Coaching is an ongoing relationship
which focuses on clients taking action towards the realization of their visions, goals and desires.
Coaching process
Coaching uses a process of inquiry and personal discovery to build the client's level of awareness and responsibility and provides the client with structure, support and feedback.
Helps clients
The coaching process helps clients both define and achieve professional and personal goals faster and with more ease than would be possible otherwise.
The following eleven core coaching competencies were developed to support greater understanding about the skills and approaches used within today's coaching profession as defined by the ICF. They will also support you in calibrating the level of alignment between the coach-specific training expected and the training you have experienced.
Finally, these competencies were used as the foundation for the ICF Credentialing process examination. The core competencies are grouped into four clusters according to those that fit together logically based on common ways of looking at the competencies in each group. The groupings and individual competencies are not weighted - they do not represent any kind of priority in that they are all core or critical for any competent coach to demonstrate.
A. Setting the Foundation
- Meeting the Ethical Guidelines and Professional Standards
- Establishing the Coaching Agreement
B. Co-creating the Realtionship
- Establishing Trust an Intimacy with the Client
- Coaching Presence
C. Communicating Effectively
- Active Listening
- Powerful Questioning
- Direct Communication
D. Facilitating Learning and Results
- Creating Awareness
- Designing Actions
- Planning and Goal Setting
- Managing Progress and Accountability
NOTE: Each competency listed below has a definition and related behaviors. Behaviors are classified as either those that should always be present and visible in any coaching interaction (in regular font), or those that are called for in certain coaching situations and, therefore, are not always visible in any one coaching interaction (in italics).
A. Setting the Foundation
1. Meeting Ethical Guidelines and Professional Standards - Understanding
of coaching ethics and standards and ability to apply them appropriately
in all coaching situations
- Understands and exhibits in own behaviors the
ICF Standards of Conduct (see list).
- Understands and follows all ICF Ethical Guidelines (see list).
- Clearly communicates the distinctions between
coaching, consulting, psychotherapy and other support professions.
- Refers client to another support professional as needed, knowing
when this is needed and the available resources.
2. Establishing the Coaching Agreement - Ability to understand what
is required in the specific coaching interaction and to come to agreement
with the prospective and new client about the coaching process and relationship
- Understands and effectively discusses with the
client the guidelines and specific parameters of the coaching relationship
(e.g., logistics, fees, scheduling, inclusion of others if appropriate),
- Reaches agreement about what is appropriate in
the relationship and what is not, what is and is not being offered, and about
the client's and coach's responsibilities,
- Determines whether there is an effective match between his/her
coaching method and the needs of the prospective client.
B. Co-creating the Relationship
3. Establishing Trust and Intimacy with the Client - Ability
to create a safe, supportive environment that produces ongoing mutual respect
and trust
- Shows genuine concern for the client's welfare and future,
- Continuously demonstrates personal integrity, honesty and
sincerity,
- Establishes clear agreements and keeps promises,
- Demonstrates respect for client's perceptions, learning style,
personal being,
- Provides ongoing support for and champions new behaviors and
actions, including those involving risk taking and fear of failure,
- Asks permission to coach client in sensitive, new areas.
4. Coaching Presence - Ability to be fully conscious and create spontaneous
relationship with the client, employing a style that is open, flexible and
confident
- Is present and flexible during the coaching process, dancing
in the moment,
- Accesses own intuition and trusts one's inner knowing - "goes
with the gut",
- Is open to not knowing and takes risks,
- Sees many ways to work with the client, and chooses in the
moment what is most effective,
- Uses humor effectively to create lightness and energy,
- Confidently shifts perspectives and experiments with new possibilities
for own action,
- Demonstrates confidence in working with strong emotions, and
can self-manage and not be overpowered or enmeshed by client's emotions.
C. Communicating Effectively
5. Active Listening - Ability to focus completely on what the
client is saying and is not saying, to understand the meaning of what is
said in the context of the client's desires, and to support client self-expression
- Attends to the client and the client's agenda, and not to
the coach's agenda for the client,
- Hears the client's concerns, goals, values and beliefs about
what is and is not possible,
- Distinguishes between the words, the tone of voice, and the
body language,
- Summarizes, paraphrases, reiterates, mirrors back what client
has said to ensure clarity and understanding,
- Encourages, accepts, explores and reinforces the client's
expression of feelings, perceptions, concerns, beliefs, suggestions,
etc.,
- Integrates and builds on client's ideas and suggestions,
- "Bottom-lines" or understands the essence of the
client's communication and helps the client get there rather than engaging
in long descriptive stories,
- Allows the client to vent or "clear" the situation
without judgment or attachment in order to move on to next steps.
