In the Chair

Last week I volunteered to do a coaching demonstration with a real client in front of a group of experienced and new coaches. They gave me feedback against the Professional Certified Coach Markers of competency. Why did I offer ?- well after 16 years of coaching people it had been 10 since I had a mentor coach in the room with me to share what iwas doing and saying. The group were observing for coaching presence and coaching awareness and gave me feedback from examples of where they had seen this displayed. It is part of being a professional and important for me to maintain not only continuing education on the subject of coaching, also to put myself under scrutiny as a leader in coaching in WA. They were able to find many examples of what I did well ( Pheu!) and my client went on to action many of the things we had worked through in the session (only her 3rd).

Regrettably not all is well with people who choose to call themselves coaches the world.

UK’s Professor David Clutterbuck, who some refer to as the “grandfather” of mentoring and coaching, was a keynote speaker at the International Coach Federation (ICF) Australasia Conference in October 2016 in Queensland. He has assessed hundreds of accredited coaches in centres designed for this purpose and says: “Seventy per cent of these coaches fail to meet even the basic standards of competence. That’s worrying.”

In Australia, the coaching landscape is less likely to be “horrific”, as it has some of the most sophisticated buyers of workplace coaching in the world, according to Tony Mathers, CEO of the Institute of Executive Coaching and Leadership (IECL), which operates in the Asia-Pacific region. The coaching market in the UK is similar to in Australia in its level of maturity, says Mathers, with locations such as Singapore and Hong Kong a few years behind.

So it is buyer beware when you select a coach. Ask are they credentialed and do they maintain a professional standard that can stand up to scrutiny.