If you want to be a great career coach, then you have to continually work on your career coaching skills. Whether you’re new to the field or an experienced practitioner, the more you hone your skills, the more impactful and successful you’ll become.
In this article, I’ll share with you a blueprint of the top 15 career coaching skills so that you can take your practice into your own hands and pursue a career of mastery.
How to Get Better as a Career Coach
Fortunately, research suggests that “experts are always made, not born.” And this certainly applies to career coaching! As long as you commit yourself to the craft and practice intentionally, then over time you can become great over time.
As you go through the list below, take note of which skills come easily to you. These might be some of your superpowers, and doubling down on them can really set you apart.
At the same time, notice which skills feel like weaknesses that bottleneck your success. Then, you can either work on improving those skills until they no longer hold you back or outsource them to others who have the strengths you lack.
The best way to improve your skills is to take classes and practice with other career coaches and, ideally, mentors. If you’re interested in career coaching training that can help you do just that, check out the training from the International Association of Career Coaches.
And if you’re not yet a career coach, but would like to become one, you might find this article helpful.
With that said, here are the top career coaching skills (in no particular order):
Empathy
Holding a greater possibility for the client’s life
Motivating clients to take action
Job search strategy
Résumé and cover letter writing
Interview preparation
Networking skills and strategy
Career matchmaking
Research skills
Wisdom about career success
Marketing
Sales
The ability to see opportunities
Reliability
Resilience
Now, let’s dive deeper into how to improve each one of these skills to support your continuous learning.
Coaching Skills
The first set of skills pertains to general coaching abilities. Can you hold space for a client in a way that brings out their best? Here are a few of the most important coaching skills.
1. Empathy
Empathy is the cornerstone of good coaching and effective communication; it’s the skill that makes clients feel safe, understood, and accepted in your coaching sessions.
A client will come to you because they are experiencing something painful in their life. They may feel stuck, frustrated, hopeless, or anxious about their work.
Your first job is to create a space where they feel understood and where they have permission to be themselves.
Brene Brown explains that “empathy is connecting with people so we know we’re not alone when we’re in struggle.”
Great coaches are highly empathetic and help their clients feel like they are not alone.
How to practice this skill: Find a friend or another coach to practice with.
Put on a timer for 5 minutes. Have your friend share a challenge that they’re facing in their life. Each time they pause, respond with “If I were you, I imagine I’d feel…”
Have them take that in and then continue sharing. The next time they pause, you use the same prompt.
This activity will train your emotional intelligence and help you better understand other people’s emotional worlds.
2. Holding a greater possibility for the client’s career journey
Have you heard the famous, inspirational parable about the elephant and the rope?
As the story goes, a group of people wrapped a 10-foot rope around a baby elephant’s neck and tied it to a large post.
No matter how hard the elephant strained and struggled, it could never break the rope, and it was stuck within 10 feet of the post. Eventually, the baby elephant learned its limitations and stopped trying to break free.
Twenty years later, the elephant grew to its full size. 13 feet tall and 14,000 pounds. Each muscular leg was now four times as thick as the post it was tied to.
And yet, the elephant learned years ago that it could never move more than 10 feet from the post. So despite having the strength to easily break free and roam where it pleased, the elephant remained forever trapped by its memories of what was possible and stuck to the same post.
We are all that elephant to some degree. We learned long ago what we can and cannot do. And those beliefs about ourselves are hard to break.
Part of your job as a career coach is to show clients that they are bigger and stronger than they thought. And that they can have a bigger career than they may have realized. And to teach them to snap the rope tying them to their post.
In practical terms, this means letting them dream up what they really want for their career goals and giving them the gift of encouragement. It’s your job to believe in their capabilities when they cannot. You must show them that it is possible for them to create the career they want for themselves.
How to practice this skill: When helping a client explore their dreams, start with the “what” before letting the “how” enter the picture.
Whether you’re practicing with a friend or a real client, first explore what they want. Let them dream. Let anything be possible. They might quickly go into “but wait, how can I make that happen?” Don’t go into the “how” just yet. That will come later.
