EMPOWERING THE WORLD THROUGH

COACHING.

About ICF SA Charter Chapter

We are the South African Charter Chapter of the International Coaching Federation (ICF), a global support network and accreditation body for professional coaches. As the local forum for the art and science of coaching, we exist to inspire transformational conversations, advocate excellence, and expand awareness of the contribution coaching is to the future of humankind.

Current ICF SA Charter Chapter Leaders :

Svea van der Hoorn: Past President
In Recruitment: Current President
George Mutendadzamera: Non-Executive Board Member
Brenda Eckstein: Non-Executive Board Member
Tania Slabbert: Non-Executive Board Member
Taryn Moodley: Treasurer

Sue Morris: Executive Officer – Thought Leadership
Arthi Rabikrisson: Executive Officer – Credentialing and Standards
Abas Alhassan: Executive Officer – Coaching in Organizations
Joy-Marie Lawrence: Executive Officer – Professional Coaches
Rose Pillay: Executive Officer – Coach Education
Zelda Hibbert: Executive Officer – Foundation
Stacey Turner: Chapter VA Support

Why choose an ICF Coach

Anyone can call themselves a coach. ICF coaches are professional coaches who have met stringent education and experience requirements, and have demonstrated a thorough understanding of the coaching competencies that set the standard in the profession. In addition, ICF coaches adhere to strict ethical guidelines as part of ICF’s mission to protect and serve coaching consumers.

Why become an ICF Coach

For many, coaching is a life-changing experience that dramatically improves their outlook on work and life while improving leadership skills. Coaching helps people tap into their potential, unlocking sources of creativity and productivity. As a professional coach, you will have an opportunity to create positive change and achieve extraordinary results with your clients.

PARTNERS AND ALLIANCES

We believe in partnerships and to lead the advancement of coaching in South Africa through strategic alliances. We aim to create opportunities for our members to become active contributors to the advancement of coaching through such.

FAQS

What is Professional Coaching?

ICF defines coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential, which is particularly important in today’s uncertain and complex environment. Coaches honor the client as the expert in his or her life and work and believe every client is creative, resourceful and whole. Standing on this foundation, the coach’s responsibility is to:

Discover, clarify, and align with what the client wants to achieve
Encourage client self-discovery
Elicit client-generated solutions and strategies
Hold the client responsible and accountable
This process helps clients dramatically improve their outlook on work and life while improving their leadership skills and unlocking their potential.

What is ICF?

ICF is the world’s largest and most recognized organization of professionally trained coaches. Representing executive coaches, life coaches, leadership coaches, relationship coaches, career coaches and more, ICF’s mission is to advance coaching so that it becomes an integral part of a thriving society.

Why become an ICF Coach?

ICF Members receive a multitude of benefits, starting with access to educational research, networking opportunities, and globally recognized credentialing and accreditation services. All of ICF’s endeavors are focused on coaching — from informing the public on how coaching works to conducting industry research. ICF builds, supports, and preserves the integrity of the coaching profession through standards and programs. Membership is not only an investment into a coach’s future, but also an investment into the future of coaching.

Is there proof that Coaching works?

Yes! The ICF Global Coaching Client Study shows most clients reported improved work performance, better business management, more efficient time management, increased team effectiveness, and more growth and opportunities. The same study found that coaching clients noted greater self-confidence, enhanced relationships, more effective communications skills, better work-and-life balance and an improvement in wellness. Nearly 70 percent of individuals indicated they had at least made back their initial investment. The median suggests that a client who achieved financial benefit from coaching can typically expect a ROI of more than three times the amount spent.

According to the same report, the vast majority of companies (86 percent) say they at least made their investment back. In fact, almost one-fifth (19 percent) saw a ROI of 50 times their investment, while another 28 percent saw a ROI of 10 to 49 times the investment. Nearly all companies or individuals who hire a coach are satisfied. According to the ICF Global Coaching Client Study, a stunning 99 percent of people who were polled said they were somewhat or very satisfied with the overall coaching experience. For more details, go to the ICF Research Portal (link https://researchportal.coachfederation.org/), as well as press releases about ICF’s return-on-investment research.

Is there value in an ICF Coaching Credential?

Yes! We believe that obtaining a credential/accreditation is an investment that demonstrates and distinguishes professional practice. It is similar to gaining a degree or a professional designation and differentiates a credentialed/accredited coach from anybody who may call themselves a coach. The value of such a designation therefore is quite significant.

What are the different roles of a Coach and Client in a coaching partnership?

The Coach:

Provides objective assessment and observations that foster the individual’s or team’s self-awareness and awareness of others
Listens closely to fully understand the individual’s or team’s circumstances
Acts as a sounding board in exploring possibilities and implementing thoughtful planning and decision making
Champions opportunities and potential, encouraging stretch and challenge commensurate with personal strengths and aspirations
Fosters shifts in thinking that reveal fresh perspectives
Challenges blind spots to illuminate new possibilities and support the creation of alternative scenarios
Maintains professional boundaries in the coaching relationship, including confidentiality, and adheres to the coaching profession’s code of ethics

The Client:

Creates the coaching agenda based on personally meaningful coaching goals
Uses assessment and observations to enhance self-awareness and awareness of others
Envisions personal and/or organizational success
Assumes full responsibility for personal decisions and actions
Utilizes the coaching process to promote possibility thinking and fresh perspectives
Takes courageous action in alignment with personal goals and aspirations
Engages big-picture thinking and problem-solving skills
Takes the tools, concepts, models and principles provided by the coach and engages in effective forward actions.

