From 2001 – 2005, I offered mentoring for coaches within the Coach U training program, which included what is now called Coaching Supervision as well as core competency development and business development. Due to coaching contract commitments, I stopped offering any mentoring from 2006. Then in 2011 and 2012 I had requests for Mentor Coaching for credential preparation due to my ICF Assessing experience.
In late 2012, I felt the timing was right, and created The Mentor Coaching Group with co-founder Karen Boskemper. I’m passionate about advancing the professionalism of coaching, and believe that a great way to do that is through core competency development. The core competencies cover any type of coaching focus, every type of coach training and all the core coaching skills.
I work with the International Coaching Federation (ICF) definition of Mentor Coaching as related to core competency development: “For purposes of Credentialing, a mentor coach primarily supports a coach in achieving the levels of core competency and building skills in the Core Competencies.”
My extensive mentor coaching experience has shown a deeper exploration of the core competencies of “Maintains Presence” and “Embodies a Coaching Mindset” (both were previously in one competency called, “Coaching Presence”) is required, to meet PCC and especially MCC skill level.
For me, there is a natural exploration of a richer and broader development of the Coach I’m mentoring, through core competency development. For example, it’s rare that a coach passes the MCC credential exam without a deeper understanding of how their presence, biases and beliefs impact their coaching, and their client results.
Refer to my About page for extensive list of qualifications as a mentor coach.
Depth of experience. Since 2013, I’ve led 70 mentoring programs (as at May 2023) with over 700 coaches mentored. I’ve listened to and evaluated over 2000 coaching recordings as an ICF Assessor, and Mentor Coach.
I have a passion for advancing the professionalism of coaches, which I believe can be done through studying and integrating the ICF core competencies so you are coaching at a higher level of competency, at any skill level.
I voluntarily contribute time and expertise to the ICF Community of Assessors, especially for MCC and PCC Assessors.
Being an active ICF Assessor means I keep up-to-date with credentialing standards and changes.
I have collected, with explicit permission from some of my clients, an exclusive and extensive library of coaching recordings that have passed MCC, PCC and ACC skill level “performance evaluations” by ICF. This is such a gift; to hear coaches coaching and be able to compare to your coaching skills. This is a pay-it-forward gift from many of my clients, as they gained so much from hearing this library of bona fide coaching recordings (meaning they passed ICF MCC, PCC or ACC, not just me saying this is an MCC, PCC or ACC skill level).
Since 2013, I’ve led 70 mentor coaching programs with over 700 coaches mentored. As well as many individual mentoring clients.
As at May 14, 2023: There are 166 coaches (I’m aware of) I’ve mentored for at least 10 hours, that have been awarded their MCC credential. I’ve mentored many, many coaches for PCC, and ACC credential preparation. The first time pass rate of coaches I mentor for MCC, PCC or ACC is around 95%.
Yes! I have a mentoring program that combines PCC and ACC participants. I mentor ACC clients to beginner PCC skill level. In fact, many of my ACC clients are coaching at high PCC skill level by the end of our mentoring together.
Yes. I separate MCC skill level into a separate program as the leap from PCC to MCC is great. You can find program offerings here.
ICF requires 2,500 logged coaching hours to apply for the MCC credential. My experience is most coaches who have over 1,000 hours of logged coaching hours are now ready for MCC skill level distinctions and I accept coaches into my MCC mentoring programs from 1,000 hours onward. Some coaches my be ready before this amount of hours, and if so, can contact me to discuss.
Coaches often say to me, “I’ve coached for 2,500 hours so I’m ready to submit for MCC.” I ask them, “When was the last time you had a Qualified Mentor Coach review your coaching for your coaching skill level?” The answer is overwhelmingly, “not since my participation in a coaching training program.”
Unless you study and implement MCC skill level using documents provided by ICF on their website, most coaches who hire me as their mentor coach are still coaching at PCC skill level because most coach training programs are teaching to ACC and PCC skill level, not to MCC skill level. So 2,500 logged hours of coaching could be at PCC skill level.
