Professional Coaching For Success in Life

by Ronda Degaust, NLPC and Joseph Seiler, CPCC

Many people have adjusted their business cards to read ‘coach’. It’s the big thing these days. Oprah has one trained in Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Jack Welch has one, many successful people have one. How can one tell what the word ‘coach’ on a business card really means? There isn’t an easy way of knowing for someone that isn’t up on professional coaching, but as the old saying goes, “buyer beware”.

The International Coaching Federation (ICF) is a body that monitors the coaching industry the way that the Association of Professional Engineers monitors the engineering profession. Doctors, lawyers, accountants, to name a few professions, all have an umbrella organization that defines and sets standards for entry into that profession and for maintaining accreditation inside of that profession. At this point, it is not a requirement that a practicing coach be a member of ICF or be accredited by ICF. The profession is still young. That is coming though. In Colorado there is legislation being prepared with regard to the licensed practice of coaching as applied to growth of ones personal and professional life. Not everyone who can draw a structure is an accredited Engineer. Not everyone who offers coaching is an accredited Coach.

The local Nova Scotia Chapter of Coaches Canada (www.coachescanada.com) has adopted the ICF Code of Ethics. http://www.coachfederation.org./ethics/

Coach Credentialing Summary:

The International Coaching Federation (ICF) prescribes a set of minimum requirements at three levels for credentialing to allow one to use the title of Certified Coach (CC).

The table summarizes the main criteria:

Designation

 Formal Coach Training

Hours of Coaching Experience

Associate (ACC)

60 hours

 250 hours

Professional (PCC)

125 hours

 750 hours

Master (MCC)

200 hours

2500 hours

The formal training is coaching specific training from an approved coaching school and the experience hours are dominantly paid hours. In other words strictly volunteer coaching is not acceptable. A large number of people must be willing to pay for the coaching, in itself a pretty good check on credibility. When one considers that most coaching sessions are ½ hour, the MCC, for example, must provide documentation to prove having coached at least 5000 sessions. At each level a letter of recommendation from a number of clients and proof that the applicant has received a minimum amount of coaching supervision from an already certified coach is required. In addition, a written and oral exam are requirements at each level. In addition, the ICF credentials are not a one time deal. A person holding an ICF credential must maintain that status by proof of ongoing professional education and be re-credentialed every three years. This is a profession with a strict credentialing process.

Not everyone who coaches has gone through the ICF credentialing process. And… those who have, have had to prove their mettle to an impartial Review Board and do so every three years.

What the designations mean:

Coaches are often trained through coaching schools that are accredited by the International Coaching Federation.

The following lists the usual title initials, the expanded meaning of that title, followed by the minimum number of hours of coach specific training and the minimum number of paid coaching hours required to earn the designation and finally the name of the school and contact info if more information is desired.

CPCC, Certified Professional Co-active Coach

125 hours training, 100 hours of paid coaching, full day examination

The Coaches Training Institute, www.thecoaches.com

 

 

NLP Coach, Neuro-Linguistic Programming Coach

120 hours of training

The International Institute for Humanistic Neuro-Linguistic Psychology www.nlptrainings.com

 

 

Coachville

www.cvcommunity.com is applying to use the ICF credentialing designators and does not, at this time bestow separate designations of their own.

 

 

Coach U

www.coachinc.com/CoachU/default.asp?s=1 prepares students of its programs for acceptance under the ICF accreditation umbrella

 

There are other organizations as well. Visit the ICF site www.coachfederation.org

What a coach does (from the ICF website):

“Professional coaches provide an ongoing partnership designed to help clients produce fulfilling results in their personal and professional lives. Coaches help people improve their performances and enhance the quality of their lives. 

 

Coaches are trained to listen, to observe and to customize their approach to individual client needs. They seek to elicit solutions and strategies from the client; they believe the client is naturally creative and resourceful. The coach's job is to provide support to enhance the skills, resources, and creativity that the client already has.”

Coaching is not consulting and coaching is not therapy. The following explanations of the distinctions are abbreviated from the ICF website.

Therapy.

  • Coaching supports personal and professional growth and development based on individual-initiated change in pursuit of specific actionable outcomes. These outcomes are linked to personal or professional success. Coaching is forward moving and future focused. Therapy, on the other hand, deals with healing pain, dysfunction and conflict within an individual or a relationship between two or more individuals. The focus is often on resolving difficulties arising from the past. Therapy outcomes often include improved emotional/feeling states. While positive feelings/emotions may be a natural outcome of coaching, the primary focus is on creating actionable strategies for achieving specific goals in one's work or personal life. The emphasis in a coaching relationship is on action, accountability and follow through.

