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“Hi Celes! What are your thoughts on coaching courses, and how necessary do you believe one is for practicing coaching? Thanks. :)” — Luís
Hi Luís! :) It depends on what one wants to get out of the coaching courses.
For most people, they join coaching courses because of these main reasons:
- To learn coaching skills,
- To be part of a support network,
- To get coaching/business opportunities,
- To get certification so they can “officially” call themselves a coach and become a coach, and
- To establish credibility among clients, potential clients, and others in the industry.
If you want to sign up for a coaching course for reasons (a), (b) and possibly (c), then yes, a coaching course would be good for you. But if you’re joining a coaching course for the other reasons and not primarily for (a), then perhaps you should reconsider.
Firstly, you don’t need to take a coaching course before you can “officially” call yourself a coach. A coach refers to anyone who’s teaching someone something. As long as there’s something that you have an expertise in, something that you can teach others, then you can already be a coach.
Secondly, attending a coaching course isn’t necessary if your intention is to establish credibility. I mean it helps, but it’s not the only way to do so.
The reason why coaching qualifications help establish credibility is that qualifications are typically linked with expertise. However, there are many (other) things that indicate one’s expertise, for example, one’s real life achievements in the area he/she is coaching, his/her track record, the quality of advice he/she dispenses, testimonials of people who have been coached by him/her, the number of people seeking coaching from him/her, and the results of clients under his/her wing.
For example, let’s say you want to learn about how to build a successful blog. Would you seek coaching from (a) someone who has no blogging certification but is running a highly successful blog with millions of visitors or (b) someone who has a certification from completing a blogging course, but runs a generic blog that no one has ever heard of?
I don’t know about the people out there, but I would personally pick (a). That’s because it’s more important to me that the person has personally achieved the very things he/she is trying to coach others on — which directly signifies knowledge and skill in the area, as well as insights into barriers one may face, and how to overcome them.
For those who are interested to be coaches, my recommendation is to focus on the things that *do* play a role in being a great coach. This would include
- Skill and knowledge level in the area you want to be coaching others on,
- Soft skills like active listening, analytical ability and empathy, and
- Your consciousness level.
These three things are part of what makes a great coach. In the event where a coaching course would help you to be better in these areas, sign up for them. In the event it doesn’t, then don’t.
Back when I started out, I was actually planning to take a coaching course, as part of my foray into coaching.
I researched on the qualifications for life coaching (ICF — International Coaching Federation being the key one) and checked out the courses available to get the qualification. Ideally, I wanted a 2-3 month intensive course which was reasonably priced, was conducted face-to-face (in Singapore), and was sharp and to the point. It should lead to an ICF qualification in the end.
However, because life coaching / personal development was somewhat at its infancy stage in Singapore compared to US (3 years ago), I found difficulty in locating a course that fit my needs. Of the courses I found, they either (a) were too expensive, (b) were not available in Singapore, (c) would take longer than 2-3 months, or (d) were not linked to any ICF qualification.
At that point, I felt frustrated at why it was so difficult to pursue my passion. I wanted to just start helping people — something which anyone should be able to do right away! Why was there such a big barrier towards doing something which should be a very simple act?
This was when I realized that I was looking at getting a coaching qualification as a prerequisite to becoming a coach — which didn’t need to be the case. What further opened my eyes was when I met coaches who were supposedly qualified by ICF, but didn’t strike me as very conscious people. I was also observing well known experts in the personal development field (blogosphere being one of them), and realized that not all of them had coaching qualifications. In fact, the very successful ones didn’t. Most important of all, it didn’t make them less as teachers – they were clearly very well versed in their domains.
It made me realize that a coaching qualification didn’t mean anything, and definitely shouldn’t be a prerequisite towards pursuing a coaching career (or any career for that matter). It is a possible path for sure, but it’s not the only path to get to my end goal in becoming the best (in terms of skills and expertise) and highly sought-after coach. There are always other ways to work around the situation and achieve the same end outcome.