What is the difference between a Life Coach and an Executive Coach?

ICF Coaches can specialize in a variety of coaching areas, including Executive Coaching, Life Coaching, Leadership Coaching, Relationship Coaching, Career Coaching, Financial Coaching and other skilled coaching fields.

A Life Coach may work with individuals focusing on their personal goals and aspirations whereas an Executive Coach may work with managers and executives focusing on their professional goals and aspirations. A Relationship Coach might work with both individuals and couples. A Financial Coach can help you with achieving your financial goals and aspirations.

Other areas of coaching specialization include Group or Team Coaching within organizations.

Why hire an ICF Coach?

Coaching can be a transformational experience, but how do you find the right coach? Anyone can call themselves a coach. ICF-credentialed coaches are professional coaches who have met stringent education and experience requirements, and have demonstrated a thorough understanding of the coaching competencies that set the standard in the profession. In addition, ICF-credentialed coaches adhere to strict ethical guidelines as part of ICF’s mission to protect and serve coaching consumers.

Why might someone work with a Coach?

An individual or team might choose to work with a coach for many reasons, including but not limited to the following:

Something urgent, compelling or exciting is at stake (a challenge, stretch goal or opportunity)
A gap exists in knowledge, skills, confidence or resources
A desire to accelerate results
A lack of clarity with choices to be made
Success has started to become problematic
Work and life are out of balance, creating unwanted consequences
Core strengths need to be identified, along with how best to leverage them

How can I know if Professional Coaching is right for me?

To determine whether you or your company could benefit from coaching, start by summarizing what you would expect to accomplish in coaching. When an individual or business has a fairly clear idea of the desired outcome, a coaching partnership can be a useful tool for developing a strategy for how to achieve that outcome with greater ease.

Since coaching is a partnership, ask yourself whether collaboration, other viewpoints, and new perspectives are valued. Also, ask yourself whether you or your business is ready to devote the time and the energy to making real changes. If the answer is yes, then coaching may be a beneficial way to grow and develop.

How do I choose a Coach?

Overall, be prepared to design the coaching partnership with the coach. For example, think of a strong partnership that you currently have in your work or life. Look at how you built that relationship and what is important to you about partnership. You will want to build those same things into a coaching relationship. Here are a few other tips:

Interview more than one coach to determine “what feels right” in terms of the chemistry. Coaches are accustomed to being interviewed, and an introductory conversation of this type is usually free of charge.
Look for stylistic similarities and differences between the coach and you and how these might support your growth as an individual or the growth of your team.
Discuss your goals for coaching within the context of the coach’s specialty or the coach’s preferred way of working with an individual or team.
Talk with the coach about what to do if you ever feel things are not going well; make some agreements up front on how to handle questions or problems.
Remember that coaching is a partnership, so be assertive about talking with the coach about any concerns.

What about the financial investment in Coaching?

Working with a coach requires both a personal commitment of time and energy as well as a financial commitment. Fees charged vary by specialty and by the level of experience of the coach. Individuals should consider both the desired benefits as well as the anticipated length of time to be spent in coaching. Since the coaching relationship is predicated on clear communication, any financial concerns or questions should be voiced in initial conversations before the agreement is made. Our Find a Coach Directory https://coachingfederation.org.za/find-a-coach/ allows you to search for a coach based on a number of qualifications, including fee range.

What can I expect from a Coach?

A Coach :

Provides objective assessment and observations that foster the individual’s or team’s self-awareness and awareness of others.
Listens closely to fully understand the individual’s or team’s circumstances.
Acts as a sounding board in exploring possibilities and implementing thoughtful planning and decision making.
Champions opportunities and potential, encouraging stretch and challenge commensurate with personal strengths and aspirations.
Fosters shifts in thinking that reveal fresh perspectives.
Challenges blind spots to illuminate new possibilities and support the creation of alternative scenarios.
Maintains professional boundaries in the coaching relationship, including confidentiality, and adheres to the coaching profession’s code of ethics.

How will I know if Coaching is successful?

Measurement may be thought of in two distinct ways: external indicators of performance and internal indicators of success. Ideally, both are incorporated.

Examples of external measures include achievement of coaching goals established at the outset of the coaching relationship, increased income/revenue, obtaining a promotion, performance feedback that is obtained from a sample of the individual’s constituents (e.g., direct reports, colleagues, customers, boss, the manager him/herself), personal and/or business performance data (e.g., productivity, efficiency measures). The external measures selected should be things the individual is already measuring and has some ability to directly influence.

Examples of internal measures include self-scoring/self-validating assessments that can be administered initially and at regular intervals in the coaching process, changes in the individual’s self-awareness and awareness of others, shifts in thinking that create more effective actions, and shifts in one’s emotional state that inspire confidence.

News/Blogs

Enhancing employee experience and the associated positive results of talent retention and employee engagement

June 8, 2022 No Comments

An employee’s team experience is part of their overall employee experience. Adding the meaningful dimension to the employee experience informs organisations on team interventions to enhance the employee experience meaningfully. An International Coaching Federation’s credentialled coach is skilled in supporting employees in reflective and appreciative practices, which is a process required to discover the significance of their team experiences.