This article was originally published September 2017, and last updated February 2024. The ICF definition of coaching is, "Partnering with clients in a thought provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential." Core Competency...
Author: Carly Anderson
Top Ten Tips for Recording Coaching Sessions for your ICF MCC, PCC or ACC credential application
(This article was first published in 2015, and last updated October 2024). A critical part of the International Coaching Federation (ICF) credentialing process is to submit coaching session recordings when you apply for your MCC, PCC or ACC credential. This...
Exploring Space as a Coach
When looking up to the night sky, perhaps with a full moon over the ocean, what feeling do you experience? Even if you’ve never experienced exactly that scenario, simply gazing up to the night sky with stars, clouds and the...
How realistic is it to do pure coaching?
Mentoring clients studying coaching skills in my mentoring programs often ask whether doing “pure coaching” sessions is a realistic expectation. Pure coaching refers to when the coach stays in “coaching mindset” through an entire coaching session, refraining from giving unasked-for...
Finding center
Our world is complex, and our relationship with the world is complex. Our personal “world” and what is going on at any given time is also complex. There are known elements and unknown; both can be experienced feeling emotions ranging...
How to demonstrate more ICF core competencies by having a Coaching Plan
Note: This article has been updated in 2023. There’s an easy way for a coach to demonstrate more competencies in their coaching, which is by having a Coaching Plan for your coaching engagement. Definition of a Coaching Plan A Coaching...
Coaching client language of laughs and giggles
During a coaching session, a Professional Coach uses a range of coaching skills, including asking the client clarifying and discovery oriented questions, giving back their summaries or comments to the client, and offering observations, sensing or intuitive thoughts or feelings...
Let the client do the work
A common saying in coach training programs is that coaches ask questions, and offer observations, yet it’s the client who does “the work.” Along with another common saying; that coaches believe their clients to be “whole, resourceful and capable, and...
Coaching Client Identity
Especially in recent years, there’s been heightened focus on Identity. Yet Identity has been part of societies for every generation, in all cultures of the world. Whether it’s based in political, religious, racial, gender or age differences (to name a...
Coach behaviors which influence their client
Coaching as a professional conversation differs from other conversations because the mindset of the coach and client is one of Partnership; keeping the client "in the spotlight" as it's the client-desired outcome that the coach is there to serve. A...