Certification is an important step to being recognized as a professional in the life coaching profession. Potential clients may screen coaches by making sure that they are certified, while your peers recognize certification as demonstration of your professional commitment.
The International Association of Coaching (IAC) certification process for members includes three steps. First, you take the sample exam for free. This exam is based on the coaching masteries, which can be downloaded for free on the IAC website. When you are comfortable that you can pass the written exam, you pay a fee (currently $35.00) to take the Certification Part One Written Examination. A passing score on this examination qualifies you to take the Certification Part Two Evaluation. This involves submitting two recorded coaching sessions that will be evaluated to ensure you have adequately mastered the practical application of the coaching masteries. The fee to review the tapes is currently $350. If you do not pass on the first review there is a fee of $175 for each additional recording you submit for review. Yikes!
You spend so much time studying and practicing before submitting your certification tapes to an organization like the International Association of Coaching (IAC). You've probably taken a professional coaching course and you want to maximize your chances of getting certified the first time you try. And while the IAC provides extensive study material to help you prepare, it sure would be nice to have some warning about common mistakes so you could listen for them as you are selecting your tapes for consideration.
And here's the good news-In a recent article, Barbra Sundquist, IAC certifier, lists the top five errors she hears on tapes she reviews. They are:
- Talking too much and not allowing enough silence for the client to process and come to new insights,
- Rushing to solve the client's problem without a full exploration of the agenda,
- Accepting what the client says at face value,
- Holding back the coach's insights or failing to challenge the client out of a desire to be polite,
- And telling the client want to do instead of allowing the client to discover the answer by using appropriate questions.
As you review the tapes you plan to submit for certification, consider each of these points. Put yourself in the place of the certifier and try to score the tapes yourself. Do you feel you have a passing tape with a comfortable margin of error? If you do a careful evaluation of the tapes you submit prior to submission and wait until you have really demonstrated the Masteries on your evaluation tapes, you will maximize your change of being certified on the first try. For more details on this process and to read Ms. Sundquist's article yourself, check out the IAC website at http://certifiedcoach.org/
Good like on your journey to certification! For more helpful hints, take a look at my blog for aspiring life coaches at Transformation Coaching. I'm also available for private consultation and your first session with Soar is always FREE!
Cynthia J Hanevy, CTA-CC, NLC-CCC,
Soar Coaching and Consulting LLC
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