- If you're an ICF Credentialed Coach,
or you're looking to become one,
the Core Competencies are a key thing that
you need to master. So, I'm
creating this series here.
I'm Brighton West, I work with coaches
who want to use video just like this
and I'm creating a series about the
Core Competencies. And I'm really excited
to kick this off with
Core Competency Number one
with Janet Harvey, but
first, I wanted to, uh,
have Janet maybe introduce herself
just real quick, and
tell us about the history
of the Core Competencies
before we get started
with number one.
- Thanks Brighton, and
I'm just very excited
that you've chosen to
do this. I believe that
the competencies what really initiated
the field or the practice of coaching
towards something that we declare as a
profession. And, while technically, that
may not be true yet,
we're only 22 years old.
In it's official capacity,
while coaching has
been around much longer on the planet,
what happened 22 years ago is the team
of volunteers who came together and
said "Let's write down what we're doing."
and see if we can find a way to make this
not only clear to consumers
of the coaching process
but also, how do we transfer the skill set
in a really consistent way? That provides
a professional development
path and ensures
that the quality of the coaching is
consistent no matter where it's delivered
around the world.
And that's what the Core
Competencies provide us.
It's a body of knowledge.
It's the roots of
the work. From which, and
I often refer to it as
a framework, but from
which, each coach can
uniquely express themselves.
And know that they are abiding the rigor
that is the efficacy of coaching
As we understand it through that coaching
competency framework but
also allow for them to
have their own authentic presence with
their customers. Which
is what makes this such
a remarkable profession.
Because, it is, um,
borderless in that it is
practiced the same everywhere.
And it is individualized which means
there's no competition in coaching.
Every coach has their unique expression
which is attractive to
their unique clients.
- Wonderful. Well thank you for that.
I think it's - since I started working
with coaches, really
starting to understand
the Core Competencies, and the difference
between, um, kind of an
ICF Credentialed Coach
or at least someone who is following
the guidelines, and other
coaches who might be
you know, doing things differently.
Um, it's an important distinction.
So, I'm wondering if you
could go ahead and just
kick off number one. So, the professional
standards and the ethical guidelines.
So, meeting those, um, can you tell us
kind of the definition there.
What does that mean?
- Sure. And there's
really three components
to this particular
competency. And the first
very important, is the
definition of coaching.
I often find the coaches step over this
and don't spend as much
time as they really
would benefit from spending with customers
talking about the definition of coaching
and how it distinguishes itself from
other professional
modalities all of which are
wonderful for human development.
However, coaching is the only one that
is a peer-based relationship. So in the
definition, which is part one of this
particular competency, it talks about
coaching is partnering with clients.
That's a peer to peer partnership.
Unlike other practices, which are
superior/subordinate.
Where you have an expert
passing information, guidance, practice
to someone else, we're
actually in a relationship
where we really have
no idea what the right
answer is for the client. They are their
best advisor. But they
don't listen to themselves
very well and they don't take a lot of
time to relax and allow for something
to emerge. And a well-trained coach can
elicit that from the client and then
they have choice.
To do what is useful and
contributory to their
lives, this is a very unique relationship.
And the second part of the definition is
about a thought-provoking and creative
process ; that conversation that we have
over time with a client.
The metaphor that we
often use is helps them peel the onion of
their lives to find the
sweet spot at the center.
And ultimately, why are we doing this?
The definition talks about maximizing
personal and professional potential.
I think we also help
people realize they have
untapped potential in themselves.
That they're either forgotten or
have chosen for some
reason to push away from
their lives. But they're reached a moment,
which is what's brought
them to coaching in
the first place, where they want something
more and they have a
hunch that it lives inside
of them but have no idea how to get there.
So, it's about both realizing and then
making the choices to maximize personal
and professional potential in their lives.
One more piece on that definition;
notice it says both
personal and professional
coaching is working with the whole life of
the human being. So, weather someone comes
as an executive of an organization
or maybe they are a parent trying to find
their way with their teenage kids or maybe
they're a community
leader, it doesn't matter
what their opening context is. As coaches,
we're always working with the whole of who
they are as a person- wherever they start.
All of the other domains
are going to arrive
into the conversation
that occurs over time.
So that that person is not only addressing
maybe an initial need that came forward
in the coaching contract but they're going
to see they're growing and transforming as
a human being and it will affect all parts
of their lives.
- Great. Well, thank you Janet.
That was, it's much deeper than I thought.
