Material for reading “Understanding professional coaching standards”

2.1 Professional coaching standards

Adult coaches should understand and follow coaching standards in order to conduct their duty, as well as to be considered as trustful and professional. Adult coaches will acknowledge these standards through practice and will study and review them through international and national associations’ codes. Professional coaching standards are summarised into four main clusters referring to professional behaviour, avoiding conflict of interest, conduct with clients, and confidentiality.

Professional behaviour

  • Adult coaches shall avoid any public statement that is untrue or misleading about what they offer as coaches or make false claims in any written documents relating to the coaching profession or the coach’s credentials.
  • Adult coaches will accurately identify their coaching qualifications, expertise, experience, certifications and credentials.
  • Adult coaches will at all times strive to recognize personal issues that may impair, conflict, or interfere with their coaching performance or their professional coaching relationships.
  • Adult coaches will conduct and report research with competence, honesty, and within recognized scientific standards and applicable subject guidelines.

Avoiding conflict of interest

  • Adult coaches will seek to avoid conflicts of interest and potential conflicts of interest and openly disclose any such conflicts. Coaches will offer to remove themselves when such a conflict arises.
  • Adult coaches will not knowingly take any personal, professional, or monetary advantage or benefit of the coach-client relationship, except by a form of compensation as agreed in the agreement or contract.

Conduct with clients

  • Adult coaches will not knowingly mislead or make false claims about what their client or sponsor will receive from the coaching process or from them as the coach.
  • Adult coaches will have clear agreements or contracts with their clients or sponsors and will honor all agreements or contracts made in the context of professional coaching relationships.
  • Adult coaches will be responsible for setting clear, appropriate, and culturally sensitive boundaries that govern any physical contact that coaches may have with their clients or sponsors.

Confidentiality

  • Adult coaches will accurately maintain, store, and dispose of any records created during their coaching business in a manner that promotes confidentiality, security, and privacy, and complies with any applicable laws and agreements.
  • Adult coaches will have a clear agreement upon how coaching information will be exchanged among coach, client, and sponsor.
  • When acting as trainers of student coaches, adult coaches will clarify confidentiality policies with the students.


Links for the self-learning


Training provided online is increasing sharply over the last year, particularly due to measures implemented worldwide to tackle COVID 19 pandemic. For instance, coaching standards are the subject of several online courses – free or at a cost price; with and without certification. Here is a useful list of hints to choose an online coaching course.

  • Does the training align with your core values and beliefs?
  • What form does the training take? One-to-one or group, online or in-person?
  • What qualifications and accreditations do it provide?
  • Does the training cover specialties that you would like to focus on?
  • How does the training provider support you after training? For example, is mentoring available?
  • Is the financial commitment acceptable? Both in terms of training and ongoing costs?

2.3 Apply the professional coaching standards

It is of fundamental importance for adult coaches to apply standards at every professional context, not only while actively performing their coaching duties. Indeed, the core focus of professional ethics is the application of a set of values that dictate ethical professional conduct and constitute an integral part of professional identity. The guiding principles to apply the professional coaching standards are the following:

  • Reputation: Every coach will act positively and in a manner that increases the public’s understanding and acceptance of coaching.
  • Continuous Competence Enhancement: Every coach accepts the need to enhance their experience, knowledge, capability and competence on a continuous basis.
  • Client-Centred: Every client is creative, resourceful and whole and the coach’s role is to keep the development of that client central to his/her work, ensuring all services provided are appropriate to the client’s needs.
  • Confidentiality and Standards: Every coach has a professional responsibility (beyond the terms of the contract with the client) to apply high standards in their service provision and behaviour. He/she needs to be open and frank about methods and techniques used in the coaching process, maintain only appropriate records and to respect the confidentiality a) of the work with their clients and b) or their representative body’s members’ information.
  • Law and Diversity: Every coach will act within the laws of the jurisdictions within which they practice and will also acknowledge and promote diversity at all times.
  • Boundary Management: Every coach will recognise their own limitations of competence and the need to exercise boundary management. The client’s right to terminate the coaching process will be respected at all times, as will the need to acknowledge different approaches to coaching which may be more effective for the client than their own. Every endeavour will be taken to ensure the avoidance of conflicts of interest.
  • Personal Pledge: Every coach will undertake to abide by the above principles that will complement the principles, codes of ethics and conduct set out by their own representative body to which they adhere and by the breach of which they would be required to undergo due process.

 

Links for the self-learning

 

2.4 Coaching concept for female learners and effective coaching plan

Coaching for female learners undertakes several challenges related to gender imbalances and women 's role in social and professional dimensions. In order to set up a coaching plan for female learners, it is important to start by the coach. It is indeed suggested to employ female coaches for female learners.

As the coach is a female, this may make the participants feel more comfortable and increase the confidence between coach and participant, thereby increasing the effectiveness of the coaching. A female coach should be a person who facilitates experiential learning that results in future oriented abilities. She is a trusted role model and a person who works with emerging human and organisational forces to tap new energy and purpose, to shape new vision and plans, and to generate desired results. A coach is trained in and devoted to guiding others into increased competence, commitment, and confidence. Female coaching should focus on adapting, modifying and changing an individual's behaviour, thoughts and emotions in order to help female learners find solutions to problems they are experiencing, achieve goals to reach their fullest potential, learn and develop, and experience greater life success and satisfaction. This is one assumption of coaching, and a bedrock for female learners.

Certain elements must be present for female coaching to be effective: a relationship of trust, a focus on goals, focus on solutions and the needs of the coachee. Female coaching should be flexible in its approach and adaptable to the individual being coached. It is important that the coach provides a safe space for the person being coached, specifically the learners, in this case, to enable them to be open to sharing their own feelings and vulnerabilities.