Do companies and executives get value from their coaches? When we asked coaches to explain the healthy growth of their industry, they said that clients keep coming back because “coaching works.” Yet the survey results also suggest that the industry is fraught with conflicts of interest, blurry lines between what is the province of coaches and what should be left to mental health professionals, and sketchy mechanisms for monitoring the effectiveness of a coaching engagement.

Bottom line: Coaching as a business tool continues to gain legitimacy, but the fundamentals of the industry are still in flux. In this market, as in so many others today, the old saw still applies: Buyer beware!

There’s no question that future leaders will need constant coaching. As the business environment becomes more complex, they will increasingly turn to coaches for help in understanding how to act. The kind of coaches I am talking about will do more than influence behaviors; they will be an essential part of the leader’s learning process, providing knowledge, opinions, and judgment in critical areas. These coaches will be retired CEOs or other experts from universities, think tanks, and government.

Successful people don’t leave their progress up to chance — they grab it by the horns. Hiring a life coach is a great example of how those seeking personal and professional expansion can take charge of the vision they have for their lives. In fact, some of our favorite high achievers have publicly vouched for the value of coaching. For example, both Oprah Winfrey and Bill Gates have been quoted praising their own experiences with life coaching. Winfrey has long worked with coach Martha Beck, saying,

“Coaching helps you stop the crazy mind chatter in your head that tells you all the time that you’re not good enough. Everyone needs a coach. We all need people that give us feedback. That’s how we improve.”

Ron Wells

For many people, the problem is not a lack of ambition but a lack of clarity. When we go through the motions every day, we often find ourselves caught up in the rat race, chasing a vision of success that was handed down to us, instead of one created with care and intentionality. It’s no surprise that so many people spend their entire lives doing what they consider to be “the right things,” i.e. going to college, landing a job and starting a family, only to wake up one day and realize that they are not happy.