I kind of was like, uh, okay, there are a
couple check-boxes here probably.
So, thank you for explaining that and for
our audience members, I
am not a coach, I just
work with coaches. So, um, I'm learning
along with you guys.
So, I guess, maybe you
could, you're a mentor
coach and you also have a school.
An entire school.
So, maybe you could
tell a little bit about
when you're doing a mentor coaching,
what it looks like when someone has really
mastered this competency.
- Yeah, I think there's
an over-arching principal
if you will, behind the standards
of ethical conduct.
And I'm going to say something about the
four parts for a moment and I'll come back
to the principal, which is, the first
part is about your professional conduct
at large. In other words,
how do you be a professional?
What is expected of
you as a representative
of the profession? That's section one.
It will seem very straight-forward when
you read the words,
however, when you start
to think about particular situations,
this is when ethics become gray.
And it's a matter of judgment.
And, ultimately, part
two is about conflicts
of interest. Oh boy. It's amazing how easy
we can get caught up in those.
Part three talks about the actual conduct
with clients. The
interaction that's happening
with the clients and what to be on the
look-out for. And then,
fourth is confidentiality
and privacy which is really important to
creating the trust and intimacy necessary
for a successful coaching partnership.
So, all four sections of the code speak to
the things that we expect
professional coaches
to practice. In the way that they build
the relationship with their customers.
And the underlying principal is that
we accept and perceive
our clients as whole.
Some organizations will also add
resourceful and capable,
um, and invite change.
We also add the word creative.
We believe that clients
are innately creative.
And while we might have
gotten it beat out of us,
because we couldn't
draw a fancy line in art
class in the fourth
grade, um, what we really
realize as adults is
that we have many, many,
many ways to express our creativity.
And when clients can reconnect with that,
it gives them a lot more choice.
A lot more opportunity and possibility
in their lives. But
that means that we must
have an internal stance as a practitioner
that we can see beyond whatever a client
presents in the initial situation.
They might be struggling. They might be
in pain. They might be frustrated.
Whatever the emotion is that has them
blocked or stuck is situational. It's not
the whole of who they
are. It's so much more
inside of them, and our opportunity
is to draw it out. Now,
in order for a client
to trust that experience to allow the
vulnerability for something to emerge,
we must have a standard
of professional conduct
and that's what the four
sections really provides
guidance about for coach practitioners.
- So, I think I want you to, um,
I'm looking for something kind of
a little more specific.
I mean, that was great,
but I want something more specific.
In terms of like what
are you listening for
um, when you're watching
like a coach session?
Um, and you say oh,
this person, like, they
properly, you know, talked to the client
about, you know, confidentiality or
whatever, what are some
of those things that
you are like, okay,
yeah, this person, they
understand this competency.
- I hear the question
and my answer is going to
sound a little antithetical
because, different
from the other competencies,
this one is assessed
and evaluated when one
is practicing coaching
for it's absence. In
other words, there's no
there's no situation that
arose in the conversation
that warranted the coach
pausing for a moment
to say "We're creeping into territory
that isn't appropriate for coaching."
So, I want to pause the coaching and talk
about weather this might be better-served
in a counseling conversation.
Or a consulting conversation or
a training issue. So, it's the absence of
a violation that we're
actually listening for.
Yeah.
- Very good. So, then I guess, the next
question I typically
ask is what does it look
like when someone hasn't mastered this
and I would assume that just looks
like violations. So--
- Yeah and you know some of them are
a little tricky because, what constitutes
a conflict of interest? Means that we are
taking into account the
practitioner's value
system, the client's value system,
the things that are
articulated in the code,
this is why it's tricky.
When you read the language
in the competency,
itself, the standards of ethical conduct,
they're pretty straight-forward.
Everybody kind of shrugs their shoulders
and says "Yes. Of course."
Until they have a situation
when they realize,
Uh Oh, this person is telling me about
a situation at work. They're not going to
tell the whole truth to their boss.
What do I do now?
And so, if I'm mentoring
a student and that's
what's come up, we're going to have
a discussion about where
their courage went.
Because their first obligation is to the
integrity of that conversation.
And particularly if they're working for an
organization, their first
client is the company.
Not the candidate. And what are the things
that must be disclosed and escalated to a
coaching program manager?
Well, one of them
would be when there's employee malfeasance
which, lying to the boss about something
going on with a customer would absolutely
be an example of.
So, there's like a ripple effect that
this moment in a coaching session
may seem fairly tame, however, if that's
actually a pattern of lying then we
have an employee that's
performing in a way
that is not consistent
with what the company
expects, and our obligation
is to the company.
