Professional Coaching, ICF and the Credentialing Process
ICF
ICF, in other words, International Coaching Federation, is the organization that manages the application of coaching activities within certain ethical values and rules. The main goal of the organization is to ensure that coaching is applied in a sustainable way on a global scale and that this process is related to ethical, social and human values. Including a coach who is on their journey to ICF certification, before performing any coaching activities, they must employ the basic rules of the organization during their training and accordingly, they must exhibit their behaviors in accordance with the coach ethics. Otherwise, the benefit of the coaching process to the individuals receiving coaching may become controversial.
Regardless of what your expectations are from coaching, the most important thing to remember is that the benefit a coach will provide to you will be measured by how sincere and realistic you find him/ her and by how much importance he/she attaches to ethical values. At this point, ICF continues its activities to determine the professional qualifications of a coach who can really help you, and in a way, to help you choose your coach actively.
The biggest responsibility that ICF assigns to the coaches who are abiding by their rules is that the coaches evaluate all issues regarding their customers with great respect and confidentiality. At this point, a coach with the ICF credential should not allow any information to go outside the limits of his/ her relationship with the client in any way other than using the information and details he/ she has received from them for the benefit of their clients.
Clarity and openness in this matter is an extremely critical issue for the expectancy of ICF and the generation of sincerity and respect between the coach and the customer. For the coach from whom you will receive coaching support, to keep the information he/ she obtained from within the limits of his/ her relationship with you is the most valuable indicator of his/ her respect for his/ her job and you. This is why the critical thing to consider is the seriousness, sincerity and sensitivity that your coach has put forward in relation to the he/ she obtained information about you in this relationship. You can count on the ICF coach to provide this to you in a sustainable way.
On the other hand, ICF expects all of its coaches who receive coaching from them to commit to the effort to achieve perfection in the coaching profession. In addition, ICF asks the coaches who have been or will be credentialed to review the process if the expected qualifications have not been achieved during their coaching process. In general, taking the training needed to access professional competence in coaching, the mandatory accredited coach training program (ACTP), coaching performance reviews, mentor coaching process, exams for the relevant credential, the processes of credential renewal every three years and continual coach education (CCE) keeps this process under development and supervision. There are three credentials in the ICF.
What is ACC, PCC, and MCC?
These are ACC, PCC and MCC in order. For Associate Certified Coaches (ACC) to receive a minimum of 80 hours of training, have 100 hours of coaching experience, receive 10 hours of mentor coaching, for Professional Certified Coaches (PCC) to receive a minimum of 125 hours of training, have 500 hours coaching sessions, receive 10 hours of mentor coaching, for the Master Certified Coaches (MCC) to have 200 hours of coach-specific training, 10 hours of working with a certified mentor coach, 2500 hours of coaching experience, along with performance evaluations and official exams for each credential are required to be completed successfully.
This is an indicator of the perfectionist aspect of the coaching profession to insist on complying with the requirements of the process until the goal in the relevant credential is achieved in the presence of International Coaching Federation. Therefore, you should know that the International Coaching Federation coach will be with you in all action steps until you get to the point you want to reach from your current state.
Most importantly, in order to be a part of this process, you will be free to state your opinion on how your coach can help you on the journey he/ she accompanies you in order to offer you the best of a certified session and help you achieve success. You should remember that this journey is based on reciprocity, and your effort, as well as that of your coach, will be the key element in clarifying, questioning, setting goals, taking action quickly and achieving success in every respect.
From another point of view, the ICF expects its coaches to make an impact in a social sense. This effect includes all elements that highlight the social values and support the individual who receives coaching service, and successively their environment, in a positive way provided that they are at an equal distance to all their clients. At this point, ICF’s teaching to its coaches is, when necessary, to benefit from the scientific elements along with their competencies in order to reveal the good for the sake of everyone. Thus, ICF’s principle of inclusion of science to the process in order to create social impact has been realized.
This inclusion of scientific elements in the ICF coach’s approach to you will be the perfect help for you to think and question in a multidimensional way to achieve your goals on the way you set out with your coach. In this way, you will have the chance to deal with things from different angles, while at the same time, having the chance to get to know and develop improve yourself more on a deeper level.
The credential given by the ICF to a coach essentially brings with it a serious line of responsibility. However, the place of a coach within ICF is made possible through providing services in accordance with the expectations of the clients who will receive coaching service from him/ her as well as ensuring their sustainability.
Being an ICF-credentialed coach signifies a long-term journey; and this journey becomes clearer with the support provided to clients in their efforts to achieve lasting success. So, you have to make sure that the coach that ICF has shaped to serve you will act only in consideration of your interests in all the steps you take and you will take in the future, in collaboration with you.
Knowing what motivates you for success or what keeps you away from it, getting clear on this, and as taking action for success gives you strength; considering the fact that many world leaders are receiving coaching today, how about inviting coaching into your life because you have so much love and respect for yourself?
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