In the end, I took a 2-day intensive coaching crash course to equip myself with the basic coaching know-how. At the same time, I read up on coaching books and websites, gave free coaching sessions to hone my skills and came up with my coaching kit/material, while rigorously working on my growth on the same time. All these helped me to build my coaching skills. From there, I built my coaching clientele base.
Today, I’ve coached over hundreds of people around the world, from different walks in life, and on many topics close to their heart. Many of them have benefited immensely from the sessions and experienced sharp changes as a result of the coaching. All these came as a result of focusing on what it takes to be a great coach to others. Not having a coaching qualification had/has never gotten in the way of my coaching career or coaching others.
Whether you should get a coaching course or not ultimately (a) depends on your objectives and (b) whether a coaching course meets those objectives. If it doesn’t, then don’t go for it. If it does, then go for it. You should definitely not take up a course just for the sake of taking it. That would defeat the purpose totally.
Ultimately, your end objective should really to be a great coach, so focus on what makes you a great coach (i.e. the 3 factors above). Clock in your 10,000 hours. Don’t get hung up about courses and qualifications – they are a means, not an end.
While a formal course helps to equip you with required skills in a concentrated fashion, it is not the only way to learn coaching. You can learn via other (informal) channels too, such as self-reading (books and websites), direct experience (coaching others) and self-application (i.e. coaching yourself). One can even argue that learning through direct experience is probably superior to all other kinds of learning, since you’re literally in the thick of things.
At the end of the day, whether you attend a course or not, know that it’s not the end of the story. It doesn’t mean that clients come flocking once you finish a course. Far from it, in fact.
Assuming you’re starting your coaching business, you need to market yourself, establish expertise and trust, build your client base, maintain relationships, and more. These involve business development skills, marketing skills, relational skills, possibly networking skills, continuous self-development/improvement, etc. Coaching skills are only part of the equation. So bear that in mind as you work out your plans.
Additional reading:
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Hi Celes,
Thanks for sharing your views on Coaching courses. I can understand your frustration on those Coaching certifications as I went through the same process as you.
I was searching for ICF accredited courses for kick start my Career Coaching practice. And true enough, those Coaching certifications takes a long time to complete and expensive. They have online study for some of the courses, but there are also a few live sessions which I need to fly to the US to attend it. So it can cost easily a few US grand excluding airfare and accommodation. But I managed to find one ICF Accredited Career Management Coaching Certification which can be done in 15 weeks by teleconferencing without traveling there. I learned so much from Susan Whitcomb who is my mentor and coach through this program. And she is the expert on Career Management for more than 2 decades based on her real life corporate experience.
And if I looked back, I am grateful that I took up this course rather than those courses which require you to be there.
I have also attended ICF Annual International Conference 2009 in Orlando and ICF Asia Pacific Conference 2010 held in Singapore. One thing I noticed about the ICF Coaches. They are more focus on getting credentials and status rather than anything else. And ICF have three titles (ACC, PCC and MCC). I have met some MCC at the conference. MCC is supposedly the highest status you can get in the ICF Accreditation and is prestigious. And when I approach to chat with them, they just say hello and a few words before moving on to mix with other MCCs or those popular PCCs. This happens a few times throughout the whole conference and I feel disappointed with it. In fact, those that I have chat really well are those non ICF members or those in the ACC status. Even though they have the lowest status in the ICF credentials, they are doing extremely well in their business.
What they focus is on the business of helping people to transform their lives, to make them a better person, to improve their career conditions, to solve their challenges, not just clocking more coaching hours to get to the next status in the ICF ranking.
That is what a Coach should really do.
And the most interesting thing is that throughout the 4 days of the ICF Annual Conference, only less than 15% of the breakout sessions are focus on developing your coaching business, but the other 85% sessions are teaching you how to become a better coach.
So I do agree with you Celes. To gain credibility in your field is much more important than just getting a piece of a Coaching certification. I learned my lessons well, after spending so much money on ICF related programs and overseas conferences. Lots of the Coaching methodology can be taught through books, self help audios or even videos. And if you want to have a feel on how Coaching works, sign up for an hour coaching session with an expert and record it. And then use some guides to practice the listening and questioning method. All these are achievable without spending few thousand dollars on these coaching certifications.
