Would you ever go to a dentist who doesn’t have a diploma?
We’re assuming that the answer is a straight no! Same principle applies to personal coaching certification. The first step to become a certified coach is to go through a legitimate training program accredited by the International Coach Federationand get certified.
So, first things first. Why personal coaching?
There is a reason why personal coaching certification has been one of the fastest growing career choices around the World in the last ten years. The truth is that, today’s people, unless they have a pathology or a serious mental problem, don’t want to go through years of therapy and instead, they want faster wins and solutions. Many people want to focus on now and tomorrow instead of digging deep into the buries of their past.
As life gets busier, more and more people are in need of support- the kind of support that will make them progress and move forward. Coaching does that and it Works! Personal coaches who are certified are educated well in the process of helping people to get from where they are to where they could be and where they want to be. Certified personal coaches who have credentials know how to help individuals to;
- Explore and articulate what they want
- Become aware of who they are when they are free of their inner critics and past related mentoal & emotional limiting beliefs
- Analyse the gap between where they are and what they want
- Help them to progress on their abilities and resources
- Support them to create a success plan with realistic steps
- Encourage them to dare to become the person they can be at their maximum capacity
- Move forward and take action
- Measure the results of success and revişe the plan if necessary
- Focus on what is really important versus loosing time with dysfunctional mental, emotional and behavioral habits that do not serve the person anymore
- Work on the habit of prioritization for a happier life from present to future.
So, how can one become a certified personal coach? What are the steps of personal coaching certification?
Step 1: Find A Legitimate Coach Training Program
As we said before, first hings first: you need to enrol in a program that is certified from the International Coach Federation which is the regulating body for Professional coaching. ICF accreditation is quickly becoming the gold standard for all life coach certification programs. When looking for the perfect coaching program that fits your needs, be sure you only choose programs that are ICF accredited.
Like a college degree, earning your coaching certification is the best way to claim your expertise in the field of coaching. Make sure that when you are searching for a program, the program has an ACTP (Accredited Coach Training Program)certification type. ACTP means that the program offers the highest level of certification. Do not forget: you are in the field of helping people and people are sophisticated. An ACTP program will prepare you at the maximum capacity to guarantee that you have the capabilities and confidence to coach people.
Step 2: Make sure that your values are aligned with the program’s philosophy
While all ACTPs must live upto ICF ethical standards and coaching competencies, their models, philosophies and methodologies will differ.
For example, FLOW Coaching Institute’s Positive Psychology based ACTP personal coach certification program values the science of happiness versus the orientation of fixing problems. And moreover, it offers the use of a structure in a coaching session that has space for creativity and flow at multidimensional levels (mental, emotional, relational, physical, spiritual, cultural, political).
Step 3: Make sure that the program has it’s roots in science
It is quite sad but there are many coach training programs out there with unrealistic claims and no foundations in science. We strongly recommend that you choose a program that has links to a scientific discipline. For example, FLOW Coaching Institute’s ACTP personal coach certification program has it’s foundations in Positive Psychology that were pioneered by Dr Martin Seligman and Psychologist Mihaly Csikszenmihalyi .
Step 4: Be coached.
It is important that you get coached to have an understanding of what it feels like to be coached. Successful coaches have göne through the process of personal coaching either before or after they complete their certification. As a Professional coach, working with a personal coach will give you authenticity.
Step 5: Focus on your competency development for building your practice and get mentoring and supervision on your coaching skills.
Research tells us that Professional coaches, whether life coaches or career or executive coaches, are the ones who invested in their skill development and have göne through mentoring and supervision for their coaching skills improvement. Coaching is about delivering meaningful & structured conversations towards desired outcomes and most of the time human beings are not linear beings and the conversation is not very straightforward. If you work with a mentor coach for supervision, with their support you will be investing in your competencies to run effecitive coaching sessions and provide value to your clients increasingly. Do not forget: You are in the busines sof generating value for other people. So you will only be successful as of the worth of the value you are generating for your clients!