Coaching As A Profession: Licensed? Registered? Chartered? Regulated?
By Mark Joyella
August 7th, 2009 • the Coaching Commons Filed Under: CoachReporter • Featured Articles
Is it important for coaching to be considered a profession?
Chris Baxter’s tired of hearing the word “coach” tossed around as a workplace cliche. “People wouldn’t say at work, ‘I’m going to sit down with my staff and do some psychotherapy,’” says Baxter. But bosses often boast about being good coaches, leading their team of employees, or sitting down with a mid-level manager to work with them on an issue.
Baxter argues the ease with which people toss around the term “coach” undermines coaching’s ability to truly become a profession in the eyes of the public. “They don’t perceive it as something that only qualified professionals do,” said Baxter, an ICF accredited business coach in the UK whose coaching business, GENI, is an acronym for “Good Enough Never Is.”
Baxter believes it’s imperative for coaches to separate themselves in the minds of the public‚ not just from bosses who motivate employees, but also from untrained business owners who market themselves as “coaches.”
Do you?
“They are undermining (coaching) as a profession because they have no professional accrediation or credentials whatsoever,” said Baxter. “And so whilst the term ‘coach’ is used in common language a great deal, it’s going to be very difficult to distinguish between professional coaching and having a one-to-one chat with somebody.”
What is the next step for coaching to be recognized as a profession?
The ICF has long maintained that professional coaching exists, and the ICF’s programs of standards and certification–along with membership in a body of “professional” coaches–is one path to being a pro.
Coach Dave Buck asks the provocative question, “How do you earn the right to coach?” Is the only answer for individual coaches to become certified?
Or is there a broader step yet to be taken by the field that could universally advance coaching status to a profession?
“There is a growing need for some sort of quality mark for coaches and coach training programs,” says Ton de Graaf, a WABC (Worldwide Association of Business Coaches) Chartered Business Coach who practices in the Netherlands.
“Building a profession means building and maintaining public trust,” says de Graaf. “This is achieved through self-regulatory activities such as creating a professional code of ethics, a well-defined set of professional standards, a body of knowledge, and a standard of training and credentialing.”
ICF and WABC offer those services, but de Graaf says few coaching clients–and far fewer members of the public at large–have ever heard of any coaching association. “Coach training programs and designations are flooding the market‚ the vast majority of which are not affiliated with any professional association‚ leading to market confusion about the quality, focus and nature of services the coaching industry offers.”
De Graaf and others believe the perception problem–lumping business coaches into the same group with dream coaches and dating coaches–presents a hurdle for coaching that, say, architects don’t have to deal with.
UCLA sociologist James Wilson wrote in his book Bureaucracy that a “professional” is someone who’s had specialized formal education and benefits from a “group-defined code of proper conduct.”
By that measure, many well-trained and fully certified coaches say they must concede coaching is a “field” and not yet a profession.
“The ICF has its code of ethics, and other coaching bodies have theirs, but an individual is still at liberty to call themselves coach without specialized formal education or an agreement to an accepted group defined code of proper conduct,” said Chris Baxter. “So the first problem that coaching has in becoming established as a profession is that the title ‘coach’ is not ‘owned’ by a professional body” in the way ‘dentist’ or even ‘accountant’ is.
Baxter believes it’s too late to take back sole possession of the word “coach,” given its long tradition of use in other contexts, most notably in sports. “It’s a term that the ‘coaching profession’ adopted/borrowed/stole,” said Baxter. “Therefore if coaching is to become recognized as a profession then it would appear that a new name is needed.”
Do you agree?
Ton de Graaf stakes his claim to the title “Chartered Coach,” the highest level of WABC accreditation offered through just one facility, the Professional Development Foundation at Middlesex University. Currently, the program has no candidates.
Baxter says in the UK, “chartered‚” carries a clear message to consumers and coaching clients, as the phrase is widely understood in the way “board certified” is understood in the US. “You don’t get that by popping off to a course for the weekend. It’s the culmination of years of study.”
