One way that coaching clients find me is via my colleagues in the coaching profession. To whom, for example, do you refer your sister or husband or best friend when they ask for your recommendation? And what about the person who comes to you for coaching for whom you’re not a good match?

This is one more reason for coaches to build relationships with their colleagues: it helps to know a range of people to whom you can refer potential clients. Perhaps it’s worth adding that, for me, it’s a hallmark of a professional coach that he or she recognises – and acts on – those times when it’s in the best interest of the person seeking coaching to refer them on: perhaps to another coach, perhaps to another profession.

Personally, I take a very open approach to this process. I do not wish to set up arrangements by which I prioritise any particular coach over any other. I want to be able to give thought to the needs of the person seeking coaching and to make this my chief criterion for referring him or her to a colleague.

Still, as I continue to gather testimonials for the marketing materials for the coaching groups I am planning to run, I’m delighted that, amongst my coaching colleagues, there are some who are happy to refer people to me as potential clients for coaching.

One of these is Dr. Rosie Miller, whom I met via our coaching training and who, like me, is an executive coach. She gave me two quotes to choose from which I share here: