Who Needs a Mentor Coach?

Mentor Coaching is a new requirement for some of the ICF credentials. But, who is required to have mentor coaching to fulfill the requirements?

To quickly answer that question, I've put together a handy guide in table form.  Find your current credential level in the first column, then find your next credential level in the top row. Find where they intersect and you'll find the mentor coaching requirement!  Simple!

ICF Requirements for Mentor Coaching

Information accurate as of Sept. 30 2013

Mentor Coach must hold credential at or above your certification level

Graduates from Accredited Coach Training Programs (ACTP)

Current Credential	Next Credential
	ACC	PCC	MCC
None	name the mentor coach from your training program	none	none
ACC	10 hours	none	none
PCC		none	none
MCC			none

Portfolio Candidates (those who have not completed an Accredited Coach Training Program)

Current Credential	Next Credential
	ACC	PCC	MCC
None	10 hours	10 hours	10 hours
ACC	10 hours	10 hours	10 hours
PCC		none	10 hours
MCC			none

The light blue boxes show the requirements for renewing your current certification level.

Does this make it clearer????  If you have questions, please leave a comment and I'll answer them as best I can.

And, I recommend that you bookmark the page on the ICF website that has the requirements for your next credential and check it periodically. Download the sample application to see exactly what information you're required to provide.

Requirements have changed and are expected to change again in Spring 2014.

The road to mastery (or at least, to being more masterful than I am right now!)

What does it take to continue towards mastery?

I finished my coach training over 12 years ago. I've been a PCC for 10 years and since then have given feedback and support to many coaching students.  And, of course, I've coached a lot too.  A good training program, and lots of on-the-job training - and you'd think I could consider myself a master at my trade.

However, I've found that just doing the work of a coach, without close examination of what I'm doing and why, without upgrading my understanding of what good coaching should be, without honest feedback and support, doesn't really lead to mastery. It leads to experience, yes. But without that edge of continual improvement, deepening awareness, and the struggle inherent in moving beyond my limitations to new levels of performance, that experience doesn't always lead to better coaching.

So, I've gone back to basics and created a program I call PCC Master Class. I offer it for others to participate in - and I've enrolled myself as well. So I'm not the all-knowing instructor, but a peer on the same journey of discovery and challenge.

The PCC Master Class is based on an assumption that we've had a good foundation in what great coaching can be, and we have enough tools to use in our coaching conversations. So it's not about learning to coach.

The ICF Coaching Competencies give us a road map for both the "being" and "doing" of a coach. The PCC Master Class takes us into those competencies for the PCC level, and asks us to reexamine our understanding and use of them with our clients.

There's class discussion and then field work - which can include research and writing, observing a coaching demonstration, or examining your own coaching. We learn together, asking the questions that are on our minds now, using our collective experience and wisdom to seek the answers.

Class 1 was about Ethics and Professional Standards. I came away from that class is a deeper understanding of the underpinnings of our Code of Ethics, and a better way to evaluate those situations that just don't feel quite right so see what action is the best to take.

I'm excited to see what will develop as we dig deeper into each of the competencies in this journey to mastery.