Coach Development
As an award winning coach mentor, supervisor and proud ICF coach, I am passionate about helping this profession develop ethically and sustainably. There are a range of ways I can help you deepen your competencies and develop your businesses. From online courses you can buy now, to in person retreats and transformative group programmes.
You may be a fully trained coach, but it takes more to succeed in our increasingly competitive marketplace. Most large organisations now want coaches to have an internationally recognised credential. This demonstrates that you’ve not only completed coach training, but also clocked up substantial professional experience and reached a level of competency which is rigorously tested against set standards around the world.
An ICF credential is the gold standard international certification for coaches. There are over 20,000 coaches with an ICF credential globally. This means that if a multi-national company hires an ICF coach for a director in one country, it can be assured the ICF coach it hires for another region will show a similar standard and approach.
Coach mentoring and preparation for ICF credentials
Working with a mentor through the credential process allows you a fantastic opportunity to refresh what you learnt through training, against the context of your professional practice. My programme will guide you through the steps needed for success. Coaches who have worked with me that applied to the ICF have ALL been awarded their credential.
Coaching is one of the world’s fastest growing professions, with no official requirement to have a qualification to practise. However, the big buyers of coaching services have grown sophisticated in the way they select coaches. In almost all of the tender processes I’ve taken part in recently, there have been questions about accreditation, supervision and your approach to CPD.
Specific mentoring requirements vary with the accreditation level you are going for, and the training you have had. Unless you have had ten hours’ mentoring as part of your training, you will need this to apply for your ACC or PCC. Coaches preparing for MCC then need an additional ten hours. If you are unsure about your specific needs, please get in touch for an informal talk through the process.
I work closely with my coach clients to help them analyse their own coaching and reflect on their progress. I encourage the coaches I work with to record sessions or coach live with me as an observer, this helps me build a picture of your competency levels and creates a rich foundation for our work.
Although I’m happy to work one to one with you if you’d prefer, most people find group mentor coaching a transformative yet cost effective experience. I’ve developed the programme over a number of years to bring in additional value and address gaps in training and skills that I noticed. If you are keen to find out more, do get in touch to find out if my approach suits you and if you are ready.
If you know you want to get going now, book your place here [link to course] you can start work right away and then once a suitable group is in place we will agree dates together. New groups start every couple of months and there is plenty of ground work and reflection to get you going immediately.
Buy ICF credential mentoring programme now {link}
Supervision gives you as a coach space to think through your coaching practice with a broader context than just your competency development. Supervision not only explores the relationship between you and your client, but the whole system within which you operate. Supervision can help identify areas where you might slip into collusion or complacency, and is a valuable place to discuss ethical questions and test out new approaches.
Coach supervision allows a coach time for reflective learning. It is increasingly becoming a requirement for coaches wishing to work for large organisations as part of tender processes.
The basic model of supervision that forms the foundation of my work, has three elements. Each is of equal importance, but within each unique supervision session one may need more emphasis:
Supportive – working as a coach can feel like a lonely business, you have confidentiality agreements with your clients and yet sometimes you just need to chew the issues over in a productive way. You might need a positive stroke, someone to acknowledge the work you are doing, to listen to you.
Developmental – this educational element to supervision is where you will find the stretches to help you deepen your coaching. It may be working through different scenarios, suggestions for books to read or bit of coaching on a particular topic.
Managerial – this is where supervision can differ from coaching, supervision can be more directive. As a supervisor there is a responsibility to ensure coaching is carried out safely and ethically. This can involve the odd difficult conversation and a lot of checking through your contracting with your client.
I regularly work with a supervisor for all my coaching, mentoring and supervision work and have an ICF accredited supervision diploma.
You may have decided to become a coach because you love coaching. But you need more than coaching skills to build a thriving business. I work with coaches to help develop their businesses by helping them define their services and value proposition.
You will need to develop business sense to succeed in an increasingly competitive market. This area is usually missed out of coach training programmes, but even with highly developed coaching skills unless you are clear on the services you offer and consistent in your marketing finding clients will be tough.
Work with me to think through your value proposition, package your services and get your pricing structure in place. Together we can really analyse your clients’ needs and make sure you are in a position to respond to them. This one to one work is a great way to put the foundations in place to build a successful coaching practice.
If you would rather the accountability of a group, I run periodic small group marketing programmes and webinars and can tailor this to specific needs – for example for an ICF Chapter or a group of training college alumni.
My online marketing course is an accessible way to get started, think through your services, work out a niche and create a marketing plan. It offers a great value overview of the work involved in building a successful coaching business. Buy the course here: {link to course}
For the past fifteen years I have worked as a coach in London, Ireland and with clients all around the world. Alongside this direct coaching, I’ve mentored on coach training programmes and supported numerous coaches through the ICF credentialing process and have won awards for my innovative approach.
When President of the ICF Ireland Chapter, my main focus was on promoting coaching excellence among members. To support this, I gave regular webinars about accreditation, this helped me understand the process and requirements inside out. During my three years on the ICF board I got to hear about the changing market, the challenges and the success stories of a lot of coach colleagues.
In February 2015 I was invited to Florida as a subject expert to take part in an ICF research meeting. We used a process called DACUM to re-examine the skills needed to be a coach and question the relevance of the core coaching competencies. This work showed me what it takes to do succeed in our jobs as coaches.
My broad experience from a PR background, to work with the ICF, mentoring and supervision means I am well placed to offer support to coaches. Whether it’s deepening coaching presence or business development through marketing let’s talk further about how I can help.