So, coaches must think this through
situationally and start
to understand where the
potential pitfalls are. So, studying the
competencies through
scenarios and examples,
is very, very useful.
- Great. Thank you. I
think one of the things
that I'm gonna make an assumption here
and you can tell me if
I'm right or wrong is
you know, it seems like on under this
competency um, you know, professional
standards and ethical guidelines would be
to make sure that the person you are
coaching, if you are
working for a company,
if you are coaching an employee that
they understand that relationship between
you and them and you and their boss.
Because, that, you know,
they need to know, I guess.
- Yes. They do. And this is section three
professional conduct
with clients. Which talks
a lot about contracting
and one of the steps
that's really very useful as you're
setting up a coaching
relationship is to have
your customer read the code of ethics.
So, that's individuals, or enterprises
and what happens in enterprises is
another layer of complexity.
As a coach, read their
employee guidelines.
What are the things that you could get
tripped up by because you don't know?
That there are certain ethical boundaries
that are industry-specific
or company-specific.
Healthcare and financial services are two
really big ones where
they have a much higher
standard than our code of ethics.
And we must abide that
as well, and of course,
a legal system in a particular country or
state or municipality will also take
precedent so this is a really important
part of the contracting process is
being transparent about
what are the boundaries
that are influencing our relationship that
we both want to be aware of, client?
So, that if we tend to drop into that
territory we can pause and say Hmm,
What do we want to do about this?
And ensure that we're both staying um,
alert and purposeful about
how we navigate those
situations, because
they are going to arise
Ethics is in every day which is why it's
such a big piece of society.
- Yes. Definitely. So,
I would normally ask
and maybe I'm going to throw this question
out there because this is one of the
questions I intended
to ask for each of the
competencies. Um, is
there a difference between
what someone as an ACC, PCC or MCC would
be judged on here? I
almost feel like maybe not
because this one's a
lot more black and white
of a competency than
the others which people
grow in over time.
- Exactly. Exactly. Does
not matter your level of
experience. In fact,
the third section of the
competency is the Pledge of Ethics.
And students in coach
training are expected to
sign that Pledge of Ethics before they
start coaching even in class.
And that Pledge of Ethics is part of
becoming a member of the International
Coach Federation. We re-pledge every time
we renew our membership.
And so this is, uh,
this is our fundamental
structure. It's a little
bit like the entry
ticket to the game. Without understanding
and choosing to pledge your commitment to
the ethical code of conduct, you don't get
to play. And so it
doesn't matter. ACC, PCC
or MCC. And I personally feel like
ethical maturity is a lifelong learning
journey. I am astounded by the things that
show up. As an accredited
coaching supervisor,
it is very common that a practitioner will
hire me to spend some time looking at
a situation where they suspect, uh oh,
I think I might be in a little ethical
quagmire here and I'm not sure how to
navigate my way out of it.
So, it's a common, common discussion.
- Very good. This one, this is a much more
interesting competency than I expected.
So, I'm glad. I'm glad that this is first
and I'm glad that you are able to really,
you know, give us a lot of, you know, you
have a real depth of knowledge about this
competency. So, I'm glad
that we're starting here
but um, so, you know, I want to give you
a chance to just kind of let people know
how they can contact you.
Um, before we wrap up
today and then folks
will be moving on to the
other competencies.
- Uh, fantastic. So
Janet Harvey, is my name
and if you put that in
to LinkedIn or Facebook
you are going to find me. You will also
find me through inviteCHANGE.
That's our company name.
And Janet.Harvey@inviteCHANGE.com
is my email.
And I love talking about this subject.
I actually think of all
of the competencies,
it's the one that really gives us
permission to grow the field,
um, the profession, if you will,
around the globe and the ICF is the only
global standard of professional ethics
that exists. There are other associations
who have ethical standards, they followed
our example. And the
European Union used ours
as the basis to make it a self-regulated
profession recognized by the EU so
this is a really important
thing to be proud of
and to um, add to your discussion with
prospective customers as a mark of your
credibility as a professional in the
field of coaching.
- Great. Thank you so much Janet
for sharing with us. And
thank you for watching.
And, you can go ahead and click right up
here, you're going to be able to go
directly into number
two or if you would like
to subscribe to my
channel, like I mentioned,
I help coaches use video to further their
practice. You can go ahead and subscribe
down here. We'll see
you in the next video.
