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You can find dozens of coach training programs worldwide that purport to put an imprimatur of expertise on coaches, from business coaches to life coaches to “certified diet coaches.”
Few would argue that coaches should be ethical, professional, trained, and exhibit highest business standards. But what about that certification (rigorous in some cases, perhaps not so in others) that many coaches pay hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to obtain, and which many coaching groups, reputable and otherwise, promise will deliver clients and business?
Are clients interested in certification?
As President of the International Association of Coaching, one of Angela Spaxman’s missions is “furthering the interests of coaching clients worldwide through a rigorous certification of coaches and the highest ethical, professional and business standards,” according to the IAC’s website. “In nine years of coaching I have never had an individual client ask about my certification status,” said Spaxman.
Compare that to even the most modest of patients seeking out a primary care physician, specialist, or surgeon. After the key question, “Do you take my insurance,” the follow-up is often an inquisition about the doctor’s education and board certification. Some patients even make sport of delving into doctors’ CVs.
So why do so many coaches report their clients don’t care whether or not the coach has accreditation?
Veronica Cooper, whose UK coaching firm caters to executives at mid-size and large corporations, says her savvy clients are extremely demanding about who they will work with. ‚ÄúIf you don’t know what you are talking about, they will know in a split second and won’t enlist your services,” Cooper said.
Cooper says her clients demand a coach with business experience, a person who can speak their language, but not necessarily one with a certificate. ‚ÄúWe are not usually asked about coaching certification,” Cooper said.
Same story among parents in Denver, where Aricia LaFrance coaches families. Today’s mothers and fathers, often portrayed as overly cautious about who cares for their kids, (and urged by experts to ensure pediatricians are board certified) ask coaches about references and rates, but rarely if ever accreditation.
“Good clients are rightfully choosy about who they will work with,” LaFrance said. “But in five years I have never had a client ask about my educational qualifications or ICF status or certifications.”
If clients aren’t asking, then what does that mean?
Life Coach Patrick Wanis suggests a focus on accreditation and certification misses the point. ‚ÄúThe single most important factor for any client is results,” Wanis said.
Wanis, a self-described ‚Äúcelebrity coach” whose clients have included professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, told The Coaching Commons ‚ÄúMy clients always come to me based on either a recommendation, reputation or their own inspiration‚Äîthey saw me on TV, heard me on the radio, read one of my books or one of their friends experienced a positive transformation as a result of my help.” Wanis believes certifications are simply overrated. ‚ÄúI humbly suggest to all coaches‚Äîkeep working on transforming yourself and then you will be able to help even more people. In other words, focus on healing yourself rather than just gathering information and certificates.”
But gathering certificates remains a focus of thousands of coaches, and big business for major accrediting bodies like the ICF, which reports 5,181 coaches in 59 countries hold at least one of the ICF’s credentials: Associate Certified Coach (ACC), Professional Certified Coach (PCC) or Master Certified Coach (MCC).
The ICF employs a full-time staff of five to process credentialing paperwork, nearly a third of ICF’s headquarters staff. And that does not include the “numerous individuals across the globe who serve the association as assessors and those who serve on the ICF Credentialing and Program Accreditation Committee,” said Kristin Hogue, the ICF’s Marketing Coordinator.
Those figures, of course, do not include the wide range of coaching schools and programs offering their own collection of certifications including certified dream coaches and authentic happiness coaches.
“Individual clients are not at all well-informed about coach certification and no wonder because it is relatively difficult and confusing to learn about,” said the IAC’s Spaxman. “This is exacerbated by the fact that a wide diversity of coaching schools offer their own certifications that represent a very wide range of coaching methodologies and levels of mastery.”
Should coaching clients be better informed?
New research from the ICF–considered to be the first comprehensive research on coaching clients–does not provide a resounding endorsement of the power of certification.
The ICF Global Coaching Client Study, which brought the question of coaching and credentials directly to 2,165 coaching clients across 64 countries, was conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Association Resource Centre. According to the study, less than half of clients–just 41 percent–found a coach’s “credential or certification” to be important in the process of selecting a coach.
The number jumps to 56 percent when clients were asked if a coach’s “level of coach-specific training” was very important in making a choice of coach. Asked about clients’ level of interest in the coaching credentials ICF offers, Kristin Hogue conceded, “There is much market education that needs to take place. Many people still have misconceptions about what coaching is in general, let alone coaching certifications and credentials.”
Should we be wary of putting too much value in a piece of paper, even if it does come after training and/or significant cost?
“I’ve met accredited coaches whom I wouldn’t let anywhere near a client,” said Coach Sharon Eden, who nonetheless begins her own bio with reassuring words to prospective clients that she herself is certified and trained. “Doubtless accreditation acts as a stamp of approval to a potential buyer, but not nearly as much as your impressive self. If you are (impressive), that is.”
Sunny Stout Rostron, President of Coaches and Mentors of South Africa (COMENSA) remains a believer in coaching certification. “It is very important to clients that coaches have some kind of certification,” she said. As to the question of what kind, from whom, and at what cost, Rostron argued worldwide standards would benefit coaches everywhere.
