A good coach helps you realize your vision of success. She holds a safe space for you to talk and discover the “HOW” to achieving your goals and dreams. Whether it is a particular behavior you wish to alter or a path you are trying to succeed at, the coach helps you find the answers you need and helps you to change habits and behaviors that might be getting in your way of success.
A good coach doesn’t tell you what you should want to achieve, she helps you implement what you want to work on.
Support and accountability, as you envision it, are some of the things you can count on a coach to do. That is the great thing about coaching, you are in the driver’s seat.
Any good coach should have her own coach. First, because if she truly is a student and practitioner of coaching she understands the value of coaching herself, she walks the talk. Secondly, any good coach knows that coaching skills evolve so it is necessary to keep working to improve those skills. There is no endpoint in becoming a good coach, it is a work in progress. There is always more one can learn.
Among the things to think about when seeking out a coach is to ask them what they see their job is as relating to you Also, ask them if they are currently getting coached.