Should you hire an academic coach?

A strategic perspective on when academic coaching accelerates an academic career - and when it probably isn’t necessary.

An academic coach works with researchers, lecturers and university professors to develop the judgement, strategies and systems needed to build successful academic careers.

The question isn’t whether you need an academic coach, but whether your current way of working is producing the career (and life) you want. If not, why not? Let’s think this through together.

People might think when they come for academic coaching they are buying:

• writing advice

• accountability

• motivation

They’re not. They are buying judgment. The ability to make better decisions about their research, publishing and career. Which journal? Which contribution? Which grant? Which collaboration? When is a paper finished? When is it good enough? Which opportunity is worth saying no to? These decisions shape an academic career far more than writing alone.

All academics can write and publish with varying degrees of difficulty - and crucially, time - attached to that process. When you want to move forward from relying on vast amounts of time (that you don’t have), then academic coaching is right for you. If you’re ready to move out of decision paralysis, then academic coaching can move you forward.

When academics choose to actually take the training that enables them to move on from time being the determining factor of producing quality research, they first need to acquire technique. Then they acquire what I term ‘taste’. The ability to recognise quality, originality, significance and strategic opportunity long before they become obvious to everyone else. This is not a question of more information, it is a question of curating judgment.

Let’s start simply: what problem are you actively trying to solve? People don’t search for an academic coach in isolation. They come to an academic coach - or start to look for one - for a reason (although there might be many lurking around). What is THE thing you really want to nail, once and for all?

Classically clients come to an academic coach for a whole range of reasons, but they might be asking questions like:

WRITING & Publishing

• Why am I still not publishing consistently and to a quality I know I am capable of?

• Why does writing feel more difficult than it should?

• Why am I working so hard without progressing?

• Why is publishing slower and more frustrating than I think it should be? Why am I not getting into top journals? Why is my publishing not working for my career in the way it should?

• Why do reviewers keep rejecting my papers and why are revisions so time consuming?

• How can I write multiple books to establish my authority? Why do I feel a little overwhelmed by this (grant, book, project)?

Grants

• Ho do I get that grant?

• Why do my proposals keep getting rejected and when I read the feedback it doesn’t mean that much to me?

• How can I become a classic repeat player on the grant scene?

• How do I best execute X section in this grant template. What makes my grant application more or less persuasive?

CAREER

• Why does everyone else seem to know what they are doing?

• How do i get promoted? How do I progress quickly in my career - why are others getting ahead and I feel stuck no matter how much more work I do?

• How do I get tenure? Can I accelerate the tenure clock? What decisions should I make to ensure this success?

• How do I build a sustainable academic career for the long term?

• How do I become THE person in my field? How to I get to the job, tor he institution that I want to provide the life for my family I need?

I could go on and on. The right academic coach can help with all of these issues and help you progress in your career much faster. The first place to start with an academic coach is diagnosis, because the thing that immediately springs to mind for clients is often the symptom, rather than the cause of the problem. That is where a good coach steps in and helps you.

What academic coaching is (and isn’t)

Academic coaching is not: proofreading, editing, consultancy that does the work for you, therapy, or motivation.

Good academic coaching develops your ability to: exercise judgment, improve decision making (which argument, which contribution, which journal, which institution which collaboration, which grant, when is it finished, when is it good enough, when am I ready); building systems and strategies that support your working life; accelerating learning and development to maximise opportunities; learning the hidden techniques, rules, and the tacit knowledge that makes so much of academia hard to navigate; making research and career progress more intentional.

Who benefits most from academic coaching?

It’s not about career stage, and in fact my clients range from newly minted PhDs and Post-Docs to established Deans and departmental chairs and everyone between.

It is about the problem you want to solve.

People come to a coach because they feel stuck, are plateauing and are not prepared to do that, are feeling overwhelmed by workload, are transitioning roles or taking on new projects, or when they have simply decided to work differently to protect their physical and mental health, or they want a promotion, are aiming for more ambitious publications, research grants or institutions / collaborations, are rebuilding after a break, maternity leave or some kind of destabilising event, or want to achieve greater excellence in their research.

Some people come for academic coaching for better techniques, systems and practices or work, especially if they feel pushed for time, or are afraid of being ‘left behind’ in the tech revolution.

Many people come because the know the way they have been working is not giving them what they want, either in their working life, or their broader life.

Is academic coaching worth it?

Like any investment, the answer depends on what problem you are trying to solve and whether that problem is already costing you time, opportunities or career progression, and therefore, money.

If coaching helps you publish consistently, secure promotion earlier, win a grant, finish a book, reduce years of frustration, or simply build a more sustainable way of working, the return on investment is substantial. The value rarely lies in producing one better paper. It lies in developing the judgement, systems and practices that improve every single paper, grant and career decision that follows. I don’t believe every academic needs a coach, but i do think every academic needs dedicated, deliberate development. Coaching is one way of achieving that.

Equally, coaching is not always the right answer. If your current way of working is already producing the career you want, there may be little value in changing it.

When academic coaching is unnecessary

You probably don’t need coaching if the following applies to you:

• you’re already progressing at exactly the pace you want your career to go at

• your publication strategies are working and your pipeline is producing repeated high quality and high number of publications, that build your reputation and open the doors you want to walk through

• you’re consistently hitting your own targets and producing strong work

• you’re confident in making research and career decisions

• you already have excellent mentorship that meets both your training and advisory needs that equips you with the tools you need

• you enjoy the way you currently work and wouldn’t meaningfully change it

What good academic coaching should leave behind

Coaching is not about producing better papers - better papers are a consequence, not the purpose. Academic coaching is about creating better judgment and frameworks for guiding your decision making, greater independence, sustainable working systems, confidence in your own decision making and repeatable ways of working that you take forward and implement repeatedly, secure in the knowledge that these work and are going to take you where you want to go beyond the coaching relationship.

How to choose the right academic coach

Here are 7 questions to ask yourself when deciding to choose an academic coach:

• Have they actually been an academic for a reasonable amount of time (10 years+) and held a secure tenured position (because they will have had to negotiate many things that precarious contracted staff do not).

• Have they published a lot?

• Can they step outside their own discipline and offer quality advice?

• Have they coached many researchers? Are they hired by Universities to provide coaching as well?

• Do they understand promotion, progression and career acceleration? (look at their career bio)

• Do they understand publishing?

• Will they develop your judgment rather than your dependence on them?

After seventeen years in academia and seven years coaching researchers globally across disciplines, I've come to believe that the greatest value of coaching is not faster writing or greater motivation. It is developing the judgement to make better decisions independently throughout your academic career.

Good academic coaching should leave you needing less coaching, not more.

Whether you decide to work with an academic coach now or later, the important thing is recognising that successful academic careers are rarely built by chance. They are built through better judgement, better decisions and deliberate development over time.