I have started my journey into coaching by getting my first certificate, Certified Professional Coach, CPLC, in October. Here is what it means to you!
Why Getting Certified And Accredited Matters
I have had an interest in coaching for almost a decade now and hoped to eventually join the ranks of certified coaches. Recently I grew that ambition into becoming accredited as Associate Certified Coach by the International Coaching Federation, too.
The coaching industry is a bit of a Wild West, where anyone can call themself a coach. I find this far from ethical, especially since a huge number of business and types of life coaches confuse consulting or teaching with coaching.
It is hardly in the interest of coaching as a communication form, coaches or clients to keep diluting the definition further by calling one’s work coaching, then offering something else in reality.
I have also witnessed a so-called certified coach go on and on during group coaching, interrupt the client, not listen to the client, and generally make it about their own ego. It was awkward.
A coach should talk about 20 % of the time. This talking should be about asking questions mostly.
Coaching most certainly is results-driven, but it all comes from the client. A coach offers no advice, opinions or suggestions, and teaches no skills.
A coach is no consultant or teacher.
Where I Am Now In The Process
The plan is to work many enough hours this year and in 2023 so that I can apply to get the ACC accreditation by ICF towards the end of next year.
I have done the first half of my required training hours and earned Certified Professional Life Coach, CPLC, from Certified Life Coaching Institute, CLCI, in October.
On this website I will use its form Certified Professional Coach, CPC, which is intended for business purposes. The other form, Certified Life Coach, CLC, will be put to use on my own two websites, where it is more appropriate.
Life coaching is the umbrella term for this sort of interaction. There are many categories within life coaching, one of which is business coaching, and within each category you usually find multiple niches. In for example business coaching you could offer leadership coaching or marketing coaching.
Once I have done at least 10-20 coaching hours, I will take the second part of the ACC-required training. The title then is Master Certified Professional Life Coach. Both CPLC and MCPLC are life-long titles once earned.
After 100 coaching hours, 10 mentor coaching hours, a test, and a sample session with transcript have been worked through, the ACC application can be submitted.
The other two levels of ICF accreditation are Professional Certified Coach, PCC, and Master Certified Coach, MCC. There are very few MCC globally still, and the accreditations must be renewed from time to time, as they aren’t life-long.
What This Means For Wemla
I have already published our generic Coaching page with much more information, but the short version is that our service packages include the following themes for the time being:
- Business coaching
- Business Strategy coaching
- Marketing & Sales coaching
- Customer Experience coaching
- Productivity coaching
- Mindset coaching
The observant reader notices that most themes are post categories here on the blog.
You will be able to choose between one-on-one coaching (live via Zoom) and email coaching. The latter is offered by very few coaches still, but on the Coaching page I have explained in great detail why we want to include it as delivery method.
Wrapping Up
I would be happy to answer questions you may have about coaching, if it is of interest to you. In fact, when writing this blog post I realise offering mentor coaching later on would be fulfilling to me!
And if you are interested in one of our service packages once they are published in the shop, let me know through our Contact page so I can send you word immediately.
Questions are welcome in the comments below!
Photo credit: Toa Heftiba.
Leave a Reply