Who Should You Learn From?

It seems that the world is constantly fighting for our attention.  It used to be the radio in the car and the television at home continually bombarding us with advertisements for everything and anything.  Now that we live in a digital age, virtual ads are everywhere, whether they pop up on web pages, show up in our social media feeds or are sent to us as emails.  Sifting through all this noise can be difficult and overwhelming, particularly if we are looking for help or guidance with a particular subject.

If we are looking for knowledge or a coach or trainer, we can however, use certain criteria that will help us make more informed choices. 

Set Criteria

The best place to start is probably with a set of criteria around what we want to learn and where we are in the process right now.  If you are a beginner, general knowledge is all around us.  We can find out about virtually any subject with a few hours to days of study.  Large, well researched sources, like schools, government agencies and scientific journals will work well.  Extensive websites will also be a great source of knowledge.  In the case of a physical learning, like a sport for instance, you would sign up at a local school or club that provides beginner instruction.

Getting Specific

Once you have gotten a firm grasp of the subject and need to get more specific or in depth, then you can begin to specialize in the knowledge you want to get.  If you want to learn how to play tennis, as an example, you could sign up for lessons at the local tennis club or school in addition to doing an in-depth study of the subject.  Once you have a strong base of skill and knowledge, you could then determine what skills you need to work on to help you excel.  You could speak to your instructor and ask their opinion on what you need to work on as well as continuing your quest for knowledge in the sport.

Once you know the areas you want to work on, you would then find a coach or mentor to help you with that.  How you find a coach or mentor is where you need to spend time to determine if they are indeed a good coach.

We should be clear that the most popular people in their fields are not necessarily the best.  There are plenty of popular fast-food restaurants that are expert at marketing, but no one would pretend that they are the best in their field.  The same could be said for online coaches who are excellent marketers, but not great at making you better in the field you are interested in.

In the tennis example, if your research shows that you need to work on your serve, you could ask at the school or club if there is a serving coach they are aware of.  You could also ask your network for referrals as well as doing an online search.

Ideally you want to learn from either a player who knows how to also coach, or a coach/mentor with a strong record of coaching people with the same requirements as you.  A good coach may not have the skills to be a top athlete, for example, but they will have the knowledge and the skill to transfer that knowledge to their clients.  This is where the research really becomes important.  You need to determine if the coach has a consistent record of coaching people to success and did not get lucky with one achievement.  If they coached a group of very smart children to write entrance tests to a prestigious school, did they really do the job or did they have excellent students?

On the other hand, if they consistently take people from various walks of life and make them successful, then that is a much better indicator that they are a good coach.  Now, if they do not have a long track record, because either they or the field are new, then you have to think about that.  Do they have more knowledge than you need to excel at the field they coach in and are you confident that they can?  A short history should not automatically disqualify someone if they have the knowledge and good coaching skills. 

Practitioners or players can be good coaches if they understand how to transfer the skills to others.  This can be more rare, as often excellent players have natural abilities and understanding that they have built on, plus they have an innate drive to succeed that is hard to transfer to others.  However, if they have a good record of leading others then they are probably a good coach.

The main point is that you want to learn from someone who has done what you want to do or has a good record of coaching people to success.  You want to avoid people whose knowledge is purely theoretical and who have never done it in practice or have seemingly outdated practices and knowledge. 

With all of this in mind you should be able to find a great coach or mentor that will help you get to the next level of success in the field you have chosen.