ICF New Jersey Our Brand in Motion Video - FAQs

• What is an executive leadership coach? Personal coach? Life coach?
• How can coaches help me with my issues that are unique?
• How can a coach give me a competitive edge or become more effective?
• How do coaches bring about peace of mind? Or bring out my greatness?

• How do I find a coach who is right for me?

Q7: What are some of the work and personal issues people bring to coaches? 

Q1. What is a “coach?”  
In 2025, the International Coaching Federation (ICF) is celebrating 30 years as the global organization for coaches and coaching. ICF is dedicated to advancing the coaching profession by setting high ethical standards, providing independent certification, and building a worldwide network of credentialed coaches across a variety of coaching disciplines. (see Resources)

ICF defines coaching as “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.” (see Resources)

In this way, the International Coach Federation also stands for... 
“I Can Flourish”

• The International Coaching Federation (ICF) membership has grown from:

1999 = 2,100 members (North America)
2010 = 17,600 members
2019 = 33,600 
2023 = 56,000 global members in 165 countries and territories

• Today there are approximately 51,000+ credentialed holders in 143 countries and territories.
• There are 34,200 coaches (approximately) in the US.
• The coaching market generates $4.5 billion globally, which is an increase of 62% from 2019. (see Resources article by Luisa Zhou)
• Today, many large companies hire internal coaches and external coaches. IPEC research shows a significant ROI, a high level of satisfaction and hiring of certified coaches. One-third of all Fortune 500 companies utilize executive coaching. (see Resources article by L. Zhou)
• Investors are creating companies with “benches” of coaches who will go into companies with leadership management training programs.

• Mentors: These individuals are likely to be experienced in a particular area and can give advice in technical skills, as well as people skills. Coaches are more likely to work with clients through discussion and questioning to help them develop their own solution to a particular issue rather than tell them what to do.
• Sponsors:  In the workplace, a manager is responsible for clearing a pathway for clients to advance in their companies and will probably be telling clients what to do. Coaches can work with clients on how to build upon their own strengths so they can advance, be more productive or address issues.
• Trainers: Inside a client’s company, HR may provide training to develop needed skill sets. While these frameworks are helpful, a coach can help clients apply the training and development information to the client’s needs.
• Trusted Advisors and/or Consultants: These professionals are hired to advise senior clients based on a level of trust developed over time or where expertise is recognized. Coaches can be trusted advisors who listen and use questions to help senior executives develop their own unique solutions.
• Counselors or Therapists: These professionals focus more on personal issues including mental health challenges. Coaches do not provide advice in these kinds of personal matters unless they are also licensed clinical professionals. Coaches deal more with the present and future than the past.

There is a place for all these professionals in different stages of a client’s career and life, so clients may be working with several of these professionals at any given time.

• WHY: In work or life, people hire coaches in these and other situations:
  • Entering “unknown” or unfamiliar territory” so clients are just not sure, can’t figure out or are “stuck” as to how to proceed.
  • There’s a lot at stake and clients are concerned about the consequences of making a bad, ineffective, inefficient decision.
  • Don’t have someone a client can talk to, like a trusted confident to share thoughts and generate solutions where time is at a premium. This is common in the virtual/AI world.
  • Professional life is unfulfilling and life is not working.
• WHEN: There are many examples of these unfamiliar, difficult situations where managing and decision-making challenges arise. While the examples below are business-related, they apply to the changes we experience in our personal, daily lives.
  • Organization/systems change: M&A/reorg with new jobs, new bosses, new employees and clients need to increase teamwork, clarify and enhance commitment and accountability.
  • Employees create stressful, challenging environments: Internal political hassles, handling problem employees, delivering bad news while needing to increase motivation and productivity.
  • External environment-driven: Anything related to external forces creating a need for new change management processes to redirect efforts. (e.g., economic growth or contraction, pandemic)
  • Realignment of clients’ jobs with their values/desires: Looking for something new and different, life, job, situation to realign values important to clients.
• WHO needs an executive coach or personal coach?
  • In the past executive coaches were hired “to fix” executives.
  • Today, an executive coach or personal coach is hired to help executives and people make good decisions. Coaching is seen as a perk, an investment in the company’s leaders or “high potentials” or an essential part of good, personal, decision-making. There is no longer a stigma to having a coach, it can be a status symbol, a desirable partnership.
• WHO: In business or in life, when a client is…
  • Feeling overwhelmed—Can’t find a solution or managing too much to figure out a solution.
  • Can’t get out of a negative loop thinking.
  • Seems stuck because he/she doesn’t have the time or bandwidth to thoroughly think through a thorny issue.
  • Facing insurmountable obstacles.
  • Feels like a victim of circumstances and not able to get control of situations.
  • Frustrated with a current situation, too much thinking and not enough doing because not seeing the options that are available.
  • These and many others.