Bringing the “how” in too early is like throwing a wet rag on the flames of possibility. Let them go all the way with the what before getting practical with the how.
3. Motivating clients to take action
Some coaching clients will be highly skilled in motivating themselves. But many others will struggle to take action.
They might know they should apply for more jobs or go to that networking event, but they just can’t bring themselves to do it.
This is where you come in. By connecting your clients with their core values and personal dreams, you can help them tap into a pool of motivation that inspires their daily actions.
Add accountability to that motivation, and they’ll be in great shape.
How to practice this skill: Pick up a book on Motivational Interviewing; it’s an evidence-based coaching methodology that helps people find their own motivation to change and to take action on their career goals.
Job Search Skills
Finding a job is an art form. And one that most people only practice when they need to.
But career coaches are a rare breed that have mastered the art of finding a job so that they can pass their wisdom onto clients. Below are the top skills that go into helping clients find a job.
4. Job search strategy
Finding a job starts with having the right approach.
This might be networking, cold outreach, or LinkedIn Jobs. It ultimately depends on the client’s situation and what they’re looking for.
So, the skills here are to know the different routes to finding job opportunities and to apply the best one to each client's situation.
How to practice this skill: Practice your cold outreach skills with your own career.
Are there people out there you’d love to network with? Challenge yourself to set up five calls over the next two weeks through cold email or LinkedIn messages. As a career coach, it’s always good to practice what you preach.
As a bonus, you can buff up your job search toolki with this list of the top AI job search tools.
5. Résumé and cover letter writing
Most people can write a decent résumé.
But it takes a practiced skillset to write an excellent résumé that causes the hiring manager to stop in their tracks and immediately email you.
There’s a reason that being a résumé writer is its own career path. It’s an invaluable skill that benefits everyone, from fresh college grads to those in the C-suite.
How to practice this skill: Here’s an article that can help you brush up on what makes a great résumé.
If you want to go one step further, check out this training on how to become a certified résumé writer.
6. Interview preparation
Over 90% of people find job interviews stressful.
That’s why a key part of your job will be helping your clients feel confident and relaxed in their interviews so that they can dazzle the interviewer.
You’ll need to:
Inform your clients on what type of questions to expect
Help them craft responses to different questions
Do mock interviews with them so they get actual reps and build confidence
How to practice this skill: One of the best things you can do is become a better interviewee yourself. Try doing mock interviews with friends or other coaches.
7. Networking skills and strategy
80% of professionals agree that networking is a huge part of career success.
And it’s a skill that you’ll very likely need to help your clients with.
Some clients will feel icky about networking, so you’ll have to teach them ways to network that are based on authenticity and connection.
Others may want to form new professional relationships but won’t know how to get started or will feel sheepish reaching out to people. You’ll need to help these clients make a list of who to reach out to and hold them accountable for doing so.
As with many job search skills, one of the best ways to convey the power of networking to your clients is to become good at it yourself.
How to practice this skill: Read up here for tips on how to expand your network, and here for tips on how to network to land a job.
Analytical Skills
To run a successful career coaching business, you’ll need strong soft skills, but you’ll also need a handful of critical thinking skills to be an expert at your craft.
8. Career matchmaking
Some clients will come to you seeking a change in their job. They’ll want to find work that’s more fulfilling, but they don’t know what it is. In these cases, you’ll have to figure out how to do the following:
Identify what their superpowers are (as well as their kryptonite)
Understand what tasks they’ve found enjoyable and unpleasant in their previous jobs
Unearth what gives them a sense of meaning
Clarify what role they want work to play in their life (from their absolute #1 life priority to one leg of a more balanced life)
Then, you’ll need to match that information with possible jobs. This could require some research on both your end and your client’s.
It’ll important to understand that a certain person’s skills and preferences could be well expressed in a variety of different roles.
For example, someone who loves to work by themselves and solve problems might be a great coder. But they could also apply those same skills to being great copywriter.
