So you've decided to get a coach to accelerate in your personal and professional life. Congratulations! You'll soon discover how smart that is. However, right now you need to find an excellent, professional career or life coach who's determined to make sure you achieve your goals. Considering the following points will help you to make sure you separate the wheat from the chaff.

So you've decided to get a coach to accelerate in your personal and professional life. Congratulations! You'll soon discover how smart that is. However, right now you need to find an excellent, professional career or life coach who's determined to make sure you achieve your goals. Considering the following points will help you to make sure you separate the wheat from the chaff.

Top athletes and actors work with them every day. Successful business men and women trust their advice and give them great credit for their success: Professional coaches.

There is no doubt, working with a life coach or career coach accelerates your performances and gets you the success you deserve much quicker and easier. Whoever has worked with a great professional coach agrees: There's nothing more helpful if you want better results fast.

But how do you find a good professional coach? There are so many so called life or career coaches who work in a variety of areas who often don't have a clue what it means to coach someone. How do you know, you can trust him or her when it comes to expertise, experience and personal skills? Considering the following points will help you to make sure you can expect the very best from your coach:

1. Ask for an accreditation

Only a few organisations apply global standards when it comes to training. That's why it's crucial for you to check your potential life coach or career coach's training background and experience. Check carefully to ensure he or she is a certified and accredited coach with a formal training or has an intensive training in NLP (Neurolingusitic Programming). Find out the following:

• Has the coach obtained his or her certification from an organisation that is accredited by world wide recognised organisations like the International Coaching Federation or the International NLP Trainers Association (INPLTA) http://www.inlpta.com? Has he or she taken time to develop themselves and their coaching skills or gained the title in a three hours crash course?
• It's also a good idea to ask if your potential life coach or career coach has obtained any training or teaching qualifications. Coaching experience and expertise might not be enough if you want your coach to develop and conduct an engaging coaching session or entire program that takes into account your individual adult learning style, a variety of teaching approaches and flexible information delivery.

This is in particular important if you are a manager or employer looking for a coach who can also conduct workshops or group sessions for your staff.

2. Get a coach who is specialised in the area you need coaching

With coaching becoming more and more popular, more and more coaches specialise in one or two areas. If you are looking at improving your public speaking skills obviously you would look for a coach who has a solid background in communications. Need corporate coaching? Pick someone who has worked in the corporate area or with corporate clients and is familiar with corporate issues.

3. Ask for testimonials

Good life coaches as well as excellent career coaches will be happy to provide you with testimonials or references from previous and existing clients. It's a great way to find out how they work and how other clients benefit from them.

You might also want to ask friends, family and colleagues for recommendations.

4. Talk to your potential coach

Get on the phone and ask the person you think might be the perfect coach for you a couple of questions to get a 'feeling' for him or her as a person. Keep in mind that if you want your coaching to be successful you need to be able to form a relationship with your coach. That will only work if both of you are on the same wavelength.

Find out what his or her approach to dealing with an issue would be and see if it suits you. Ask for a trial session at reduced rates or a free interview session and follow your instincts.

As a general rule, get in touch with at least three coaches before engaging one. By doing so you'll be able to compare and make a valid choice that will guarantee your future success in no time.