Every coach needs to study what MCC skill level is, which takes around 6 months or so for most of coaches I mentor to be coaching at that skill level.
Ensure you choose a mentor coach who is up-to-date on the MCC assessing criteria, as per ICF Key Skills Evaluated in their “MCC Minimum Skills Requirements” document published on ICF website. The standards have changed over the years, and many more seasoned mentor coaches are not keeping up with the changes as we evolve our understanding of MCC skill level coaching.
My mentor coaching program is approved by ICF for up to 30 hours of Core Competency CCEs. I started out many years ago only offering 10 hours of mentor coaching, yet found most coaches need more education on core competency distinctions. I added in more hours to include this education, and ensure my clients are best equipped to apply for the credential they are seeking.
I offer a limited number of individual mentoring places, especially for MCC credential preparation. However, I find myself having to provide hours of distinctions of what each core competency means, and especially what is the difference from PCC to MCC skill level for each of the ICF Core Competencies.
Please visit The Mentor Coaching Group page which includes 10 hours of mentor coaching within my ICF approved CCEs program.
I offer some individual mentor coaching, depending on current capacity, and only for MCC preparation. You can find some options on the Products and Services page (scroll to the bottom of the page).
By far, coaches gain the most value and learning by participating in The Mentor Coaching Program.
Since 2005. But that is not the question you should be asking. You need to ask if I’m a current assessor, and how active. In my case, every week it seems I review one or more “performance evaluations” (coaching recordings) for ICF for either MCC, PCC or ACC applications.
When interviewing potential mentors for ICF credential preparation, ask how many ICF assessments the mentor coach has completed for ICF in the past 3 months, and for what credential level, so you know their knowledge is current with assessing standards.
Yes. I’ve been on Faculty for Coach U since 1999, with some time away for full-time coaching contracts. I’m currently not leading many courses at Coach U due to my volume of coaching and mentoring client work. I’ve been an Assessor for Coach U since 2005. I know the requirements for the CUCG process and we can slightly change my mentoring program parameters to meet those needs. Please contact me for more specific information.
The International Coaching Federation (ICF) produces a monthly fact sheet that is rich in detail. I periodically update the latest ICF Credential Fact Sheet and you can find it here.
I am not a CTI / Co-Active trained coach, yet I am asked this question by so many coaches who have completed their coach training program and they don’t know that if they have their CPCC certificate, they can then apply directly to ICF using the ACTP credential path, for their PCC credential.
The reason being is that having the Accredited Coach Training School (ACTP) designation means that CTI has done all the “work” of assessing their coaches against the ICF Core Competencies. Some coaches are confused (it seems) as they can’t identify 10 hours of mentor coaching received within the program. This is because an ACTP designs into their program opportunities to hear your coaching through practice, and providing feedback either within the group context, or individual training, depending on the curricula design.
This may be the same for some other ACTP programs. Check with your ACTP if your certificate means you can apply directly to the ICF for your PCC credential.
Unfortunately not at this time. This is due to a number of factors, the main one being that I live in California and the time difference to countries in that region range from 12.5 hours (India), 15 hours (Malaysia) and even more to Australia/New Zealand. My energy is best in my mornings, so my programs are held in my morning time, which means late at night/early morning for Asia and Pacific countries.
While coaches will often let me know they are willing to be in the group sessions at 11pm, or 2am in their morning, that’s not the only factor. There is an impact on participation level in the 7 group mentoring sessions, that also affects other participants.
There are also 5 – 6 times I will be meeting with each coach individually for individual mentoring sessions and a few other discussions. There is often pressure from coaches for me to schedule outside my preferred working hours, as my first scheduled time is 8am my time, and my last scheduled time is 2pm and maybe 3pm on some days.
I do appreciate that coaches from the Asia and Pacific regions would like to work together, yet for the reasons above, I’m not accepting coaches in my individual or group programs. If something changes in the future, I’ll post new information on the mentor coaching program – dates and how to register page.
