Why do companies require an ICF Credential?

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LEVEL 1: Coaching Foundations
LEVEL 2: Certified Professional Integrative Coach
TRANSFERING: Transfer Students

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00:02
Laurel Elders
I'm curious. Have you ever wondered why companies require an ICF credential? Well, let's talk about it!

I'm Laurel Elders, founder and CEO of the Institute for Integrative Intelligence. I've been a professional coaching geek since 2005. Currently hold a master certified coach credential with the ICF. And I have with me today our senior partner at the institute, Michael Tucker. Michael is a PCC credentialed coach with the ICF and also an executive coach.

Welcome, Michael. It's good to be back on the call with you!

00:41
Michael Tucker
Oh, yeah, it's good to be back. Thanks for having me back.

00:44
Laurel Elders
Yeah, absolutely. Well, today we just want to talk about ICF credentialing. And, um, Michael, you and I have been noticing an uptick in missed opportunities for coaches to really vastly grow their businesses because they either skip the coaching education or they skip the credential. And I was just curious if you wanted to share more with the audience about why was this on your heart in particularly.

01:09
Michael Tucker
Yeah. You know, what really sparked this conversation was, um, a couple of weeks ago, and you and I were talking, and I got this email from this coach that phenomenal, um, phenomenal coach. From everything that I know of her and seen of her, I, um, had this opportunity for her, and, um, I said, hey, I want you to work with me on this project. I can't think of a better person. I noticed that I don't see, um, your ICF credentials on your LinkedIn. Are you credentialed and certified? And she goes, no, but I've been through all this training, and she's right. I mean, she was. She had gone through just about every training that I had gone through, but she hadn't gotten the ICF credential. And in that moment, I felt like this anger just come over me because I wanted to work with her. And the thing, what I'm seeing is, I'm seeing that there are so many opportunities out here for coaches, um, with organizations, as coaching is starting to become more mainstream. Um, and companies are specifically requesting ICF coaches, and sometimes they're specifically requesting black, uh, or hispanic or some other group of coach. And I know people will probably think if you're watching, you might be thinking, oh, my gosh, like, you know, what does the race have to do with it? But I. Let me tell you something. That's not even a part of this conversation. People want to coach who they want to coach with, and if that's you, and you're unique, you are wanted.

03:01
Laurel Elders
Yeah, yeah. So I think for me, and thank you for sharing that. I just, uh. I really wanted to have this discussion also because, um, I think some coaches are on the fence of and even wonder why the companies are requiring this. And so I really wanted to speak to that today to provide some clarity and some things to consider and how the credential can open doors. But why it opens doors too. Right. I've noticed that, um, a couple things. One, that IcF credentialed coaches are really sought after because they're educated and trained in taking people 100% into their potential, whereas coaches without the education are skilled to take people maybe halfway. And so trained and uneducated coaches tend to rely heavily on what they know. Certified and credentialed coaches are required to lean into what they don't know. And it seems counterintuitive, but this leverages the effectiveness of the coaching because it requires the client to do the internal work of reaching their potential. So I know at the school we talk about human potential, we specialize in human potential. That's what, um, sets us apart. And the first part of human potential is being shown the way. So leaning into leading, telling, advising, guiding, um, that's only going to help someone get so far, because the second part of reaching one's potential is about going within and it's through self discovery. So as much as I would love to give everyone their personal power, I can't. That's an inside job. As much as I would love to give everyone their confidence, that's an inside job that comes from being coached, that comes from self discovering. An ICF trained and credentialed coaches are skilled, um, and assessed to make sure that they've, they've reached that level of, um, you know, those skill sets in the field.

05:14
Michael Tucker
Yeah. You know, it's interesting, as I'm hearing you talk about this, one of the things that, um, came to my mind was how I was coaching before I became ICF credentialed coach. Um, and I share this because I get it. I mean, I was what I like to call a maverick coach for about six years prior to getting credential. And I will tell you there were a number of things that transformed, um, in the way that I coach. And of course I was already getting good results with clients, but this really helped me get great results consistently and most importantly from a mental and emotional, um, state. What I noticed was prior to doing, um, my ICF training, I felt that I was responsible for getting results for my clients. So I would have a client with all of these different things going on. And by the end of that session, I was completely drained and exhausted. Um, and immediately I thought, after having that experience so many times, it made me think, man, this is not a sustainable, um, profession for me. But one of the things that I learned through the coach training and through the ICF credentialing process is how to not have that happen and instead leave the coaching engagement inspired and uplifted and alive. So even being stronger than I came into the coaching engagement with and what you're talking about, Laurel, I mean, ties directly into this generative way of being and this generative invitation that we're taught to allow clients to, um, enroll in and participate in for themselves and for their life.

