Self-competence (the personality of a coach)

Coaches need to exhibit personal characteristics fitting to their professional task. In addition to competences that can be learned, self-competence includes qualities that coaches must intrinsically have. These competences cannot be acquired through education and training.

What is needed is competence, experience, and comfort with critical self-assessment. Coaches must not only be able to call themselves into question, they must also be able to deal well with being called into question by others.

Core components of a coach’s self-competence are:

  • Motivation
  • Perception
  • Judgement
  • Continuous learing and development
  • Self-regulation

Behavioral repertoire 

Self-competence manifests itself in a coach’s very high demands on their performance. Coaches can recognize, analyze, reflect and communicate emotions. They supplement such analytical expertise (Methodological competence) with their facility to judge and with a consistent willingness to learn and develop. This highly developed reflectivity enables coaches to interact flexibly and appropriately in every situation with a wide variety of clients. New or changed situations are understood as learning situations. In addition, coaches exhibit good self-management, emotional stability and a highly developed sense of responsibility.

Coaching demands highly developed (self-)reflection. Worldwide.