Tips for Choosing the Right Professional Coaching Certification Program
The large number of options in professional coaching certification may make it difficult to
choose the most suitable one. With most programs sounding similar it may become
challenging to make out the difference. Here are some tips that will help you to
choose the most suitable program.
·
Mindset, skillset and toolset
A coaching
program that offers you training by covering the specific areas of the mindset,
skillset and toolset is most important. In other words, you need to be
conditioned to become a coach. You also need to be equipped with the right kind
of skills to fulfill your duties as a coach.
And finally, you need to be trained in the right kind of tools to
discharge your responsibilities as a coach. Choose an institute that covers all
these three dimensions.
·
Approved by the federation
Coaching
certification can put you right in the middle of an unregulated field, and that
means anyone can go ahead and establish their own certification program. It is
always better to go for programs that are approved by coaching associations.
These third-party associations examine and then approve or reject a certain
program. The largest professional association in the world is the ICF
(International Coach Federation). This coaching association provides an
external validation of the programs and the coaches involved. Therefore, get
into a program that is approved by the ICF, because if it isn’t, then you may
not be sure of what you are getting into.
·
Choose a training program that suits you
Different
professional coaching programs have different approaches. Choose
a program
that suits your requirements, this way you will be able to relate to the
training better. For instance, if you need to improve only in certain areas, then
you can opt for Coach Specific Training. However, if you need to enroll for
comprehensive training, opt for comprehensive training.
·
Get Foundational Coaching Before Opting for Niche Training
Build upon your
foundational knowledge and expertise before you opt for training in niche
areas. This will ensure that your expertise is well rounded and fully equipped
to meet any requirements of participants. Reputed training centers will
certainly not offer you the opportunity of enrolling for advanced/niche training
if you lack the requisite foundational knowledge. Certified coaching programs
have certain pre-requisites for specialization and you will have to fulfill the
same before you can enroll for one.
·
Be sure that you are aware of the credential paths
There are three
different paths to credentialing. Associate, Professional and Master Certified
Coach. Be sure of the path that you intend to pursue. Before you actually
choose one, make sure that it will meet your requirements. Most importantly,
check out the pre-requisites for the credentialing. If you are unaware of the
pre-requisites, it will help if you can clarify the same from the training
center before you conclude the formalities.
·
Look for a center that helps you to sell your services
It is important
that you learn to coach well after pursuing professional coaching certification.
Not only should you develop the abilities and professional expertise to
handling the training programs, you also should be in a position to sell your
services. In other words, you should be in a position to market your services
better. Therefore choose a training
center that will help you in developing these soft skills in addition to
empowering you with professional expertise.
·
Do not assume that mentor coaches are verified
Learn all that
you can about Mentor Coaches
before you seek the services of any. It is important t understand that ICF will
not validate the qualifications of mentor coaches and if you are led to believe
that availing the services of a mentor coach is a route to credentialing, then
you may find yourself in a very difficult situation. The ICF clearly states
that listings of mentor coaches are only for information and not an indication
of validated qualifications.
Choosing the
right center and the right program is obviously key to success as a coach.
Therefore, ensure that you make the right choice. ICF is considered as the gold
standard in accreditation mainly as a result of the resources on offer and the
methods followed in instruction. To
fully leverage the benefits of this superior coaching standard, it is necessary
to make the right choice of program and to devote adequate time to complete the
program.
It is also
important to remain credentialed all the time. One of the highlights of ICF
accreditation is the fact that members need to remain updated to remain
credentialed. This helps in raising the bar and participants of coach training
programs need to fulfill obligations which will not only help them to remain
credentialed, it will also help in improving knowledge and expertise.
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