How to choose an executive career coach

The short answer

Ask for the fee before anything else, ask what happens if it is not working, and ask them to describe a client they could not help. Those three answers tell you most of what you need. Everything below is detail on top of them.

The twelve questions

1. What is your fee and how is it structured? Should be answered directly, on the first call, without a discovery process required first.

2. What exactly do I get? Number of sessions, what is produced, what happens between sessions, over what period.

3. Who do you usually work with? Level, function, industry. A coach who says everyone works with no one in particular.

4. Tell me about a client you could not help. A real practitioner has one and will describe it. Evasion here is informative.

5. What happens if this is not working? There should be a clear answer that is not simply keep going.

6. Do you write the resume yourself? Some coaches subcontract. Not automatically wrong, but you should know.

7. How do you handle confidentiality if I am employed? Should be specific, not reassuring noise.

8. What do you need from me each week? If the honest answer is several hours, you need to know before you commit.

9. What are your credentials and who issued them? Certifications vary enormously. Ask what the certifying body actually required.

10. Can I speak to a former client? At executive level many clients are confidential, so no is a legitimate answer, but there should be some form of verifiable proof.

11. What is your view on where I am currently going wrong? Should produce something specific from a short conversation, not flattery.

12. What happens when the engagement ends? Clear ending, or does it quietly roll into another package.

Six red flags

A guaranteed outcome. Nobody controls hiring decisions. A guarantee is either meaningless or a refund policy in disguise. Ask which.

Full payment demanded upfront. The most common complaint in this field. Staged payment is normal and reasonable to ask for.

Pressure to decide on the call. Expiring discounts and today only pricing are sales tactics, not professional practice.

No published or stated fee. If you cannot get a number without three conversations, the number is being managed rather than quoted.

Only aspirational language. Transformation, unlock, breakthrough, with no description of the actual mechanics.

Certification stacking as the whole argument. Credentials should support a case, not be the case. Ask what each one required.

On that last one, fairly

I hold five certifications and a master's degree. That is a reasonable thing to be skeptical about, and the honest answer is that credentials tell you someone did the training, not that they will be useful to you. Ask me what each one required and what it changed about how I work. If I cannot answer that in plain language, the skepticism was correct.