Rostron’s written a new book about business coaching, and in it, she makes exactly that point: ‚ÄúOrganizations are looking for value for money, return on investment, and qualified, certificated coaches with a proven track record, experience, and qualifications to match.”
There are 8 Responses so far...
Great question, Mark.
To me, certification and credentialling is just a ‘formal acknowledgement’ of the coach’s meeting the ‘proprietary benchmarks or standards’ for coaching practice, for a certain certification or credentialling body (mind you, there are hundreds of proprietary certification and credentialling bodies, and there will always be debate on how could we validate each of them to an ‘exacting standard framework’ for coaching excellence – when this happens, coaching should become a respectable ‘profession’?).
Certification and credentialling by no means validate the proficiency and mastery of coaching to all circumstances & situations. It probably is the ’starting point’. Only through persistent practices and experiences can one move to mastery level.
My experience is that by ‘passionately’ understanding the coachee’s needs & preferences first, and by pre-framing the coaching procedures I will be using (depending on the diagnosis), coaching method or methods to be used (the menu of methods I will be able to offer to the coachee), establishing doable and precise coaching outcomes/KPIs, establishing the coach-coachee relationship chemistry (most crucial for success), and a host of ‘necessities’ to get the coach-coachee relationship moving forward and arriving at the agreed outcomes/KPIs; far outweights one’s certification or credential.
Often, the coachee’s ‘preferences’ will point towards which coaching model/process/style/methodology/concept would likely produce the optimum results.
Some coachee’s prefer a ’structured approach’, while others may prefer a free-style coaching approach. Some coachee’s prefer to go through a coaching process that is ‘to-the-point’ (here perhaps the GROW Model or similar hybrid models work best), while some prefer the holistic approach (here perhaps the Matrix Model or similar hybrid models work better because the interlinked of other issues may indirectly or directly lead to the resolution of the coaching outcomes/KPIs sought).
Bottomline to me is always the coachee and the stakeholders (sponsors of the coaching), if that applies. Some evidences would be the measurement in the coachee in his/her positive changes in awareness and aha moments; positive directional shifts in thinking, attitudes, behaviours and feelings; positive changes in intentions, beliefs, outlooks, etc., personally and/or the stakeholders (sponsors).
Certification or credentialling is great, though the critical focus is from which certifying or credentialling body (who wouldn’t claim theirs is the ‘best’?)
Perhaps, food for thought, three questions:
- if our clients measure our coaching performance via evidences & results, and if our certification or credentially increases our coaching performance, why not be certified or continued to be credentialled?
- what are the evidences of how much of our coaching performances is contributed because we are certified or credentialled?
- What if we are already producing excellent coaching performances, yet is not certified or credentialled, is there really a need to do so, then? (double bind huh?).
BTW, almost all of my clients do not request evidences of my coaching certification, probably because they are more focused in their bottomlines, and partially because I spend time in pre-framing what would likely happen in the coaching sessions, so as to establish their ‘expectations’ and ‘values’ they are getting out of coaching.
Meta-cheerio.
Billy C H Teoh
Malaysia.
I was hoping for provocative reporting and ended up quoted in the first provocative line in this article. Funny!
I agree with the points here about clients’ lack of interest in certification and its small impact as a marketing tool. At the IAC, we believe the primary value of our certification process is to help coaches improve their effectiveness (so that they can be more successful and clients can benefit). We aim to keep our certification process as simple as possible, while assessing the highest possible coaching standards with high validity.
The benefits for those who achieve IAC certification are greater confidence and better coaching, which of course benefits their clients as well.
As our profession develops, I expect more clients will learn to rely on coaching certification systems to help them choose coaches. But that will only happen if the certifiers manage to reliably distinguish the good from the not so good. In something as personal and sophisticated as coaching, that is a continuing challenge.
Cheers,
Angela
President of the IAC
http://www.certifiedcoach.org
It’s a good question. Up until late last year, I hardly ever heard of clients asking for credentials, but the financial meltdown seems to have ushered in new era in which everyone has become very cautious. I now regularly hear from veteran coaches who are losing clients for lack of certification. So the answer to the question, Do coaches need credentials seems to be changing to, Yes.
Coaching Certification doesn’t matter one bit, unless you want your client to get the best structured conversations, the best out of your sessions, the best return on their investment… Well, you get my point!
I couldn’t agree more with your post or the comments made, especially the “difference maker” for me has been coach confidence! I notice that when I interview coaches for my group that have certification they just seem to stand a little taller during our conversations.
If in the end, and probably the future of coaching engagements, it’s really all about “results”, then you could point out that certification doesn’t matter much. I find that the only people who ask me about my certifications are fellow coaches! We can all get together and line up our certifications, but it’s just like everything else, it’s the execution that matters most.
Keep up the good work!
Sam Palazzolo
To establish ‘credibility’ for the coaching ‘profession’, is there any possible resolution of getting all coach certification & credentialling bodies to come together, and agree on coming up with an agreed ‘recognition framework’ on each other’s existing coach certification & credentialling models?