In the UK, chartered status is governed by law, effectively closing the market to the amateur surveyor or therapist. Baxter argues a “gold standard” could do the same for coaching, “where basically if you’re not a chartered coach, you’re not really a ‘coach.’”
A charter obviously has no resonance to American consumers.
Would “Chartered Coach” find credibility worldwide? Or “Registered Coach?”
DeeAnna Merz Nagel is a licensed mental health counselor in New Jersey and founder of the Online Therapy Institute. She believes a bold path to professional coaching status would be a government license. “A license would say that along with education, there are certain rules and codes of ethics you must follow to be in the profession,” she said.
A license would govern who could add “coach,” to their title in specific situations. “People just decide, ‘oh, I’m a business coach,’” said Nagel. “Well how did you come to that? They say ‘well I have an MBA, I help people with business.’”
In order to make the profession what it needs to be, to take it up another notch, Nagel says, coaches should consider regulation. “Regulation is what does it in this culture.”
Are you willing to be government regulated?
Does being part of a profession mean enough to coaching that you’d be willing to endure state by state licensing and exposure to varying rules, regulations and licensing procedures? Is there a promising alternative?
“I certainly don’t want another profession to have to be mired in the complications of state-to-state regulation,” says Nagel. “Maybe coaches could be the profession that somehow wields a national license so that other professionals could follow. ‘Look, coaches did it, so why not therapists?’”
Where do we want coaching to go from here? Any coaches up for that kind of challenge?
About the Author
Mark Joyella is an Emmy-winning television news reporter and anchor who has worked at television stations in Colorado, Georgia, Florida and New York. A firm believer in the power of coaching, Mark has been on both sides of the coaching equation, as a client, and as a coach, helping aspiring journalists excel in writing, reporting and storytelling. Mark teaches at mediabistro.com, runs marathons, and lives in Brooklyn with his wife and their cat and three dogs. Follow Mark on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/coachreporter.
August 7th, 2009 • the Coaching Commons Filed Under: CoachReporter • Featured Articles
Is it important for coaching to be considered a profession?
Chris Baxter’s tired of hearing the word “coach” tossed around as a workplace cliche. “People wouldn’t say at work, ‘I’m going to sit down with my staff and do some psychotherapy,’” says Baxter. But bosses often boast about being good coaches, leading their team of employees, or sitting down with a mid-level manager to work with them on an issue.
Baxter argues the ease with which people toss around the term “coach” undermines coaching’s ability to truly become a profession in the eyes of the public. “They don’t perceive it as something that only qualified professionals do,” said Baxter, an ICF accredited business coach in the UK whose coaching business, GENI, is an acronym for “Good Enough Never Is.”
Baxter believes it’s imperative for coaches to separate themselves in the minds of the public‚ not just from bosses who motivate employees, but also from untrained business owners who market themselves as “coaches.”
Do you?
“They are undermining (coaching) as a profession because they have no professional accrediation or credentials whatsoever,” said Baxter. “And so whilst the term ‘coach’ is used in common language a great deal, it’s going to be very difficult to distinguish between professional coaching and having a one-to-one chat with somebody.”
What is the next step for coaching to be recognized as a profession?
The ICF has long maintained that professional coaching exists, and the ICF’s programs of standards and certification–along with membership in a body of “professional” coaches–is one path to being a pro.
Coach Dave Buck asks the provocative question, “How do you earn the right to coach?” Is the only answer for individual coaches to become certified?
Or is there a broader step yet to be taken by the field that could universally advance coaching status to a profession?
“There is a growing need for some sort of quality mark for coaches and coach training programs,” says Ton de Graaf, a WABC (Worldwide Association of Business Coaches) Chartered Business Coach who practices in the Netherlands.
“Building a profession means building and maintaining public trust,” says de Graaf. “This is achieved through self-regulatory activities such as creating a professional code of ethics, a well-defined set of professional standards, a body of knowledge, and a standard of training and credentialing.”
