What Is Professional Coaching? | ICF New Jersey

If you’ve ever wondered what professional coaching actually is, you’re not alone.

What does a coach do? When does it make sense to work with one? How is coaching different from consulting, mentoring, or simply getting advice?

ICF New Jersey created this short video to help answer those questions and make professional coaching easier to understand.

Professional coaching is a partnership designed to help people think through challenges, opportunities, goals, and decisions more effectively.

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

What Can Coaching Help With?
People work with coaches for many different reasons, including:

  • Stepping into a new or larger role
  • Navigating career or organizational change
  • Strengthening leadership and communication
  • Making difficult decisions
  • Improving relationships
  • Building confidence
  • Working through conflict
  • Improving team effectiveness
  • Clarifying goals and priorities
  • Getting unstuck


These themes are consistent with ICF New Jersey’s existing materials, which describe coaching as supporting self-awareness, relationships, performance, decision-making, team effectiveness, and organizational change. 

What Does a Coach Actually Do?
A coach helps you think.

That can mean asking questions you haven’t considered, helping you see a situation differently, identifying blind spots, challenging assumptions, clarifying what matters most, and holding you accountable for the actions you choose to take.

Coaching is not about someone simply telling you what to do. It is a process that helps you develop your own clarity, choices, and path forward.

Why Work With an ICF-Credentialed Coach?
ICF-credentialed coaches have met established standards for coach-specific education, coaching experience, assessment, continuing education, and ethics. 

Credentialing gives clients a way to know that the coach they are considering has invested in the training and professional standards expected by the International Coaching Federation.

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Attribution: Video courtesy of ICF New Jersey.

Find a Coach
Interested in working with a professional coach?

ICF New Jersey members represent a wide range of backgrounds, specialties, industries, and coaching approaches. Click the link below to search our directory of coaches.

Want to learn more? Read our coaching FAQs here.