07:15
Laurel Elders
Yes. Yeah. That is so well put. And I love that you said generative because, you know, I think, um, taking someone through that self discovery process without stepping in to do the work for them, without leading, without, you know, um, doing, basically guiding them, they're guiding themselves and the coach. What I've learned and love about coaching is the coach is the expert in the coaching framework and process, in the self discovery process, and putting aside bias and putting aside the leading and letting the client dig deep. The client is the expert in themselves. And one of the things I think the biggest value I've taken away is I used to, uh, it's kind of embarrassing to admit, when I came into coaching, I thought, oh, I have so much I want to share. I have so much I want to teach. I have so. And I wanted to, like, impart my wisdom, and I realized my wisdom's for me. What's the wisdom within that person? What is their success formula? And I realize that I could be the expert in all these external things, but I will never, ever be the expert of someone else's truth, period. They are the expert of their truth. And I am here as the coach to bring that out and to honor it and to help them build on it. And it's, yeah, just.

08:44
Michael Tucker
I love that. And I get fired up about that as well, because the types of outcomes that clients can create when the space is made for them to just be present and co create. Like, you're never, whatever you think that you, you know, it's never going to be better than what the client can come up with for themselves.

09:03
Laurel Elders
Yeah.

09:03
Michael Tucker
Uh, you know, now, I will say this. There are sometimes, there are some times, sometimes in coaching engagement, a client wants some very specific guidance and direction based on your experience. And so as a credential coach, what you learn how to do is you learn how to capture that for the client in those moments and then move back into allowing the client to. To, um, lean into their own wisdom. And there's an art to this. There's an art. It's a science. And you can do this gracefully. And what I will tell you is, if you do it ungracefully, well, now you move into a place where you're advising and telling the client things that could potentially create a liability for you, um, as a coach. And so maybe you could talk about liability, um. Um, a little bit. Laurel.

10:02
Laurel Elders
Oh, yeah, absolutely. But first, I just want to say I'm so glad that you brought that up, because there's two things that can block someone. One, it could be lack of information. Right. And the client might need information, external information. But sometimes we want someone to give us the answer because we want to give our power away. Then if we have to come up with our own answers, we have to be responsible. That could be scary. So, part of the co, uh, trained, uh, know, ICF training is really to say, let me just double check what's within the client first. What's within them, what is their motivation for asking for advice? Right. And just being able to hold that space, too.

10:45
Michael Tucker
Yeah. You know, it's so funny. I love it when some clients are asking me, what do you think I should do? And my question is, what? What does it matter what I think?

10:57
Laurel Elders
Yeah. Yeah. My mentor used to say, "Why do you want to give your power away?"

11:02
Michael Tucker
Wow.

11:03
Laurel Elders
All right.

11:05
Michael Tucker
Yeah. Wow.

11:06
Laurel Elders
All right. So now, yeah, let's go into the second reason why companies are requiring the ICF credential. And that is the liability and the legal component, because ICF coaches are trained and educated in the ethics and the process of coaching, because it's self discovered. We're not advising, we're not assessing, we're not, um, diagnosing. Seeing coaching, when done properly, is way lower liability because the client's responsible. The client's responsible for their own process, for taking action, for coming up with their solutions. So just consider, when you tell someone what to do, your responsibility in that and what happens next does go way up. And ICF coaches know exactly where to draw those lines. Um, and they're assessed on their capacity to know how to draw those lines. So the other thing to consider is companies are requiring that ICF credential because non ICF coaches are seen as a potential legal liability. You just don't know what you're getting versus if you have a credential, the company can go, okay, they are being held they're holding themselves to the ethical standard. They know, um, exactly how to take someone through that self discovery process, which is a um, you know, development process. It's expanding skill sets, but it's all coming from within versus being told, yeah.