And definitely, it not about being a better coach, it matters if you are able to solve your clients challenges. So for those who are seeking help or assistance, don’t just look for a good coach, but look for someone who has been through it and done it before and successful in his or her own field.
Hey Ngee Key, thanks so much for sharing your story. I share exactly the same sentiments as you. In the beginning when I was reaching out to others, I found that the supposed accredited coaches were not exactly the most helpful of people, and came across as somewhat elitist, not really encompassing – things which I’d expect to be qualities of people who are dedicating their lives to helping others.
Of course, these were just a few one-off encounters, and by no means should be used to stereotype/label accredited coaches. But it opened my mind that accreditation does not mean anything, and it’s about being a great coach – which includes the 3 factors I mentioned in the blog post. Doing the 3 would be truly what it means to talk the talk and walk the talk.
Separately, would also like to add on that at that time, I came across quite a few accredited coaches who didn’t have any client base and would be actively trying to solicit clients with limited success. Whereas I knew of many who had no qualifications who had a huge, growing clientele base (charging sizable fees because they were so popular in demand and were true experts in what they were doing). They were busy walking their talk vs. trying to market for clients. Again, it made me rethink about the end goal I was trying to achieve (being a top coach in my field that’s highly sought-after) vs. the accreditation itself.
As I mentioned at the end of the entry, the courses are more of a starting platform and doesn’t end there. The journey truly begins thereafter.
You are most welcome Celes. This article hit me right in the arm as I have been through for the last two years with the Coaching matters. I am not much more clearer of what I am suppose to do and not bother about all the credentials.
I am not surprised that there are some highly accredited coaches who do not have much clients. They focus too much on the coaching methodology that they forget the most important is to have a viable business.
Thanks for sharing the 3 factors again. They are very useful in guiding most of us as coaches to walk the talk.
Lessons for the past two years has been very hard for me especially spending so much money on the ICF stuff. But sometimes we need to go through certain painful experiences to learn something valuable… and this is one of those in my life :)
Hi Ngee Key, thanks so much for sharing about the coaching course! I’m actually looking out for one. By the way, is there a forum or a website for career coaches to interact and exchange ideas etc.?
Hi Ruth,
My pleasure to share and my apologies for the late reply. I did my coaching course over at Career Coach Academy. They have a LinkedIn group Career Coach Academy where all the students gather and exchange information. There are also other Coaching groups on LinkedIn as well. If you want to know more, feel free to drop me an email and I am happy to share. Thanks.
Thanks for this great article! Just like you, I’m from Singapore, and recently made coaching my career. I totally agree with you on the certification. In fact, 8 years when I started doing group training, I had no certification. I dropped out from school, but that didn’t stop me from training.
Again a couple of months back, I attended a coaching course. Many of my classmates raised their hands when asked about going for certification by ICF. I did not, because I felt it wasn’t necessary. Having the certification doesn’t made me a better coach, or improve my business tremendously. Most importantly is my clients bring home results.
In this article, you reaffirm my point.
Hi Celes,
Can’t agree with you more. Coaching is about having the expertise and trust. A similar situation exist in the school sports coaching field in Singapore. There are many good coaches out there without proper certification but are still paid a lot by schools. Then there are those with all the qualifications including PHDs who have very little impact coaching.
But this discussion does beg a question: Rather than focusing on what courses we should attend, perhaps a better question to ask is how can we go about gaining the trust and expertise of our potential coaching clients. I direct this to Celes and any reader to share your views and your story in this.
Cheers
By the way everyone, the Ask Celes posts so far have been more focused on my personal development journey and coaching to some extent. While I’m having a great time answering them, I believe the topics are only relevant to a select group of Personal Excellence readers but not everyone else. I’ve been getting questions of other personal development topics too and will be focusing my upcoming replies on personal development as a whole, so everyone can be part of the conversation then.
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