When I was first coaching, people used to ask “what’s that coaching stuff about then?”. That happens less and less now but, just in case, this page has a few notes and links which might be useful.

If there’s anything missing from here that you might find helpful to know about, please  • contact •  me.

And please read on below for links to other off-site topics.

What is a Coach?

Here’s what the International Coach Federation (ICF), our professional accrediting body has to say:

"Professional coaches provide an ongoing partnership designed to help clients produce fulfilling results in their personal and professional lives. Coaches help people improve their performances and enhance the quality of their lives.

Coaches are trained to listen, to observe and to customize their approach to individual client needs. They seek to elicit solutions and strategies from the client; they believe the client is naturally creative and resourceful. The coach's job is to provide support to enhance the skills, resources, and creativity that the client already has."

More information is available at the  • ICF Website •

What Training Do Coaches Do?

Most successful and effective coaches will have done a lot of formal training in appropriate skills and techniques. I did the bulk of my training with a company called  • The Coach Training Institute (CTI) •  and completed their coach certification programme, one of only a handful which has full accreditation from the International Coach Federation. I’ve also trained with most of the other institutes which have full accreditation, including the  • Newfield Network •  on their Mastery in Coaching programme and with  • Corporate CoachU • 

The choice of which institutes and programmes to study will probably depend on your previous background and experience and preferred learning styles. For example, I already had a lot of business and corporate experience, so chose a first coach training course which leaned more towards the ‘softer’ skills. I’d also done enough part-time and distance studying to know that, for my coaching, I would prefer something more immersive and experiential.

It's just a personal preference, but I've always choosen accredited course over ones that weren't. Follow the link to the ICF website (above) and browse their site for details of fully-accredited coach training programmes.

What Does it Take?

Lastly, the most important part of being a good coach, again in my not-so-humble opinion, is not the skills, techniques and experience. Of course, you simply can’t do the job without these, but the most important part and probably the hardest, is how disciplined you are at applying all of those things to your own life and work. I believe that life is a journey, not a destination. And that means that to bring integrity and real learning to my work, I have to regard myself as a ‘work-in-progress’. See my  • blog •  for ongoing steps on the journey.