Avoid These Red Flags When Choosing A Life Coach

Posted on January 30, 2025 by Jennifer Rickmers, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.

How do you hire a life coach? Do you just throw the dice or do at least some research? Most of us do at least some searching before landing on the right one, but with so many “coaches” available (many whom lack any credentials), weeding out the good from the bad can be frustrating. Dr Sean O’Connor of the Australian Psychological Society (2023) created a list of the red flags in the coaching world to help people find a trustworthy coach, which was a great read, but I wanted to give my perspective as a coach on why these are (or aren’t) red flags. It’s a big decision so having a little explanation can certainly be helpful!

The first of our red flags is the coach advertises exclusively based on their own experience. This is a tough one because many coaching businesses are set up as private practices and/or as solopreneurships, which rely heavily on personal branding. As a result, these independent coaches do spend considerable energy cultivating their brand image and selling you their story. (That’s basic marketing.) In the end, I concede that this is a red flag though, because coaching requires client advocacy above all else. Even if I am very familiar with the problem set you bring to coaching, and even if I have successfully navigated a similar experience, my ethical obligation is to enable you, not duplicate me. If a coach provides prescriptive advice, this ignores any nuance of context and fails to acknowledge your expertise in your own life. It is far more important to honor your autonomy than to get my way as a coach. If you are in market for a coach, their story should be part of their appeal to you, but their primary qualification should be in coaching skills, not in story-telling.

Our second red flag is a lack of training, or only short-term training. Coaching is a skill and none of us are born with it, so it’s highly unlikely someone has stumbled upon it without at least some coach-specific education. As a result, they rely on their personality or story-telling ability for credibility (see red flag number one). I think though, we can update this red flag to include vaguely accredited programs. These programs are also usually short term, and these “self-credentialed” programs offer certification from their own program that has little to no value to either coach or client. These programs are often perfunctory, over promise what they can deliver, and are even predatory. The primary focus of these programs is enrollment and thus profit, and not on skill building or accreditation. If you’re looking for a credentialed coach, make sure any certifications they advertise were issued by a third-party agency, and not by a certification mill. Very roughly, robust training is often between 60 and 100 hours, and takes more than 6 months to complete (plus any non-coaching education held), so any coach who enrolled and graduated over the last long weekend is suspect.

Continuing this line of thinking into our third red flag, be wary of coaches who can’t or won’t provide details of what continuing education they engage in, or ongoing supervisory requirements. Most accrediting agencies have educational requirements to ensure coaches stay current in the field, and even if your coach isn’t credentialed, they need to undertake this as part of professional development. But if you’re selling personality, this can go by the wayside, leaving coaches practicing outdated modalities or just “whatever”. Personally, I don’t want “whatever,” I wanted evidence-based, scientifically supported coaching. Your coach should be able to provide that, and the only way to do that is to ensure their continued professional development.

Speaking of which, this is the fourth red flag. If your coach is unable to answer what evidence or scientific practice informs their coaching, their methodology might not be what produces the results that we see from other coaches who do use evidence-based practice. To clarify, I don’t think the coach needs to have a doctoral degree in psychology, but they should be able to tell you what they do and how they do it. If a coach can’t describe this, run.
I’m going to caveat this however: I don’t include a coaching philosophy, approach, or similar in this. These perspectives are developed by the coach, over time, and reflect changing subjective viewpoints. Sometimes these questions come up on lists of questions to ask your coach – but not because it determines if the coach is credible, but because it helps you decide if your coach is a good fit for you. A coach who isn’t a good fit for you though, might be great for someone else, so this falls under my threshold as a red flag. But if a specific philosophy is important to you, ask away, because your coach being a good match for you is incredibly important.

Next, red flag number five: the coach doesn’t have a code of ethics. A real, written, audited, and externally supported code of professional ethics. Most credentialing agencies, schools, and professional organizations will have one, which can be adopted for free even by a completely unaffiliated coach, so there’s not a good excuse not to have one. Since ethics protect the coach as well as you as a client, I would not hire a coach who did not adhere to an ethical code. They should also know the ethics code well, be able to highlight key points for you, and be willing to share the document in full.