How to practice this skill: To help clients understand their preferences and values for work, try practicing with friends or colleagues. Sit down for 30 minutes and really try to understand what makes them tick in the workplace.
9. Research skills (to understand different industries and job markets)
Some career coaches will focus on a very specific industry. Maybe they just work with clients in IT. In that case, the more you know about IT industry trends, news, and the current job market, the more valuable you’ll be to your clients.
However, if you work with a more general clientele, it will be important for you to have a broader knowledge base and to research each client’s current and/or desired industries.
It’s similar to how consultants need to figure out a new industry very quickly to help a client.
For example, if you’re working with someone who wants to transition into the Virtual Reality industry, then you’d be well served to buff up on the industry leaders, the latest VR products, and key challenges.
When you’ve done effective research, synthesized the information, and formed a workable understanding of an industry, you can give your client much more helpful guidance.
How to practice this skill: Consider a 10-day challenge where you deep-dive into a new industry each day for the next 10 days.
You won’t be able to master an industry with just a day of research, but this will broaden your industry knowledge and give you practice in conducting research more effectively.
10. Wisdom about career success
Career success isn’t an accident. While luck is definitely a factor, people who have successfully accomplished their career goals tend to have certain mindsets and strategies.
While a good portion of career wisdom is gained through experience in your own career journey, you can also learn concepts from experts.
How to practice this skill: Try reading one of these books on career advice.
The Art of Finding a Job You Love by Cara Heilmann (me!): This book offers learnings from my over 20 years in HR and career coaching on how to find meaningful and fulfilling work.
So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport: Here’s a book that teaches how to find career success through developing rare and valuable skills.
Pivot: The Art and Science of Reinventing Your Career and Life by Adam Markel: If you work with clients who are amidst major career transitions, this book will give you vital insights.
The Squiggly Career by Helen Tupper: This is a great book for helping clients make sense of their non-linear careers.
Business Skills
Career coaches are solopreneurs. Unless you work as an in-house coach, you are your own boss. You run the business. And if you want that business to do well, you’ll need to cultivate some fundamental entrepreneurial and business skills.
11. Marketing
Most people think of marketing as the activities you take to get people to buy your service (or to take a different action that will eventually lead to them buying your service).
As a career coach, your business revolves around helping people solve problems in their work lives and become who they seek to become in their careers.
Your job as a coach is to make sure you are getting in front of those who you can genuinely help and also understand who is drawn to your unique experience and voice. What do these people need? How do they want to transform? What’s stopping them?
Once you know who you can help, you can use marketing tactics to speak to these people.
It’s definitely important to learn the tactics (like content marketing, building a website, or social media outreach). But it all starts with knowing who you want to serve and feeling a genuine call to help them.
How to practice this skill: Check out this article on how to market yourself as a career coach to learn more insights and tips.
12. Sales
Sales is an integral part of career coaching.
It would be great if people knocked on your door, handed you a fistful of cash, and begged you to be their coach.
But it won't be quite this easy, at least until you’ve developed enough reputation or a big enough audience. You’ll have to sell people on your coaching.
For most career coaches, sales happens during a free consultation session or discovery call. Offering free consultations is helpful because lots of potential clients will want to meet with you before forking money their money over.
If you do offer free consults, it’d be wise to treat them as more than just an information exchange.
The person on the other side of the Zoom call needs support in some part of their career, and they are considering enlisting you to help them.
Instead of just explaining your career coaching services to them, get to know their situation. Learn about what is troubling them, what they really want for themself, and what is blocking them.
And then, if you genuinely think you could support them, tell them about your coaching process and link it to what they verbalized they want for themself.
How to practice this skill: Getting good at sales takes repetition. It’s a nuanced skill where you help someone open up about their challenges and unveil their hopes and desires.
Try practicing sales calls with fellow coaches to up your skills.
It’s also very helpful to have some type of framework going into these calls. One simple but timelessly effective sales method to check out is SPIN selling.
