Aristotle is quoted as saying “Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but rather we have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit”.
The whole ethos about becoming professionally accredited is to demonstrate excellence in your industry, be that as a coach, a mentor or a training provider. Individuals would not fly with a pilot who was not suitably trained, qualified and accredited (licensed), or be prepared to undertake surgery with an uncertified surgeon.
Why then would anyone expect a client to place their lives in the hands of an unaccredited coach, mentor or training provider? In essence, they must not. That is what we believe, and that is why we emphatically promote the need for accreditation.
The IAPC&M only promote the very best coaches, mentors and training providers to the public. We are confident that anyone who attains an International Authority for Professional Coaching and Mentoring accreditation, will be amongst the very best that the profession has to offer.
In fact, if we take the UK as an example, with 130,000 people calling themselves coaches, becoming accredited means they are best in class, or as I like to call them, the 1% club. This makes it infinitely easier for clients to identify these coaches as best in class.
Two sides of the same coin – here is a testimonial from a client… who went on to became a coach…
“I believe my experience is an all too common one when starting out as a trainee Coach. I decided to hire a personal life coach, so scouted the local internet for qualified coaches – one with letters after their name.
I had no idea what qualifications or indeed what the criteria were for choosing a coach. So I selected someone who had a pretty official ICF logo (Institute of Coaching) after their name, and thought that would suffice, so paid my money. I had no idea then that this wasn’t any official endorsement whatsoever!
Fast forward six months, and I’m a trainee coach with my first prospective client, who in turn asked me if I was a qualified coach, she also wanted to know if I could prove my credentials. My prospective client advised me that her friend had used a coach who had treated her badly, so she needed to be reassured that I was a qualified, experienced and accredited coach before she would consider me.
I had just completed my coaching course, with Achievement Specialists, which incidentally is accredited by the International Authority for Professional Coaching & Mentoring (previously known as the IIC&M), and was awaiting confirmation I’d passed. Therefore, I skirted around the issue so as not to give an untruth, relying instead on my historical work experience and many hours spent within my coaching practice.
However, this was not deemed good enough to convert my prospect into a client. My hopes of gaining my all-important first paying client were dashed! Consequently, I’m now not only an Accredited Practitioner Coach with the International Authority for Professional Coaching & Mentoring; I’m also their local Ambassador for the South West Coast, UK, because I know full well the difference between an accredited and unaccredited coach, including the high price this lesson meant to me.” Gio Gregory 2018
To find out more see Why Your Accreditation Matters.
As head of the Professional Standards, Adele dedicates a lot of time to researching the coaching community and exploring what clients want from their coaches. Therefore, she is ideally placed to identify key differentiators between accredited and non-accredited coaches, not least how it is beginning to impact a coach’s ability to do business. This will only intensify in the future because the need for regulation is increasing, and individuals and corporations alike will expect accreditation as the norm, just as they would any other profession. After all, just because you can drive and have driven for years doesn’t mean the DVLA will grant you a license, in the same way just because you’ve been helping people solve their issues for years, does not qualify you to call yourself a coach.
If like Adele you too are passionate about protecting your integrity, and safeguarding your client’s wellbeing, and you value the coaching industry as a profession, then you’ll want to become accredited sooner rather than later.
To find out more see Professional Standards.