Coaching Certification and Accreditation

In the last few weeks, quite a number of people have asked me for advice about their coaching journey, particularly related to certification.  Given the interest, I’m going to summarise my thoughts here for a broader audience.

One caveat before I start…this is based purely on my own experiences, so do not take this as the only answer, but rather an answer.  I encourage you to talk with other coaches about their journey through certification and accreditation to get more data upon which to make your decision.

First I want to ask you a couple of questions:

• What is your intention around coaching? 
• What is the outcome you want? 

These two questions might help you to focus on the right answers for YOU. 

If your intention is to use a coach-approach as you manage other people, then you may want to look for a (relatively) short training program to teach you the skills, with plenty of practice and feedback.  I know that 3d Coaching provides excellent training for managers and team leads, based on the International Coach Federation competencies, so that if you decided you wanted to deepen your learning with a longer programme, you would already be aligned to an accrediting body.  There are many other companies out there, but 3d Coaching is the only one I know well enough to wholeheartedly recommend with integrity.

If your intention is to go deeper and become an executive coach, then that’s a different story. 

It’s my belief that corporates will be looking more and more for accredited coaches in the future.  It’s certainly not the only thing they look for – experience working in a corporate seems to be high on their list of criteria too – but you would do well to align yourself and your training with a professional body that accredits you.

What is the difference between certification and accreditation, you might be asking.

There are many training companies offering coach training.  A lot of them will give you a certificate once you complete the course.  In some cases, this could be simply a certificate of completion only, rather than certifying that you reach a certain standard.  Other companies are more rigorous than this, and will only certify you if you reach a specific standard.  But still, they have a vested interest in certifying people, because the more people they certify, the better their marketing…look how many people we have certified….we have the experience to certify you too.

That’s where accreditation plays a vital role.  Accreditation comes from a neutral body, one which is separate from any training body.  In my opinion, this step is vital to prove that you are living and breathing the standards of that accrediting body.  Buyers of your service can trust that it is unbiased.

Now comes the hard part.  So which accrediting body do I align myself to?

I chose the International Coach Federation, for a few reasons:

• I work in a global company, and I wanted to choose a globally recognised accreditation body
• they have a competency model that resonates with me
• they have a code of ethics that I buy into
• at the time, I think it was the only one around!

There are now many other options.  The ones I know about are:

• EMCC – European Mentoring and Coaching Council
• APECS – Association for Professional Executive Coaching and Supervision
• AC – Association of Coaching
• ILM – Institute of Leadership and Management

I don’t know enough about any of these to be able to compare them to the ICF.  And I am sure there are many others in other countries.

All I can say is pick your criteria and do your research based on those criteria.

Once you have decided which accrediting body to align yourself with, you can pick the training company with whom you want to get certified.  All training companies will tell you which body they are accredited by. 

Other things to consider when choosing a company to train you:

• is the course theoretical or experiential? – if you want to be a great coach, you need to practice coaching with feedback.  Learning the theory of how the brain works for example is interesting at an intellectual level, but it won’t help you to apply the skills of coaching in the first place.  I love the theory myself, and read tons of books to help me to increase my understanding…but unless I put it into practice, I won’t know whether I can do it.
• what are the values of the organization, and do they align to your own?  I went to a course with one company, for example, who slagged off their competition left, right and centre, and frankly that turned me off big-style, since I believe in abundance, not scarcity.  Another company I dabbled with uses lots of long words and jargon in their models, and again, that didn’t fit with my value of simple is more powerful.  What are YOUR values, and what are you looking for in an organization with whom you will be spending a lot of time and money?

I chose Coaching Development.  Why did I choose them? Because:

• It is completely experiential – I’d say 80% of each day was us practicing, with feedback from experienced coaches
• The facilitators are Master or Professional Certified Coaches, with lots of experience
• There are additional mentors in the classroom at all times, who you can talk to 1-1 about anything that you are wondering
• The mentors are trained to give very specific, non-judgmental feedback – a great skill to build your confidence and help you learn
• It was highly recommended by two of my very experienced coaching friends – recommendation is everything! 
• No matter how experienced a coach you were before you came, you grew
• They keep coaching simple – and by that, I do not mean that it is simplistic – far from it.  But they rely on coaching presence, intuition, being in the moment, rather than on complicated tools that can side-track you and take you off the coachee’s agenda.
• Their signature strength is contracting, which makes coaching really powerful

Back to accreditation then; what does that look like?  Well, I only know it for the ICF, which has three levels, Associate Certified Coach, Professional Certified Coach and Master Certified Coach (I know, I know, they have Certified in the title, not Accredited!!).  I am a PCC.  You can learn more about the expectations for each level in the ICF website. 

What else do you need to know?

Once you are trained and certified, you will need to find yourself a mentor coach and/or a supervisor. 

A mentor coach has been through the accreditation process, and can support you as you go for your accreditation.  They know the competencies inside out, and will help you to hone your skills, ready for your exams.  They do not need any other training to provide this service – their experience going through the accreditation process themselves is what counts here.

I have acted as a mentor coach for a couple of people to help them to get to ACC.

The ICF defines coaching supervision as “the interaction that occurs when a coach periodically brings his or her coaching work experiences to a coaching supervisor in order to engage in reflective dialogue and collaborative learning for the development and benefit of the coach and his or her clients.”

To be a supervisor, you need specific training.  It is not enough to be a great coach, as the skills are different.  So be sure you choose a supervisor who is trained specifically as a supervisor. I am about to embark on supervision training in the Spring.  If you want to be a guinea-pig, for me to practice my supervision skills on as I am learning, let me know!

I think that’s enough for now.  I hope this has been clearer than mud!  As I said, it’s my experience only, so take it with a pinch of salt, and talk to others who have had different experiences.