13. The ability to see opportunities
So much of solopreneurship comes down to spotting opportunities.
If you consistently keep your eye open for market gaps, you’ll be golden.
What is nobody in the industry doing that you think someone should do? How does your creative expression align with other people’s challenges?
How to practice this skill: For a week, make it a habit at the end of each day to think about all the interactions you had with any businesses that day. Then write down a few ideas for how each business could improve their product, service, marketing, or sales.
If you can habituate this thought process, you’ll gradually train yourself to see business opportunities and to create a successful career coaching practice.
14. Reliability
To create a coaching business means you’ll need to fill your calendar with appointments.
This can be a lot to organize, plan, and keep track of.
But if you consistently miss meetings, show up late, or forget what’s going on in a client’s life, you will very quickly lose the trust of everyone you work with.
On the other hand, if you're always on time, well-prepared, and attentive to your clients’ progress, you'll become known for being a trustworthy stalwart.
How to practice this skill: To become more reliable, the #1 place to focus is on your word.
For the next few days, notice every time you say you’ll do something. Then, see if you can actually do it.
If you treat every commitment you make as a promise, you’ll begin to build your integrity and reliability.
If you say, “See you at 7 pm,” then make sure you’re there at 7. If you say, “I’ll send you an email sometime this week,” then make sure that email leaves your inbox by Sunday evening.
When you get into this habit, you might catch yourself making a casual promise you can’t keep. In those cases, change the promise to something you can. If you really can’t write up an email by the end of the week, then either say, “I’ll send you an email by the end of next week,” or “I’ll send you an email when I get a chance.”
Treat your word as literal, and don’t be loose with it. Each time you say you’ll do something and you do it, your word gets a little bit stronger.
15. Resilience
This is a critical skill for building your own business.
You’ll likely experience periods when clients flow to you easily. However, you may also encounter periods when business feels dry, and you lose confidence in why you’re doing this and whether you can make it work.
Resilience is the ability to keep your head up and your feet moving when times get tough.
This is a difficult skill, but one that is crucial for business success.
It’s also incredibly helpful for you to be able to model resilience to clients. They’ll often come to you when they’re in a rough patch, so part of your job is to inspire them to keep going. And that’ll be a lot easier if you’re walking the walk.
How to practice this skill: Resilience is a hard skill to practice unless you’re in the thick of a period of doubt or struggle.
If such a period does come up, try reflecting on your “why.” Often our reason for pursuing a difficult journey is what can keep us strong and motivated.
Try writing out a statement about why you chose to become a career coach. What draws you to this path? How do you want to positively impact the world with your work?
If you write a “why” statement in a moment of empowered clarity, you can lean on it in times of confusion and doubt.
Another way to get through tough stretches is to find a community of like-minded individuals to lean on. As a career coach, one such option is The Path for certified coaches from the International Association of Career Coaches.
The Best Way to Improve Your Career Coaching Skills
If you really want to up your career coaching skills, the best way to do so is to enroll in a training program.
The reality is that mastery comes about through practice.
Professional athletes don’t just show up to the games; they practice every day. The same goes for the coaching profession. Your coaching sessions with clients are your “games,” but if you want to get better, you need a low-stakes environment to practice specific skills and get feedback.
While you can self-study and set up practice calls with colleagues, it can also be helpful to join a structured program.
If you’d like to try out a training program for your professional development, check out the IACC’s Senior Professional Career Coach training. It’s a 9-week program where you’ll get to practice with a career coaching community, learn new concepts from an informational course, and get feedback from expert teachers.
Career coaching skills such as active listening, empathy, and goal setting are crucial for helping individuals navigate their professional journeys. Effective coaches provide tailored guidance to enhance career growth. For businesses supporting employees’ development, Kelly Office Solutions can be an excellent partner by offering solutions that improve office efficiency and IT support. By integrating better tools into the workplace, companies can ensure their staff is well-equipped to reach their professional goals while staying organized and productive in a supportive environment.