The other day I received an email from a very lovely Virtual Assistant who was contemplating entering the coaching arena and becoming a Coach.  She wanted my opinion on whether or not I felt Coach Training was really necessary in order to coach others.  Well a fantastic question and if you haven’t yet guessed, the topic of my post today.   

For those of you, who know me; know that I have been involved in the coaching profession for many years in one capacity or another.  One of the positions I currently hold is as Director of Student Services at CoachInc.com, the foremost school for coach training.  In this role I support our coaching students with their training goals and ensure they have all they need to be successful in their coach training journey.   So, you can pretty much guess what my answer was to the question “Yes, absolutely coach training is necessary!!”

In my opinion, there are way too many individuals out there who are providing coaching services without having the proper training to be doing so.  I feel very strongly about this.  If you are calling yourself a Coach, then you should have the training to back this up.   For me it’s that simple!

Although I feel this way, this question presented a fantastic opportunity to ask other Coaches how they felt about coach training.  So, I sent an email to some of my closest coaching friends and colleagues and asked them their opinion on the topic.

Pamela Richarde is one of the leading coaches in the industry. She is a Master Certified Coach, has a successful coaching practice InnerVision Enterprises, Training Director for CoachInc.com and Past President of the International Coach Federation.  In my opinion the coaching profession would not be what it is today if it wasn’t for Pam’s contribution to the development and advocacy of the Core Coaching Competencies and the profession in general. 

When asked the question, Pamela responded:

“Why take coach training?  In order to clearly distinguish coaching from other forms of interactions.  Also to be clear on what the competencies are, and why they are so effective.  The transformational learning space that is created in the context of a coaching conversation is amazing.  To begin to truly understand what the elements are that contribute to this environment, as well as practicing within these parameters is really important.  Taking coach training, that is SPECIFIC to the core competency development, is important in structuring a coaching relationship, as well as taking a ‘Coach approach’ to communication with others.  I say specific to the CORE competencies, versus skills that are specific to a particular focus market (like corporate, exec work, career coaching, etc), because there are foundational competencies that are the same for each area that coaching is applied to.  It is much too easy to ‘cross the line’ into other forms of support (consulting, teaching, training, managing, counselling) if the core elements that distinguish coaching are not fully understood.  No matter how much I thought I ‘knew’ or understood about coaching, prior to my own training, I found that there were significant pieces missing in the context of what we are now defining as professional coaching.”

She further commented “Thus, you will see that I believe it is necessary.  Not only from the standpoint of competency, but from the aspect of the development of coaching as a distinct profession.  Educating not only our emerging coaches on what being a professional coach means, but the public as well, is one of the important elements contributing to the ongoing development and evolution of this profession.  In addition, more and more customers are beginning to ask where a coach has been trained (particularly in the business and corporate market).  With coaching significantly contributing to the sustainability of change in business at all levels, more and more companies are actually having their internal people TRAINED in the competency of coaching.  This is a flag that indicates there is ‘something’ more that coaching brings to the relationships.  What that actually IS, is discovered in coach specific training.”

When asked the same question, Pam Thomas, an Associate Certified Coach, who also has a successful coaching practice, What’s Within U LLC, replied:

“When you are committed to being the best coach you can possibly be, training is one of the most critical components. As a coach, we support our clients in various aspects of their lives and when you are dealing with someone’s personal issues and things that are important to them, coach training provides you with the experience and the foundation. In addition, coach training helps to enhance and strengthen the skills one already has, which is an extra added bonus. Heck, I wouldn’t go to a doctor that didn’t have the proper training. I want to feel confident that the person I have chosen to work with has the experience, skills, background, and training to best support me.  Personally, I would not feel comfortable continuing to coach clients if I did not have and continue to obtain the proper training.”

So, you can see not only is coach training a powerful tool in your personal and professional development, but it’s really what defines coaching as coaching.  Anyone can say they are a Coach, however without the proper training, foundation and core skills, is it really coaching they are providing?

For more information:

Coaching Resources

Coach Training – CoachInc.com:  http://www.coachinc.com/
Coach Certification – ICF: http://www.coachfederation.org/

 
Work with a Coach

Pam Richarde – InnerVision Enterprises – http://www.InnerVisionEnterprises.com
Pam Thomas – What’s Within U – http://www.whatswithinu.com/
Find a Coach Directory – www.findacoach.com