Professional coaching is an ongoing thought-provoking process where the coach partners with individuals or organizations to allow them to improve their performances and achieve extraordinary results.
Sometimes the line between coaching and other helping professions, like therapy, counseling or consulting, is not so clear and we believe it is so important to promote more clarity on the subject. International Coaching Federation (ICF) is committed to help potential coaching clients in having clarity and the needed information to what they should and shouldn’t expect from a coaching partnership.
It cannot be defined coaching when…
The coach uses her/his own experience to guide you
This is called mentoring, which occurs when a mentor is guiding you from one’s own experience. It is so often confused with coaching! Although some coaches provide mentoring as part of their services, coaches are not typically mentors to those they coach
The coach tells you what to do
It might be surprising that coaches do not tell their clients what they should do with their lives or careers. This is actually the power of coaching! Professional coaching according to ICF standards embody the belief that every client is creative, resourceful, and most of all whole. The coach’s responsibility is to discover, clarify, and align with what the client wants to achieve and encourage client self-discovery. The clients are the expert, the coach is there to partner with them to evoke awareness through the mastery of the coaching competencies.
You can find it surprising that coaches do not tell their clients what they should do with their lives or careers. But here lies the most empowering aspect of this amazing profession: coaching that respects the ICF Standards implies that every client is creative, resourceful, and whole. The coach’s responsibility is to discover, clarify, and align with what the client wants to achieve and encourage client self-discovery. Coaches learn from their clients about their life!
The coach focuses on solving issues that are essentially related to your past and they impact your emotional well being in your present life
Coaching focuses on the present in order to allow the clients to find their own resources to move in the direction of the desired results. Therapy addressed issues in the client’s life in order to improve their overall psychological balance. One of the essential focus of coaching is about partnering with the client to evoke awareness and create a sustainable action plan to achieve specific goals in personal or professional life.
The coach commit to solve your problems
A professional coach knows that individuals or teams are capable of generating their own solutions. The coach’s role is to offer the client her/his full partnership and framework, in the discovery process that the client is ready to lead.
At the beginning of the coaching process, the client and the coach partner to establish the purpose of their coaching agreement, which is always decided by the client. The coach’s role is to use the coaching competencies to facilitate the process of letting the coachable results emerge and allow the client to work on them.
Coaching is a distinct profession with established core competencies that define the required skill set and knowledge of a professional coach. ICF – International Coaching Federation – has been active in these last 25 years in order to establish the Global Standards of Coaching and the ICF Code of Ethic.
Coaches who have earned ICF Credentials (ACC, PCC or MCC) have demonstrated a working knowledge of these skills and competencies, proved by a specific training certification and by a minimum amount of coaching hours.
If you are searching for an ICF Credentialed Coach, visit the ICF link here
https://coachfederation.org/find-a-coach
If you are willing to become a coach, or if you are a coach and you want to earn a credential, please take a look at the ICF link here
https://coachfederation.org/icf-credential
Our Academy offers specific training programs that are fully accredited by ICF and a mentoring program that is valid for ICF to apply for a credential
https://sunlight.academy/acc-level/
https://sunlight.academy/pcc-level/
https://sunlight.academy/mentor-coaching-program/
