A good communications coach (formal or informal) can help you identify communication strengths and weaknesses. Years ago, I was having coffee with a colleague. He mentioned that he had just had a session with his "personal coach." During the session, this coach helped him the layout, in pretty good detail, so strategic goals that he should be focusing on. Between you and me, the whole discussion seemed weird to me. Honestly, I thought that this "coach" was, most likely, a con-artist. I had heard about these people who had never really accomplished anything in their lives, but who paid for some weekend certification to get a certificate to become a certified life coach. After he mentioned his session, I, in my sarcastic way, told him, "Man, I could have told you that for free."It's funny, because, I guess I'm a skeptic by nature. So, if you are trying to sell me on the value of something new to me, you'd better have some solid proof. Interestingly, just six years prior to that conversation, my communications coach had helped me increase my financial success by almost double. I just didn't realize that she was a "communications coach." I had been working for an oil company. At the time, the price of oil was at rock bottom, so chances of advancement were slim. In fact, my company had just started laying off people, and I was one of the last guys hired. I had spent four years getting a university degree that was specific to the oil industry, so I was terrified about what I was going to do for a living. Out of desperation, I ended up taking a three-month leadership development course. The instructor for this course was not a fly-by-night teacher who gained her experience from a seminar. Instead, she was a highly successful business person who had also trained with some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the area. She was able to shave years off of my learning curve.

In fact, less than a year after finishing her leadership class, I changed careers and quickly been promoted into management. I was making more money in my monthly bonus checks than I had made at the oil company. The funniest part about that conversation I had with my colleague was that, if I had never met this leadership coach, I would not have ever been at that table, having coffee in the first place.

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