ICF and WABC offer those services, but de Graaf says few coaching clients–and far fewer members of the public at large–have ever heard of any coaching association. “Coach training programs and designations are flooding the market‚ the vast majority of which are not affiliated with any professional association‚ leading to market confusion about the quality, focus and nature of services the coaching industry offers.”
De Graaf and others believe the perception problem–lumping business coaches into the same group with dream coaches and dating coaches–presents a hurdle for coaching that, say, architects don’t have to deal with.
UCLA sociologist James Wilson wrote in his book Bureaucracy that a “professional” is someone who’s had specialized formal education and benefits from a “group-defined code of proper conduct.”
By that measure, many well-trained and fully certified coaches say they must concede coaching is a “field” and not yet a profession.
“The ICF has its code of ethics, and other coaching bodies have theirs, but an individual is still at liberty to call themselves coach without specialized formal education or an agreement to an accepted group defined code of proper conduct,” said Chris Baxter. “So the first problem that coaching has in becoming established as a profession is that the title ‘coach’ is not ‘owned’ by a professional body” in the way ‘dentist’ or even ‘accountant’ is.
Baxter believes it’s too late to take back sole possession of the word “coach,” given its long tradition of use in other contexts, most notably in sports. “It’s a term that the ‘coaching profession’ adopted/borrowed/stole,” said Baxter. “Therefore if coaching is to become recognized as a profession then it would appear that a new name is needed.”
Do you agree?
Ton de Graaf stakes his claim to the title “Chartered Coach,” the highest level of WABC accreditation offered through just one facility, the Professional Development Foundation at Middlesex University. Currently, the program has no candidates.
Baxter says in the UK, “chartered‚” carries a clear message to consumers and coaching clients, as the phrase is widely understood in the way “board certified” is understood in the US. “You don’t get that by popping off to a course for the weekend. It’s the culmination of years of study.”
In the UK, chartered status is governed by law, effectively closing the market to the amateur surveyor or therapist. Baxter argues a “gold standard” could do the same for coaching, “where basically if you’re not a chartered coach, you’re not really a ‘coach.’”
A charter obviously has no resonance to American consumers.
Would “Chartered Coach” find credibility worldwide? Or “Registered Coach?”
DeeAnna Merz Nagel is a licensed mental health counselor in New Jersey and founder of the Online Therapy Institute. She believes a bold path to professional coaching status would be a government license. “A license would say that along with education, there are certain rules and codes of ethics you must follow to be in the profession,” she said.
A license would govern who could add “coach,” to their title in specific situations. “People just decide, ‘oh, I’m a business coach,’” said Nagel. “Well how did you come to that? They say ‘well I have an MBA, I help people with business.’”
In order to make the profession what it needs to be, to take it up another notch, Nagel says, coaches should consider regulation. “Regulation is what does it in this culture.”
Are you willing to be government regulated?
Does being part of a profession mean enough to coaching that you’d be willing to endure state by state licensing and exposure to varying rules, regulations and licensing procedures? Is there a promising alternative?
“I certainly don’t want another profession to have to be mired in the complications of state-to-state regulation,” says Nagel. “Maybe coaches could be the profession that somehow wields a national license so that other professionals could follow. ‘Look, coaches did it, so why not therapists?’”
Where do we want coaching to go from here? Any coaches up for that kind of challenge?
About the Author
Mark Joyella is an Emmy-winning television news reporter and anchor who has worked at television stations in Colorado, Georgia, Florida and New York. A firm believer in the power of coaching, Mark has been on both sides of the coaching equation, as a client, and as a coach, helping aspiring journalists excel in writing, reporting and storytelling. Mark teaches at mediabistro.com, runs marathons, and lives in Brooklyn with his wife and their cat and three dogs. Follow Mark on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/coachreporter.
Tags: chartered, coaching, licensed, registered, regulation
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