6. Powerful Questioning - Ability to ask questions that reveal the
information needed for maximum benefit to the coaching relationship and
the client
- Asks questions that reflect active listening and an understanding
of the client's perspective,
- Asks questions that evoke discovery, insight, commitment or
action (e.g., those that challenge the client's assumptions),
- Asks open-ended questions that create greater clarity, possibility
or new learning
- Asks questions that move the client towards what they desire,
not questions that ask for the client to justify or look backwards.
7. Direct Communication - Ability to communicate effectively during
coaching sessions, and to use language that has the greatest positive impact
on the client
- Is clear, articulate and direct in sharing and providing feedback,
- Reframes and articulates to help the client understand from
another perspective what he/she wants or is uncertain about,
- Clearly states coaching objectives, meeting agenda, purpose
of techniques or exercises,
- Uses language appropriate and respectful to the client (e.g.,
non-sexist, non-racist, non-technical, non-jargon),
- Uses metaphor and analogy to help to illustrate a point or
paint a verbal picture.
D. Facilitating Learning and Results
8. Creating Awareness - Ability to integrate and accurately
evaluate multiple sources of information, and to make interpretations that
help the client to gain awareness and thereby achieve agreed-upon results
- Goes beyond what is said in assessing client's concerns, not
getting hooked by the client's description,
- Invokes inquiry for greater understanding, awareness and clarity,
- Identifies for the client his/her underlying concerns, typical
and fixed ways of perceiving himself/herself and the world, differences
between the facts and the interpretation, disparities between thoughts,
feelings and action,
- Helps clients to discover for themselves the new thoughts,
beliefs, perceptions, emotions, moods, etc. that strengthen their ability
to take action and achieve what is important to them,
- Communicates broader perspectives to clients and inspires
commitment to shift their viewpoints and find new possibilities for
action,
- Helps clients to see the different, interrelated factors that
affect them and their behaviors (e.g., thoughts, emotions, body, background),
- Expresses insights to clients in ways that are useful and
meaningful for the client,
- Identifies major strengths vs. major areas for learning and
growth, and what is most important to address during coaching,
- Asks the client to distinguish between trivial and significant
issues, situational vs. recurring behaviors, when detecting a separation
between what is being stated and what is being done.
9. Designing Actions - Ability to create with the client opportunities
for ongoing learning, during coaching and in work/life situations, and for
taking new actions that will most effectively lead to agreed-upon coaching
results
- Brainstorms and assists the client to define actions that
will enable the client to demonstrate, practice and deepen new learning,
- Helps the client to focus on and systematically explore specific
concerns and opportunities that are central to agreed-upon coaching
goals,
- Engages the client to explore alternative ideas and solutions,
to evaluate options, and to make related decisions,
- Promotes active experimentation and self-discovery, where
the client applies what has been discussed and learned during sessions
immediately afterwards in his/her work or life setting,
- Celebrates client successes and capabilities for future growth,
- Challenges client's assumptions and perspectives to provoke
new ideas and find new possibilities for action,
- Advocates or brings forward points of view that are aligned
with client goals and, without attachment, engages the client to consider
them,
- Helps the client "Do It Now" during the coaching
session, providing immediate support,
- Encourages stretches and challenges but also a comfortable
pace of learning.
10. Planning and Goal Setting - Ability to develop and maintain an
effective coaching plan with the client
- Consolidates collected information and establishes a coaching
plan and development goals with the client that address concerns and
major areas for learning and development,
- Creates a plan with results that are attainable, measurable,
specific and have target dates,
- Makes plan adjustments as warranted by the coaching process
and by changes in the situation,
- Helps the client identify and access different resources for
learning (e.g., books, other professionals),
- Identifies and targets early successes that are important
to the client.
11. Managing Progress and Accountability - Ability to hold attention
on what is important for the client, and to leave responsibility with the
client to take action
- Clearly requests of the client actions that will move the
client toward their stated goals,
- Demonstrates follow through by asking the client about those
actions that the client committed to during the previous session(s),
- Acknowledges the client for what they have done, not done,
learned or become aware of since the previous coaching session(s),
- Effectively prepares, organizes and reviews with client information
obtained during sessions,
- Keeps the client on track between sessions by holding attention
on the coaching plan and outcomes, agreed-upon courses of action, and
topics for future session(s),
- Focuses on the coaching plan but is also open to adjusting
behaviors and actions based on the coaching process and shifts in direction
during sessions,
- Is able to move back and forth between the big picture of
where the client is heading, setting a context for what is being discussed
and where the client wishes to go,
- Promotes client's self-discipline and holds the client accountable
for what they say they are going to do, for the results of an intended
action, or for a specific plan with related time frames,
- Develops the client's ability to make decisions, address key
concerns, and develop himself/herself (to get feedback, to determine
priorities and set the pace of learning, to reflect on and learn from
experiences),
- Positively confronts the client with the fact that he/she
did not take agreed-upon actions.