Who is a professional coach?
May 26, 2009 by Giuseppe Totino
Filed under Training
So what makes a Professional Coach, and how are they different from other Coaches?
You might have increasingly heard about Coaching and of Coaches. Indeed, coaching is among the fastest growing professions in the world. You might have read about Life Coaches, Executive Coaches, Career Coaches, Spiritual Coaches to mention but a few. Coaches serve the needs of clients in almost all areas of clients’ personal and professional life and their titles indicate their main focus. Having said that, Professional Coaches may well be prepared to cover more than one area for Personal and Business needs. This is actually quite normal, as Coaches see clients as a whole, and recognize that all sides of a client’s life participate to the attainment of her/his goals.
So, going back to our original question, what makes a Coach a Professional Coach? As the world of coaching is self-regulated, you may find differing answers as you read around this topic. My answer is based on what the world leading organization of Coaches (the Internationals Coach Federation – ICF) says on this. I am an ICF Member too!
Professional Coaches first and foremost pledge to abide to strict Ethical Rules and Professional Standards! This is perhaps the single most important attribute of all of us ICF Coaches. Those regulations set rules covering topics as diverse as professional conduct, contracting with clients, confidentiality, conflicts of interests, and so on.
Additionally, Professional Coaches who have been credentialed by the ICF have received coach-specific training achieved a designated number of experience hours and have been coached by a mentor coach.
Further, according to the ICF Global Coaching Study conducted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 52 percent of Coaches report that their coaching clients expect the Coach they hire to be credentialed. This is a key development in the Industry and a great achievement for us as we strive to develop and maintain the highest Professional Standards in the profession.
So, in summary, an ICF Credentialed Professional Coach is committed to high Ethical Rules and Professional Standards, obtained coach-specific training, achieved a designated number of experience hours and have been coached by a mentor coach. An ICF Professional Coach’s core purpose is to concur to advance the art, science and practice of professional coaching.
The ICF defines coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.
Coaching honors the client as the expert in his/her life and work and believes that every client is creative, resourceful, and whole.
Standing on this foundation, the coach’s responsibility is to:
* Discover, clarify, and align with what the client wants to achieve;
* Encourage client self-discovery;
* Elicit client-generated solutions and strategies; and
* Hold the client responsible and accountable.(ICF definition and philosophy of coaching)
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