Consulting.

  • Consultants provide specialized expertise. While consulting approaches vary widely, there is often an assumption that the consultant diagnoses problems and prescribes and sometimes implements solutions. In general, the assumption with coaching is that individuals or teams are capable of generating their own solutions, with the coach supplying supportive, discovery-based approaches and frameworks.

Whether coaching and then which one?

How can you determine whether coaching is right for you and/or which coach is right for you? First you have to determine if you could benefit from coaching. To do this, start by summarizing what you would expect to accomplish in coaching. When someone has a fairly clear idea of the desired outcome, a coaching partnership can be a useful tool for developing a strategy for how to achieve that outcome with greater ease. Sometimes the ‘clear idea’ eludes and yet there is a knowing that I am not on my game, that more is possible, if I could only get clearer. The coach can help surface that clear outcome and then help you to achieve it.

Since coaching is a partnership, also ask yourself if you find it valuable to collaborate, to have another viewpoint and to be asked to consider new perspectives. Also, ask yourself if you are ready to devote the time and the energy to making real changes in your work or life. If the answer to these questions is yes, then coaching may be a beneficial way for you to grow, develop and really soar.

Within the partnership, what does the coach do? The individual?

The role of the coach

  • to provide objective assessment and observations that foster the individual’s, or team members’, enhanced self-awareness and awareness of others

  • practice astute listening in order to garner a full understanding of the individual’s, or team’s, circumstances

  • be a sounding board in support of possibility thinking and thoughtful planning and decision making

  • champion opportunities and potential

  • encourage stretch and challenge commensurate with personal strengths and aspirations

  • foster the shifts in thinking that reveal fresh perspectives, challenge blind spots in order to illuminate new possibilities, and support the creation of alternative scenarios

  • finally, the coach maintains professional boundaries in the coaching relationship, including confidentiality, and adheres to the coaching profession’s code of ethics.

The role of the individual or team

  • to create the coaching agenda based on personally meaningful goals

  • utilize assessment and observations to enhance self-awareness and awareness of others

  • envision personal and/or organizational success

  • assume full responsibility for personal decisions and actions

  • utilize the coaching process to promote possibility thinking and fresh perspectives

  • take courageous action in alignment with personal goals and aspirations

  • engage big picture thinking and problem solving skills, and utilize the tools, concepts, models and principles provided by the coach to engage effective forward actions.

Finding Your Coach

After you have determined that coaching may be right for you, search out a coach that will be the best match for you. You can do this on this site if looking for a local coach, or to look abroad by going to sites like www.coachfederation.org or www.thecoaches.com or www.cvcommunity.com or for that matter by googling what you are looking for.

Always ask for a free consultation and find out their credentials. In particular, ask whether they took training from a school accredited by the ICF, did they become certified (like finishing internship for a doctor), and how many hours of experience do they have. A well trained coach will have certification approved by an established coaching school or institute recognized by the International Coaching Federal (ICF) or American Board of NLP or Canadian Association of NLP. It is also common to interview a few coaches so that you can get a feel for the fit between you and this new person you are about to invite into your life. Shop around a bit. And then get ready for the very best personal growth experience you have ever had.

About the authors

Ronda Degaust, from New Minas, is an Internationally Certified NLP Trainer and NLP Coach, training internationally since 2000 to gain her credentials as well as develop Nova Scotia’s first coaching institute teaching the process of coaching and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) techniques. These processes have been developed to assist people in transforming unwanted feelings and behaviours in a short period of time. Ronda was trained by The International Institute for Humanistic Neuro Linguistic Psychology of Pennsylvania USA (800 hours) and has about 1000 hours of coaching behind her as well as 900 hours of training others. She is also in the process of fulfilling the requirements to be a Certified Master NLP Trainer.

Joseph Seiler, from Halifax, is a Certified Professional Co-active Coach, the first CPCC in Nova Scotia, receiving his certification in 2001. His specialty is coaching business leaders. Joe is trained by the Coaches Training Institute (CTI) and has about 1000 hours of coaching behind him (as of October 2004). He is a faculty member of CTI, teaching a teleclass on Entrepreneurial Skills and has applied for his PCC from the ICF.

Ronda and Joseph are members of the Nova Scotia Chapter of coachescanada.com, a growing community of coaches dedicated to improving the lives of all they touch. This article has been prepared through co-operation with the members as a public service.