Questioning Coaching Competencies

In the coach training business, we focus on teaching core competencies of coaching, to create powerful coaches. How surprising then to hear one of coaching’s leading researchers and teachers question the very value of competencies!

At a recent NSW chapter event of the International Coach Federation (ICF) in Sydney, Tatiana Bachkirova (Professor of Coaching Psychology at Oxford Brookes University) discussed research from Myers (2014) which explored the differing experiences of coaching from the point of view of the coach, the coaching counterpart*, and observers who later listened to recordings of the coaching. The research revealed that while the counterparts involved were happy with the sessions, and the coaches were also satisfied, the observers were critical, pointing out all the ways in which the coaches had missed opportunities in the sessions and had failed to demonstrate various basic core competencies of coaching. 

What followed at the ICF event was a fascinating discussion about coaching competencies. Bachkirova compared a coach focused only on competencies to a basic mechanic, while a true coach is an engineer, who understands the full complexity of the machine, how and why it works, and all that it can do. As she pointed out, coaching is complex, and the competencies, while important can’t be everything. According to Bachkirova, we need competencies to provide order, as a rite of passage for new coaches, for gate-keeping to ensure people have some training before calling themselves coaches, for quality assurance for the industry and to provide external credibility for a new coach. We couldn't agree more.

However, she went on to say, a list of competencies may not include all that is required for superior performance and may fail to measure outstanding coaches who have their own unique way of working. This reminded me of watching David Drake coach at an Association for Coaching event in Sydney recently. David didn’t appear to even be coaching, and he spent only a few minutes with the coaching counterpart, during which he simply inserted a few short, sharp questions, delivered at the exact right moment to allow her to have a real breakthrough in her thinking.

Beginner coaches, however, can’t start at the intuitive level of artistry of a David Drake. In our 21 years of coach training experience, we’ve found that most everyone has to start by building their coaching muscle; practicing that mindset, a framework and questions that work, over and over with different counterparts until they fully understand (and have the lived experience of) what works when, and with whom. Like driving a car, you can’t go straight to racing car driving. First you need to learn how to engage the clutch and put the car into gear. And this is where the core competencies of coaching come in; they are important steps that we need to learn and hold onto until the process of coaching has been internalised and we can transcend it. Whether this comes after hundreds, or thousands, of hours of coaching practice is debatable, but it does come with practice, and there are no shortcuts.

A number of industry bodies have created competency frameworks, and as we are an ICF Accredited Coach Training Program provider let's take a closer look at their framework. ICF first developed their Core Competencies of coaching in 1998, setting a global standard. The ICF competencies were identified and articulated by eight individual coaching pioneers, all committed to creating greater understanding of the skills and knowledge needed for effective coaching. In 2008 these competencies were reviewed and coaching has continued to grow and evolve since then. From late 2017, the ICF spent approximately two years utilising both qualitative and quantitative research (ultimately going out to over 1,300 coaches - members and non members, representing a broad range of coaching disciplines) to conduct more “job analysis research”; what is it exactly that coaches do and what makes a coach “competent”? ICF’s recently updated ICF Core Competency model reflects the complex voices of the industry and, in the words of the ICF “this new competency model offers a simpler, more streamlined structure and integrates consistent, clear language.” These new competencies are now based on the largest evidence base ever explored in coaching. 

The new competencies also speak to the challenging nature of the coaching conversation, and how the coach challenges their counterpart to “evoke awareness or insight” and “works with the client to integrate new awareness”. This is the coach’s bread and butter, what they are doing every day, using various forms of questioning and listening, and, just as importantly, providing the safe space for clients to learn something new about themselves. Powerful organisational coaching provides a forum in which leaders may become more self-aware, and the integration of that awareness enables breakthroughs in thinking and understanding of self. These are the competencies that IECL holds to be most important and IECL coaches, having trained in these competencies, are capable of bringing about real changes in the lives of organisational leaders who receive coaching.

While the industry debates the value (or not) of competency frameworks we believe we need to take a step back and think about what Organisational Coaching is actually in service of. When we coach our clients we often observe shifts in leadership behaviour relating to more reflective thinking and self-awareness, a greater ability to listen and question, increased effectiveness in decision making capability and growing resilience and wellbeing. If competency frameworks are helping coaches contribute to more conscious and connected leadership then long may they continue to be part of our world!

* At IECL we call the “coachee” the coaching counterpart as it implies that the person being coached is on the same level as the coach, not below them. The coach and their client are counterparts; equals in the relationship.

Myers, A.C. (2014) A Multiple Perspective Analysis of a Coaching Session