• We all have goals we want to reach; but challenges arise and we can feel stuck. Coaches partner with clients to think through potential roadblocks and to create more intentional pathways toward forward progress. With a coach, clients can replace the fear and uncertainty with confidence, direction and action and become more highly effective because it’s hard to see the next level on one’s own.
• Coaches can work with clients to access their greatness:
  • Improve self-awareness and self-management
  • Improve relationships with others, e.g., co-workers and management up, down and across
  • Improve goal accomplishment, performance and results
  • Improve decision-making in situational leadership
  • Increase team performance
  • Increase success with organizational change efforts
• A coach is someone who has been trained to ask questions that help clients see their strengths, uncover their blind spots and figure out the best way for clients to proceed forward (not backward or sideways).
• And because they have likely worked with others having the same kind of issues or they have worked in similar situations or held similar positions, they can empathize and understand.
• Is coaching effective?

• • ROI from PwC Research for ICF: The ROI is 7 times the investment/cost of employing a coach. (Another study: ROI range: 340-700%) IPEC Coaching Institute (ROU of $7.90 for every $1 invested. L. Zhou in Resources)
  • PwC research: Leaders who participated in coaching saw 50-70% increase in work performance, time management and team effectiveness.
  • The benefits multiply through a strong team that increases capacity to scale. The team benefits from higher productivity, engagement and retention rates. All contribute to the bottom line.

• Coaching styles may differ from one coach to the next because each client is different and requires his/her own unique solution. Coaches have different areas of expertise, e.g., executive, personal, career, life, cognitive, emotional, somatic, neuroscience, etc. Clients can know what the coach’s style and expertise is by asking them to explain it and what it would be like to work with them.
• There are some basic similarities given that ICF credentialed coaches must follow the ICF core competencies. Some of the most important skills for an effective coach include framing conversations so that clear goals are set, being an active listener, asking powerful questions, providing feedback, ensuring next steps are clear and providing accountability. A coach creates the environment for the client to reflect on the challenges and to decide for oneself how to apply the lessons being learned and uncovered.
• Coaches can use assessments when needed.
• All sessions are confidential and that is established upfront before coaching begins in a Letter of Agreement that spells out the terms of your arrangement.

• Self-management: Self-control, Adaptability, Motivation
  • Addressing lack of confidence/instilling resilience/assertiveness
  • Managing time
  • Attaining business goals or life goals
  • Managing stress: Moving from languishing or burnout to flourishing
• Social awareness: Empathy, Developing Others, Other Awareness
  • Developing emotional intelligence
  • Motivating direct reports or others
  • Moving up amidst management changes, adding enhanced leadership and communication skills

• Relationship management: Communication and influence, Conflict management, Teamwork and collaboration
  • Developing leadership skills
  • Managing upward, e.g., “the boss” 
  • Creating a culture shift
  • Managing in a crisis

• International Coaching Federation (ICF Global and ICF NJ) has a “Find a Coach” service on the ICF NJ or Global website. Clients are asked for certain criteria, and a list of coaches is produced.
  • This request is handled like a Request for Proposal (RFP), and an email is sent to the coach with an email invitation to participate.
  • A “chemistry meeting” is then set up with questions that could include the: coach’s background and expertise, industry and functional relevance, philosophy/approach, confidentiality, length/scheduling, personality characteristics (patient, ethical, compassionate, goal-driven and fit with your company culture)
• Word-of-mouth
• Google for coaches in the client’s area
• Universities with executive or personal coaching programs
• Executive coach or personal coach training programs

• All coaches are not credentialed by International Coaching Federation (ICF) or some other organization.
• ICF coaches are credentialed which means that each has performed the following:
  • Received an ACC, PCC, MCC designation representing a different level of number of hours of coaching.
  • Taken a certain number of education hours to be trained to be a coach
  • Performed a certain number of hours in coaching i.e., have experience
  • Taken an exam after requirements are fulfilled
  • Taken ethics and coaching continuing education units to be an ICF coach
  • Use a Letter of Agreement that includes termination at any time
• These requirements are in effect and applied in the US and around the world.
• Outside of the US there are also other credentialing coaching organizations.
• Clients can go to any of the coaching sites and read about what is required to be a credentialed coach.
• Coaching is not therapy (unless conducted by a professional who is both a coach and a therapist). The sessions are not emotional but constructive and goal oriented. In coaching, there is an understanding of trust and confidence that allows the coach and client to work on the client’s challenges together. 

• Some companies have internal coaches, and some allow employees to hire their own individual coaches that they pay for. The client can ask the company if they have this policy.

• • In these situations, the contracts spell out the role of the Sponsor (i.e., the HR person who typically hires the coaches) on many issues. One important one is how confidentiality is handled, i.e., are the conversations confidential between the coach and client and not revealed to the Sponsor.
  • The coach-client relationship is not legally protected and will have to be reported to authorities if conversations about harm to oneself or others is mentioned.

• The length of the sessions varies by coach, but sessions can be 30 minutes to as long as determined by the coach and client.
• Length of engagement depends on the goals of the client.
• The cost is set by the coach and varies depending on the goals to be achieved.

• How the sessions are conducted varies by coach, but the client determines what is preferred.

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