12:38
Michael Tucker
Well, you know, the other piece of this is really about effective performance of the coach. So, and this is not to say that you can't be an effective high performing coach without an ICR credential, but from a company's perspective, if they bring you in, you start off with, hey, this person can reasonably do a good job. Of course there are people who don't go to do a good job in all professions, but at least you start off from that perspective that hey, at least we know this person has this credential, we know what we can reasonably expect from them, and we know the kind of outcome we can reasonably expect. And so from a performance standpoint, that's also important to um, to companies. And I gotta tell you, I mean, companies, they spend big money on coaching. They really do, because coaching, in the latest research that I, they saw, said for every dollar that's spent on coaching, a company will receive a five, um, x return on their investment. And that's an old statistic. So maybe it's a little better with um, some of the newer forms of training out now, but this is a very important thing for them, especially. You start to look at the younger generations and what they value in terms of benefits from their um, their organizations. Coaching is, is a big one they're looking for, for this. And so that's another thing that's driving demand. It's just a change in generations and, and coaching is just, it's, it's expected. It's interesting. I was talking to um, a woman, she just got picked up as a CEO of an organization. And I asked her, I said, did you um, did you ask for coaching as a part of your compensation package? And she said, absolutely. And the employer is going to provide it. So people are asking for this, um, and you want to make sure that you are prepared completely to be able to step into these opportunities when they show up.

14:51
Laurel Elders
Yeah, yeah, I couldn't agree more. Um, especially like you're saying, if you want to work with companies or be hireable, the ICF credential opens way more doors. Way more doors, right?

15:05
Michael Tucker
Yeah. And you know, the last thing I'll talk about on this, Laurel, is um, about consistency of income.

15:12
Laurel Elders
Mhm.

15:13
Michael Tucker
Um, there was a period of time where my uh, income was like this. It was very much up and down, and the highs were high and the lows were low. And I find that a lot with coaches. People have this calling. They feel it in their heart and they, you know, they might go and, um, do, I'll say, uh, some type of a certification that's not ICF, and they're wondering why their income is up and down the way that it is. And this is not to say that you can't come up with some kind of other program that people call coaching, but it's not actually coaching, because I see that a lot of, however, um, when you have this credential, it opens doors for things like contract coaching. That's a really, really big one. A really, really big one. You can make a six figure income just doing contract coaching with larger coaching organizations. And I'm just thinking about some coaches that I've hired to work with clients. Um, I mean, I've paid coaches anywhere from $250 an hour to $1,000 an hour to work with clients who have very specific, very unique needs. And so this, from an income standpoint, that's another reason that this makes, um, sense. The other thing is it just gives you that credibility, um, when you're being compared to other coaches. So if I'm a HR director of a major corporation and I'm looking at five coaches that I want to provide to my, you know, directors or my CEO, you're not getting on that list if you don't have that ICF credential. And I don't really care how amazing you are as a person. You have those, those, you know, the Anthony Robbins of the world, but those guys are outliers.

17:06
Laurel Elders
Mhm.

17:07
Michael Tucker
So why would you want to create that kind of gamble with your career?

17:12
Laurel Elders
Yeah, yeah, that's really good point. So, in summary, companies, uh, are requiring ICF credentials for two primary reasons, efficacy and ROI. They know that the ICF coaches are trained in the full self discovery process and taking people fully into their potential. And then also the second reason is the ethics and sustainably, um, um, or substantially lowered liability, um, um. You know, that is something companies need to consider. And so they, they know that ICF coaches do follow a code of ethics and know exactly where to draw lines, um, on the advising pieces.

So we hope that our experience as seasoned coaches has been illuminating to your path, professional path, today as a coach, or even a future coach, if you're considering coach training and if you are ready to become a credentialed coach, we would love to help.

We have three options. So if you're already a trained coach and have kind of piecemeal some of your trainings together. We do see this a lot. We take Transfer Students. We will help you take your trainings and put them into a fast track towards your ICF credential, um, PCC, or towards your MCC credential, and even ACC.

If you're just starting out, we also start LEVEL ONE- Foundations and LEVEL TWO- CPIC trainings October 5.

And if you would love to be a deeper dive human potential coach, we would love for you to consider us. I love to say that, um, if you're only looking for coaching skills, we'll refer you to a different program. We don't do that. We go deep. We go deep into human potential.

And, um, you will learn all of the ICF standards, competencies, the art and the science of masterful coaching. But we're also going to take you deeper into human potential so that you can take your clients even further.

So if that sounds amazing to you, reach out to us at:  [email protected]

We can walk you through, um, all the options and answer any questions that you have. So that's it for now. Michael, anything else before we. We hop off today?

19:38
Michael Tucker
I would just say, don't sell yourself short. Don't sell yourself short. And I've seen this way too many times. I did it for a long time, and had I known what I know now, I would have gotten credentialed way, way sooner.

19:54
Laurel Elders
Uh, same, same. Yeah, I piecemealed my education together, and then I realized later it would have just been great to just go for it and just go, just go for it. M. Yeah. All right, thank you. Hope everyone's having an amazing week, and, um, happy Wednesday. We hope to see you next time.