The coaching ‘profession’ needs a ‘unifying body’ or ‘consensus’ that can validate the acceptable coaching ’standards & practices’, and steer clear of too many descriptions of coaching standards? We may have ‘core standards’ that applies across all coaching niches, and perhaps optional standards that could be ‘fitted’ for coaching niches like ‘creativity’ or ‘media’ or ‘business’ or ‘wealth’ coaching, etc. (attempts of doing this already exist, but cross-validation among certifying and credentialling bodies, has yet to be established). Will this be doable, or is it a better option to leave this to free market forces?
Currently within many coach’s certifying and credentialling programs, there are often sub-specializations like leadership, life, career, etc., built into the certifying and credentialling processes. But, these tend to vary from certifying and credentialling bodies, until the layman is often posed with challenging decision making on which to choose or is the right choice?
Modelling coaching excellence are the many ways each certifying and credentialling body ‘elicited’, ‘developed’, and ‘established’ the coaching standards. These are often ‘modelled’ against practising ‘master coaches’ who have already ‘mastered’ those specific coaching ‘technologies/styles’. Should ‘modelling coaching excellence’ of ‘master coaches’ determine ‘best coaching practice’ or should we base on other theoritical-based approaches or more scientifically based basis?
Modelling is usually further grounded on specific anchors like developmental psychology, transpersonal psychology, leadership sciences, communication sciences, etc., to value-add to that specific niche coaching models.
The specific niche coaching models are then further ‘refined’ when put into practice during coaching in varied coaching contexts (bringing contexts into the development of the standards).
So the vicious cycle of differing coaching ’standards’ naturally evolves, as each specific niche coaching domain migrates to become ‘recognizable’.
The challenge now is how to ‘marry’ many of these ‘contextually valid’ coaching standards from each niche coaching domain (leaving behind ‘commercial and political motives’, if avoidable), to arrive at a generally acceptable ‘recognition framework’ for all shareholders (the various coaching certifying and credentialling bodies) and stakeholders (holders and buyers of the certification and credentialling) concerned?
Should this be the path that the coaching ‘profession’ should be moving forward to, or are there other better alternatives?
Perhaps when the coaching ‘profession’ has got it right, certification and credentialling will become the hallmark practice for all coaching engagements? The day should have arrived by then, that the coaching ‘profession’ has matured into a true profession.
What are your inner thoughts about my thoughts on this issue? Is it worth our time to think about our coaching ‘profession’?
Meta-cheerio.
Billy C H Teoh
Malaysia.
Do Clients Ask for Coach Credentials.
In the 18 years I have been coaching only 2 non-coach client asked me if I had a certification. About half want to know about my training and what makes me qualified to coach ~ though usually the answer they are looking for is in the area what they want coaching on rather than coaching i.e. they want to know if I know anything about running a manufacturing company, etc.
The only clients who have ever been interested in my credentials are other coaches. By the time I list off the litany of training I’ve had, the years of experience, the types of clients I’ve worked with, and coaching leadership (local chapter president & ICF Ethics Committee) – they’ve made up their mind that I’m right one for them. The exception to this are newer/younger coaches who are going after certification themselves and must have a certified coach as a mentor. As I am not a PCC or MCC (currently) This has created snags in their excitement to hire me. Some of these have circled back over the years after they get their own credential to then work with me to stretch them in new ways that they can’t find elsewhere from “credentialed coaches”. Seriously this is what I am told.
There is one other client situation where coach certification is becoming a prerequisite – that is in corporate coaching programs. HR has been burned too many times by unqualified coaches working with their staff. There is an increasing trend to require certification from the ICF as a prerequisite. Do they know what credential means – no, not usually. What they do know is that they can cover their behinds if the coaching blows up in their faces.
Those are my current 2 cents as it were on the subject.
Matthew Rochte
Coach for Seasoned Coaches
http://www.CoachingIntentionally.com
I concur with Matthew statements: “Do they know what credential means – no, not usually. What they do know is that they can cover their behinds if the coaching blows up in their faces.”
Generally this is not only happening for coaching, but also for many other corporate interventions/initiatives/activities.
This could mean that ‘credentialling’ is serious business, and that, the credentialling bodies could be held ‘legally’ accountable ‘indirectly or directly’ for poor or non performance or other issues like ‘unethical’ or ‘inconsistent’ practices, etc. for those they had credentialled? What happens when there are differing views, inconsistencies in practices and ‘philosophies’, etc. among those ‘credentialled’ from the same body?
Billy C H Teoh
Malaysia.
I am sure long responses are not read…so here is the deal from my perspective. Certification in my 20 years of coaching has never been an issue, but sometimes prospective clients do read your markering material, (ie, website)
And I agree with Angela Spaxman’s comments..certification builds “greater confidence and better coaching, which of course benefits their clients as well. ”
Confidence, competence and credibilty and community – Those 4 can all be achieved by joining a coaching organization (ICF, IAC, WABC, AOC, EMCC etc) and being part of the profession…