ICF Coaching Competencies – Where They Fit into Coaching

ICF Coaching Competencies? As a practicing Executive Coach, ICF Assessor and Certified Mentor Coach, I work with the ICF Coaching Competencies every day. I know how hard it can be to stay focused on integrating them into your work.

That’s why I wrote The Really Competent Coach ebook series.

In 2021 the International Coaching Federation has launched a new set of ICF Coach Core Competencies, along with a new Code of Ethics, Team Coaching Competencies and many more supports to help coaches continue to learn, grow and serve their clients.

To keep pace with the changes, I have been working on updating The Really Competent Coach series. The first ebook, Understanding the ICF Coach Competency Framework has just launched. So, I thought I’d share a brief excerpt. Here you go! Enjoy!

Excerpt: The Really Competent Coach – Understanding the ICF Coach Competency Framework

Coaching is a rapidly growing field. We coaches are drawn to the work for so many diverse reasons. Some see it as an ideal addition to an already thriving practice in counselling, law, medicine, consulting or another related field. Others see coaching as a perfect next career as they transition to a subsequent life phase. Still, others enter the field to provide one-on-one development for employees inside a large organization. Since the field is, at this writing, unregulated, virtually anyone can add coaching to their repertoire.

Armed with a system or model for assisting individuals and groups to develop in some way, coaches do their work. It is often really good work too! This is how coaching emerged initially. It’s how any field evolves.

A need is identified, people develop strategies for meeting the need, fine-tune the strategies, track their successes, replicate them, teach them to others and before you know it, a field of practice is born. It is slightly more complicated than that, but at its core, that’s how the development of any new profession starts. It’s true for chiropractors, taxi drivers, social media consultants, babysitters, dating experts and any other job that exists right now. The list is always evolving. New needs and then new jobs emerge others fade into extinction.

We need to look no further than the global pandemic that is happening as I write this.

The landscape is changing rapidly. New products, jobs and ways of doing business are emerging and adapting too. As the need for coaching has grown, so have the options for learning the trade. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of coaching gurus, programs and schools continue to pop up around the globe.

Many excellent coaches and their clients have garnered exceptional results and much success with various coaching models and approaches. Research is done, processes, phone apps and programs are scaled and practitioners are certified. That’s the backstory. Where do competencies fit in?

Whatever the driver, there are three distinct requirements for learning to coach, and coaching well: knowledge acquisition, skill-building and competency development.

Knowledge Acquisition

Knowledge Acquisition is the process of studying the theories around coaching. It may involve reading books, blogs, articles or scholarly works on the topic; attending webinars, listening to podcasts; attending classes at colleges and universities, or workshops provided by private training organizations. It may involve conducting research and writing about coaching. Knowledge acquisition can take place over a short, finite period or over a lifetime.

Skill Building

Skill Building is the process of putting knowledge into action. It is the application phase of learning. It involves integrating the steps of a particular coaching model, process or philosophy and practicing them repeatedly to develop proficiency. Observation and evaluation are important components of skill-building. Once emerging coaches have acquired knowledge and build skills, they develop their expertise with continual practice, reflection and feedback. Whether inside or outside of an organization, coaches get on with the work of coaching in real-time, real-life situations. In this way, they become good coaches, perhaps great coaches, even competent coaches.

Competency Development

Competency Development is the process of practicing learned skills against a set of measurable standards. It involves aligning with established benchmarks and evaluating progress for the purpose of continued growth. The use of competencies in coaching provides an objective way of assessing performance that goes beyond feedback from coaching clients.

The International Coaching Federation has established three credentials that can be earned based on the ICF Coaching Competencies. This model provides you, the coach, with a way to create a plan for your continued learning and development.

It also provides a method for organizations and individuals to standardize their coach selection process. Coaches can then differentiate themselves from others in the field.

The debate around competency development and credentialing is an emotional one. You will be able to find individuals who coach with only coach knowledge as their background, some who have acquired both knowledge and skills, and still others whose focus is knowledge, skills and competency. Many, if not all of these coaches, could be very good coaches who help their clients produce excellent results.

The goal of this series of ebooks is not to convince you of the importance of competencies or to promote one competency model over another. This ebook is for those of you who have already decided on the competency path, are ready to deepen your knowledge of the International Coaching Federation competencies and start coaching in accordance with them.

I hope you have enjoyed this brief excerpt! If you did, get the book! You can get more information on ordering the ebook here.