asking a question that becomes harder to ignore as time goes on: is this really what I want to be doing for the next ten years?
Others aren’t unhappy at all. In fact, many are doing well professionally. They simply find themselves increasingly drawn to conversations about growth, development and helping others fulfil their potential.
Whatever the trigger, coaching often appears on the radar at moments when people are beginning to think more deeply about what they want from work and life.
When people ask me whether coaching could be a good career move, and as a coach, I’m often interested in a slightly different question first. Rather than asking whether coaching is right for you, it can be useful to ask what it is about coaching that’s appealing in the first place.
The five questions below won’t tell you whether you should become a coach. But they may help you think more clearly about whether coaching is genuinely something worth exploring.
When people think about changing careers, coaching is often standing in for something else they’re hoping to find. The appeal may be a sense of greater freedom, purpose, flexibility or autonomy. Often it can be about a desire to spend time helping others. It’s no coincidence that many of the people who decide to train with us, do so having been inspired by another Barefoot Coach.
However, it’s not always the promise of something new in the future. Occasionally, if we’re honest, it’s because we’re exhausted by our current role and looking for a way out. During our coach programme we often explore the extent to which individuals are energised towards a bright new future versus moving away from the difficulties of their current circumstances.
There’s nothing wrong with any of these motivations. But they can lead us in very different directions. If your current role suddenly became less stressful, would coaching still appeal? If you had more control over your working life, would you still find yourself curious about it?
The clearer you are about what you’re actually seeking, the easier it becomes to judge whether coaching is likely to provide it. Incidentally, a common reason people come to coaching (not just coach training) is to gain clarity on what’s important to them in the first place.
People are often attracted to coaching for very different reasons. Some love the idea of helping people grow or are fascinated by human behaviour and change. Others are drawn to the possibility of building an independent business.
Understanding what appeals to you most is important because coaching is not one thing.
If your biggest attraction is flexibility, coaching can give you that but there may be other careers that provide that just as well. If it’s running your own business, coaching is only one possible route. But if you find yourself genuinely fascinated by helping people think, learn and develop, that may be a stronger indicator that coaching itself is what interests you.
This is often where people’s assumptions about coaching collide with reality.
Many successful professionals have spent years being rewarded for their expertise. They’ve built careers on solving problems, providing advice and making good decisions. That’s valuable experience, and many coaches bring exactly that kind of background. But coaching requires a slightly different stance.
At its heart, coaching is less about providing answers and more about helping others discover their own. Rather than telling somebody what to do, you’re helping them think more clearly about what’s going on, what matters and what they want to do next.
If much of your satisfaction comes from fixing problems and sharing expertise, that’s not a reason not to become a coach. But it is worth being aware that coaching asks you to use those strengths differently. The greater your desire to fix, the greater the size of the development opportunity as you train as a coach!
Many people come to coach training believing they’re there to learn how to coach others. And they do. What often surprises them is how much they learn about themselves along the way.
We often say that ‘who you are is how you coach’. Good coach training isn’t simply about learning models, tools or techniques. It invites you to examine your assumptions, increase your self-awareness and explore the habits and patterns that shape how you relate to other people.
For that reason, coach training can sometimes feel as much like a personal development journey as a professional one. I suspect that’s one of the reasons so many people describe it as life-changing. Not because they all become coaches, but because they leave with a different understanding of themselves and the people around them.
This may be the most important question of all. Many people approach coach training assuming the outcome must be a complete career change. Sometimes it is, but not always.
Some people become better leaders. Others bring coaching into HR, Learning & Development, consulting, education or healthcare. Some build a coaching practice alongside existing work. Others simply find that coaching changes how they communicate, lead and support others.
That’s why I think it’s helpful to ask yourself whether the learning would still feel valuable even if it never became your primary source of income. If the answer is yes, that tells you something important. It suggests that what attracts you to coaching may be bigger than a job title.
A better question might be whether coaching is pointing towards something that matters to you. More meaningful work. Greater purpose. Different conversations. A stronger focus on growth and human potential.
For some people, following that curiosity eventually leads to a completely new career. For others, it enriches the career they already have. Either way, significant career changes rarely begin with certainty. More often they begin with curiosity and a question that refuses to go away.
And if coaching continues to capture your attention, that might just be a question worth taking seriously.
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Chief Executive Office - MBA, PCC
Develop your coaching skills with ICF Level 2 accredited training — blending tools, psychology, and practice, grounded in real coaching experience. Open to all backgrounds, with University of Chester options.
Our workplace coaching offer develops leaders and teams through practical tools, psychology, and real coaching expertise — building cultures of trust, resilience, and performance across every organisation.
Our Leader as Coach programme equips leaders with coaching skills to inspire, engage, and empower. Blending theory with practice, it transforms everyday conversations into opportunities for growth.
This dynamic programme blends advanced learning on group and team dynamics with practical coaching experience — empowering you to coach teams confidently. Accredited with 40 ICF CCE points.
This pioneering programme builds the skills, insight, and empathy to coach clients through grief and loss in all its forms. Accredited with 40 ICF CCE points.
Develop your coaching skills with ICF Level 2 accredited training — blending tools, psychology, and practice, grounded in real coaching experience. Open to all backgrounds, with University of Chester options.
Our workplace coaching offer develops leaders and teams through practical tools, psychology, and real coaching expertise — building cultures of trust, resilience, and performance across every organisation.
Our Leader as Coach programme equips leaders with coaching skills to inspire, engage, and empower. Blending theory with practice, it transforms everyday conversations into opportunities for growth.
This dynamic programme blends advanced learning on group and team dynamics with practical coaching experience — empowering you to coach teams confidently. Accredited with 40 ICF CCE points.
This pioneering programme builds the skills, insight, and empathy to coach clients through grief and loss in all its forms. Accredited with 40 ICF CCE points.
Develop your coaching skills with ICF Level 2 accredited training — blending tools, psychology, and practice, grounded in real coaching experience. Open to all backgrounds, with University of Chester options.
Our workplace coaching offer develops leaders and teams through practical tools, psychology, and real coaching expertise — building cultures of trust, resilience, and performance across every organisation.
Our Leader as Coach programme equips leaders with coaching skills to inspire, engage, and empower. Blending theory with practice, it transforms everyday conversations into opportunities for growth.
This dynamic programme blends advanced learning on group and team dynamics with practical coaching experience — empowering you to coach teams confidently. Accredited with 40 ICF CCE points.
This pioneering programme builds the skills, insight, and empathy to coach clients through grief and loss in all its forms. Accredited with 40 ICF CCE points.