I’ve grouped these red flags so they flow somewhat logically, and so far I’ve focused on things that impact a coach’s skillset and ability to deliver what they advertise. That last one though touched on business practices, and many of the red flags that follow also focus on business practices. You may also notice that I have agreed with every red flag identified. But for this next half, I’ll be providing more variation in opinion.
The first example of this is red flag number six: the coach is unable to provide examples of previous coaching experience. Sure, I suppose if a coach had no experience it might be a riskier hire since they’re an unknown, but every professional is a novice at one point. Is this really a red flag? We could break this down into plain experience, testimonials, or view is as an on-the-spot interview.
For the first, as a measure of experience, you’d want to consider the quality of that experience. For example, take a look at the coaches below:
- A student coach with 25 hours, but with whom a supervisor who has completed 500 hours will monitor your sessions.
- A fresh graduate with 100 student hours, of which 10 were supervised.
- A novice coach of 2 years, with 80 hours, but only 10 of these were student hours, 3 of which were supervised.
- A seasoned coach with several years’ experience assisting “hundreds of satisfied clients” and an industry veteran.
Although I personally felt these coaches were comparable, you may not feel that way based on how you value certain experiences. The comparison is not straightforward and truly, none of these coaches are red flags; they are simply not all on the same stage of development and may have taken different paths. To assist with comparison, these profiles were exaggerated quantitatively, so asking for experience without the context of that experience is unlikely to give you real insight into the skillset, rapport building capacity, and overall outcome of coaching.
You’d also want to consider the source of any listed experience. Is it self reported, via Google reviews or another external site, or via website testimonials? Perhaps most importantly, are these reliable? Most reviews can be fabricated, and many testimonials are compensated (that makes them advertisements in my book).

As a coach, I can’t force genuine reviews, nor can I list my clients as references (except as explicitly agreed to). The only experience you get to see is what the marketing team allows you to see, which is hardly impartial. I’d rather select a coach on their skill and professionalism, and assume few (but positive) reviews are a result of a young practice, small marketing budget, or a coach who isn’t fudging numbers to look more successful than he or she really is.
Lastly, there is the idea that you could take experience directly from the word of the coach. Much like the interview question, “Tell me about a time when you…” you’ll learn that the coach is well prepared for that question, or at least can think on the fly and come up with some experiences. Also like a job interview, you’re assessing rapport and fit, and it does a disservice to yourself to view all coaches you don’t hire as red flags (you’ll eliminate many excellent coaches should you have to return to this step). My advice would be form a balanced assessment of the coach’s experience based on all these perspectives so that your impression isn’t clouded by data with no context, but does recognize the benefits and limitations of each coach.

Red flag seven is the coach does not have a formal contract. A contract contains a lot of important information. It describes the coach – client relationship, what services are rendered, the scheduling process, refund policies, payment schedules, dispute resolution, and limitations to coaching, among other items. Coaches who only coach as a hobby, or who only coach family and friends may get away with not having a contract, but that is not a good habit to have. Contracts are an important tool to help the client with their purchase and protect the coach from a lot of liability when well written. There’s not a good reason not to have one, and it’s one of the first things a professional coach should create. So not having one is a red flag.
On this note, I have had push back from a few clients who were intimidated by the idea of a contract, thinking it was a long, expensive commitment, but once I explain it, most people are appreciative of the contract. In fact, I’ve only ever had one client state she was ready to hire but refuse to sign, and in my opinion, it’s because she wasn’t ready to hire.

Red flag eight, a failure to outline limitations and how certain issues will be handled, and red flag nine, a lack of clarity around fees and charges, fall under the previous heading for me. Those are detailed in my contract. However, my contract is a bit longer (it’s 3 pages) so I realize some coaches with shorter contracts might not have these spelled out. In that case, not having legal limitations and clear charges are definitely red flags. You should know exactly what you are getting, the cost, and the frequency of charges before providing any payment information. Are you subject to late payment fees, rescheduling fees, taxes, or material costs? You should also know what is covered under confidentiality, and the exceptions. You should also be provided with termination conditions and any required state or local disclosures. Failure to inform you of these conditions is not just unprofessional, in some circumstances it may be illegal or unethical.
Red flag 10 is the coach does not have the appropriate insurance. I’m going to disagree with this. Insurance is based on a risk assessment, which includes the scope and scale of practice, the business structure, as well as the coach’s stomach for risk. If the cost is high and risk exposure is low, one could theoretically argue the appropriate insurance is none (but perhaps, theoretically only). “Appropriate” coverage would be determined between the coach and insurance professional, so it strikes me as odd a client would need those details. Ultimately it is a business decision in an industry that has historically had flexibility in this area, so I would not expect insurance details to be a dealbreaker for the typical client.

Our penultimate red flag is feeling pressured or manipulated. It’s a cheap sales tactic that I don’t appreciate in any environment, but there’s no room for it in coaching. High pressure sales tactics violate the trust you and the coach need to have for an effective relationship. It gets the sale but destroys the product. This is the reddest flag of the bunch.

And last but not least, red flag 12 is if the coach offers to cure ailments. The original article said ailments in the psychology space, but it’s any space. Coaching will not cure your cancer, arthritis, tension headaches, or leg cramps. Coaching will not cure your depression, ADHD, addiction, or PTSD. It will likely help, by providing you with coping strategies, compassion, and motivation, but honor the illness. If it hurts, get it treated by a professional who is qualified to treat it. As a rule of thumb, the person you buy your crystals from shouldn’t also be your life coach.

So that sums up the red flags. If it looks off, smells off, or feels off, trust your gut. Coaching is not a decision that needs to be made rapidly, and you have time to do your research. Any coach worth their salt is going to share with you most of these details without you asking, but if you ask and they still won’t share, that’s another red flag.