Why Intrad School of Executive Coaching (ISEC) chose the IAC Coach Certification?

The phenomenon called ‘coaching’ really began in the early 1990s when Thomas Leonard – a product of the 1970s Human Potential movement – invented the life coaching profession and founded the first training program, CoachU. Thomas passed away suddenly in 2003, but in his lifetime, he did more to raise the standards of coaching than anyone before or since.

What is coach certification?

Coach certification is a process through which a coach demonstrates the willingness and ability to meet certain standards of the profession. Certification is NOT licensing.

As of the current moment, you are not required to get certified to coach. Some may think it’s largely a waste of time and money, especially for coaches just getting started. We beg to differ.

What would the world be like if there was no coach credentialing?

As professionals, a consultant, a speaker, therapists, a counselor, a teacher, a fitness trainer, or a financial planner, you may already have training that inspires your coaching career. However, the fact that you have this training certification from another school or program is but the first step in the renewed process for continuing education in the field of coaching to get a certification.

To understand the potential value of coaching certification, take a minute to imagine what the world would be like without any kind of credentialing processes. Imagine a world filled with lawyers who do things their own way and accountants who don’t share a common understanding of accounting law.

In a way, living in that world would be like driving on a highway without speed limits, lanes, or turn signals.

The two major players in the coaching certification field

In the field of coaching, professional standards are primarily determined by two organizations: the ICF and IAC. Interestingly, both the IAC and the ICF were founded by this same man, Thomas J Leonard, widely acknowledged as the Founder of the Coaching Profession.

About The International Coach Federation (ICF)

Thomas founded the ICF in 1995, when the coaching profession was still nascent. At the time, coaching was just beginning to establish itself as a distinct profession, with different skills and deliverables in comparison to other professions, such as consulting or psychotherapy, two  areas that are often confused with coaching.

Because the profession of coaching was so new and evolving so fast, it was difficult to define standards for certified coaching.

ICF certification is based on the amount of training a coach had and how many paid hours of coaching he/she had documented. It used a “competency” model and it usually took years for a coach to achieve ICF certification. The ICF is today the self appointed Grand Master of the coach credentialing world. It has relatively stringent requirements and a handful of programs that it gives its direct blessing to accreditation.

If you go the ICF route to a certification, you would need to find an ICF accredited school. You will then need to clock up at least 250 paid hours before you can get a certification. Do all of that and 60 training hours of coach specific training before you can sit and take the certification exam. Count on taking at least 6-12 months of training. This will allow you to reach your first level of ICF training.

Either way, it's expected that after your training you'll be coaching and building your practice while you clock up your certification, unlike other industries where you train first, and enter professional practice at a later time.

Over time the ICF came to be known as the gold standard. However, a major drawback to ICF certification is the fact that the organization ignores the particular kind of coaching you do and dismisses the rich and varied background you may be bringing to the field. The ICF would make a doctorate in behavioral sciences with 30 years of experience jump through the same hoops as a 20-year-old without a college degree.

By 2001, Thomas had grown dissatisfied with the ICF approach to certification. He didn’t feel that the coaches who were being certified by the ICF were consistently excellent. It was possible to spend years getting coach training and rack up thousands of hours of coaching experience and still be an average coach. (Even though there are many excellent ICF credentialed coaches.)

Thomas decided that coach certification should be based solely on the coach’s ability to coach and on their pledge to uphold a high standard of ethics as professional coaches, because in the end, that’s all that really mattered.

By 2001, the ICF was completely independent of Thomas Leonard. The ICF had its own board of directors and administrators who told Thomas that they weren’t interested in changing their certification process.

Being the leader and maverick that he was, Thomas simply founded a new not-for-profit certifying organization in 2003 that bases its certification solely on a coach’s ability to demonstrate masterful coaching skills and a high level of ethics. That organization is the IAC.

 

About The International Association of Coaching (IAC)

It is often said that if the ICF is the ‘Harvard’ of certifying bodies, then the IAC is the University of Phoenix. The IAC accepts nearly any training or background and, therefore, anyone can receive the IAC stamp of approval and get certified. The IAC is probably the best way to go if you’re coming into the field with a great deal of prior experience as the system encourages you to leverage on your previous experience in developing your coaching style.

 “We were born from dissatisfaction with the ICF which was convincingly expressed and acted upon by Thomas Leonard,” said former IAC President, Angela Spaxman. “He believed that the ICF was too strongly focused on creating divisions between people through invalid and old-fashioned models of professional organizations. There is a lack of abundance-thinking when an organization strictly defines requirements for entry, excluding many who may be equally qualified, and supporting closely related profit-making schools that provide the hours of training required. This paradigm grates on many coaches. The simplicity of the IAC’s certification system is much more welcoming to people who want to benchmark and gain recognition for their coaching abilities without having to complete defined milestones that may not suit their particular development requirements. This is particularly true for mature coaches with years of relevant training and experience in related fields.”

The IAC’s current strategy has emerged after years of change.  A group that was originally free to join and supported by sponsors, has become member-funded, and its credentialing process has been perhaps the most distinct area of difference between the IAC and the ICF.

What are the basic requirements by the ICF and the IAC to keep your coach credentials?

1.      Both organizations require you to maintain your memberships. For the ICF, annual membership is $195USD. For the IAC it is $129USD. A professional coach can easily earn their annual membership fee with one hour of coaching.

2.      Unlike the IAC, effective 2013, membership to the ICF will only be possible if you have completed your 60 hours coach training from an ICF accredited school.

3.      The ICF requires 40 Continuing Coach Education Units (CCEUs) every three years. A CCEU is defined as 1 hour of direct coach-specific training.

4.       The IAC requires a Learning Agreement (LA) every five years. The LA is flexible. You simply plan your own learning path around the 9 IAC Coaching Masteries.

Coach Certification, training, ethics and professionalism are becoming increasingly important to businesses and consumers, so although it's technically not necessary that a coach have certification, we believe it is a very good idea.

At ISEC, we believe the IAC Coach Certification is the most appropriate credential for all these reasons and that why we choose to be an IAC licensed school.