The ICF Core Competencies- Inner Struggle or New Found Freedom? Which Will You Choose?

When discussing the ICF’s coaching standards, I often hear comments about them feeling restrictive. As a mentor to new coaches, I see this frustration firsthand, especially when sessions lean more toward mentoring than coaching. This insight also stems from personal experience—I failed my first PCC Performance Evaluation. My habitual way of showing support involved closed/leading questions and stepping in to do the work for the client. Thankfully, I’ve come a long way since then, and my clients are much more empowered and grateful as a result.

Having spent 20 years in the coaching field and gaining a bigger picture perspective as a coach educator, I want to address the tension many coaches feel between “Let me do what I want!” and “Oops, I just steamrolled over this person’s progress.”

The Restrictive Perception of ICF StandardsFirst of all, I get it. The ICF Core Competencies can feel restrictive, especially for those of us who are coming from advising, teaching, or directive roles as I did. It makes sense also because our default tendencies and skills will always be the ones to show up first.
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However, if we are invested in coaching efficacy this restrictive sensation is only temporary. While the Core Competencies might initially can feel confining, they become expansive once you learn to lean into their rhythm and create harmony with them. Mastery in anything isn’t achieved overnight. You wouldn’t expect to play a violin proficiently without first learning its deeper nuances, and coaching mastery requires a similar dedication to learning the layers of competency. 
The Three Considerations for the ICF Core Competencies

1. What Feels Restrictive to You Feels Expansive to the Client

The ICF Core Competencies feel restrictive because they require letting go of judgment, evaluation, direction, and telling—common default settings for many people. These habits, however, can overshadow the client’s agency and potential.

Once a coach experiences the expansive side of the competencies, they often release their “tightrope tension” on old habits and elevate into the new rhythm of masterful coaching. It’s transformative, both for the coach and the client.

2. Coaching is a Spectrum of Efficacy

Transformation is an inside job—it depends on self-reflection and inner shifts. No matter how much we might want to, we cannot provide inner-transformation to someone else. Because it is far easier to give advice than to listen deeply, suspend judgment, stay curious, and invite transformation, impatience with the learning process can easily arise. I’ve found that is when the “Let me just do it my way!” starts to kick in. However, directing, advising and guiding can overshadow the client’s agency and inner wisdom and therefor leave the coaching much less effective than a full coaching engagement.
There is a reason coaching – pure coaching – is highly effective. It boils down to human potential. When someone is striving to reach their potential—in life, work, a new role, parenting, or any other area—it’s important to understand the two journeys they must undertake to achieve their personal peaks.

1. The First Journey: Here, external influences such as mentors, teachers, counselors or advisors guide us. This stage is vital for initial growth and direction.
2. The Second Journey: At a certain point, external guidance reaches its limits, and the individual must turn inward for their personal power. Self-discovery, self-awareness, and self-empowerment become the keys to unlocking deeper potential. This journey is uniquely personal and cannot be given by another.

Coaches are facilitators of the second journey. When mentoring new coaches, I often ask, “What level of coach do you want to be?” This question matters because not everyone is ready or willing to walk with clients through their second journey. It requires setting aside ego and embracing discomfort as old default habits are replaced with new skills.

• If you prefer giving advice, recognize that you’re guiding clients through the first journey. This is valid but aligns more with counseling, mentoring, or consulting.
• If you want to balance advice and coaching, it can helpful to be mindful of the dynamic. It takes a person one first journey, and gives them a peak of the second – yet can’t fully take them into the second journey. 
• If your goal is to empower clients on their second journey—to help them uncover their own truths and potential—fully embracing the wide variety of coaching skills and ICF Core Competencies is where it’s at. 

Furthermore, this new learning often includes feelings of discomfort with putting down old default settings and embracing an entirely new approach. I’m not going to sugar coat it. The ICF Core Competencies sound simple when you read them, yet fully activating them takes work, intentionality and challenge until they flow.

3. Best Coaching Practices

Hands down, the ICF, with all its growing pains and evolution since 1995, remains the pioneering Gold Standard in coaching. Globally respected for its methodology, standards of excellence, ethics, and best practices, it has earned its place as a leader in the field.

While many people possess first journey skills, it’s the second journey skills—the mindset and processes required for deeper transformation—that are less common. The ICF has done an exceptional job researching, refining, and solidifying the efficacy of these second journey skills.

If you're ready to develop these highly sought-after skills, the ICF Core Competencies provide the framework. Though they may feel uncomfortable at first, they are intentionally designed to foster profound inner transformation and self-empowerment for both the coach and the client.

In Conclusion

The ICF Core Competencies may initially feel restrictive, but they are a powerful gateway to transformative results! They push us to let go of outdated habits, embrace the growth that comes from discomfort, and step into a new paradigm of self-directed empowerment. By embracing the profound wisdom embedded in the second journey skills, we not only elevate our coaching efficacy but also have the honor to journey with our clients into their deepest potential. In my estimation, there is nothing restrictive about greater potentials!