Appendix B

Professional Coaching Language for Greater Public Understanding

David Matthew Prior, MCC, MBA

Co-chair, ICF Ethics & Standards Committee

Introduction

The Profession of Coaching Is Not Clearly Understood by the Public

Despite an estimated 20 years of business existence and practice, the profession of coaching clearly remains in its infancy. Although many people in the United States are beginning to hear about personal and business coaches, the vast majority of the public is still unknowledgeable about what a coach actually does. More often than not, coaching is (incorrectly) understood by an unknowing public to be a virtual version of modern therapy; this misperception and comparison may be attributed to the public’s face-value recognition that regular, ongoing meetings with a coach look like therapy sessions.

The Evolution of Business Coaching

Coaching has been conducted in the business world for a long time, as consultants have worked with CEOs, executives, and their business teams. Utilizing and combining the processes of business coaching and consulting, and strategic and action planning activities often naturally address individual behaviors, motivation, and related personal improvement. As a result of its evolutionary process, coaching has expanded from the business environment to the ‘life” environment where similar action-oriented work with the coach addresses matters outside the work environment.

Personal and Life Coaching

The natural outgrowth and extension of this business-related work is known as personal or life coaching, which includes a more encompassing focus on an individual’s life as it relates to goal setting, outcome creation, and personal change management. It is perhaps from this broader focus that confusion arises for those who are unfamiliar with coaching. In the public’s earnest effort to get a handle on what a coach does, misleading comparisons are quickly drawn to the therapeutic process, mainly because of the following personal service similarities:

  • Service delivery method—regular face-to-face or telephone meetings
  • Content—work and life challenges that an individual faces that often require change initiative and management
  • Activities performed by the professional coach—interactive dialogue, intuitive listening, sounding-board feedback, client acknowledgment, etc.

Therefore, in order for knowledge to reach and benefit the end consumer, it is critical that increased efforts be made to distinguish, clarify, and honor the two professions so that the consumer can choose the most effective and appropriate service as dictated by individual life circumstances.

The ICF: Holding the Vision for a Self-Regulating Profession

The International Coach Federation (ICF) is the professional association of personal and business coaches that seeks to preserve the integrity of coaching around the globe. In order for the profession of coaching to continue to grow and dynamically create itself so that it can best serve all coaches and their clients, the ICF believes that coaching needs to remain a self-regulated profession.

To that end, it is vital that coaches learn to communicate to their prospects, their clients, the public, and the media in a language that does not confuse our profession with other seemingly like professions.

A NEW WAY OF LANGUAGING OUR PROFESSION: Observations and Suggestions for Coaches

The ICF regulatory committee has requested that I begin the process of investigating our use of coaching language as it relates to the mental health profession. I have listed my initial observations and suggestions. By no means is this document meant to be definitive, nor is the intent to rob anything from the wonderful process of coaching. The goal is to examine how we communicate what we do so that we differentiate and distinguish ourselves in the most powerful self-regulating frame.

1. Identify and reclassify coaching as a new profession
Don’t call coaching: A helping profession
Do call coaching: A new profession
  A personal development profession
  A professional development profession
  A personal growth profession
  A self-improvement profession
2. Declare that coaching is not therapy
Many coaches spend a great portion of their introduction time talking to and educating the public as to the differences between coaching and therapy. This runs several risks:
  • We confuse the public more.
  • We focus our discussion on a dissertation of therapy and coaching principles.
  • We defend coaching.
  • We collapse the two professions.
  • We try to justify why some people see both professionals at the same time.
  • We make therapy wrong and coaching right.
  • We enter discussions of defending why we are not licensed.
When a person tells you that coaching sounds like therapy, you can clarify and gently redirect your discussion to let them know it is not therapy, and that it is a new profession based in personal growth and client-initiated change. (See #1 in the previous section for other ways to language the profession.)
3. Speak about coaching results as non-feeling-based results
Many of our clients experience a greater sense of well-being after being coached and often feel better after a coaching call. As great as that is, that is not our primary intent as coaches. Our work is focused on the ability and willingness of our clients to move forward and take action. The results of personal/life coaching are frequently likened to typical outcomes of therapy. Avoid making promises that imply resultant feeling/emotional states or potential outcomes from improved mental health, such as:
  • A more fulfilled life
  • A happier life
  • A wonderful life
  • A perfect life
  • A healed life
  • Healthier and happier relationships*
4. Speak about your coaching business in business terms of your business/clients/clientele–not your coaching practice
Medical and mental health professionals often refer to their client base as their practice. While that is true of consultants as well, the term consulting is perceived as more of a business-oriented activity. When you talk about your work and the people who pay you, talk about your coaching business, coaching clients, and your coaching clientele. This will help alleviate the confusion between the practitioners of physical and mental health services—many of whom are required to be licensed by state regulatory agencies.
5. Use a welcome packet instead of an intake packet
When beginning your work with a client, use language that speaks to the first meeting, first call, or initial appointment. If you send them a starting package of materials, call it a welcome packet. Intake and intake sessions are often processes associated with the mental health and social service fields.
6. Emphasize client-initiated action and accountability
Coaching is unique in the manner in which the client interacts with the professional; the client is the driver in this professional relationship. It is the client who makes the final decision on and initiates the appropriate action. It is the client who agrees to abide by a system of accountability with the goal of being self-responsible and true to one’s word. The coach fulfills the role of a facilitator in this process so that the client is fully empowered.
7. Talk about what you do and how you do it, while using terms associated with professional coaching language instead of psychotherapy language
Obviously, an individual profession cannot claim ownership of language. It is helpful and useful for coaches to know the differences between what language is generally used in the realm of therapy as well as in coaching. Therefore, I have listed words that are associated in the general domain of each profession. The following lists are certainly not exhaustive. They are intended to educate the public by distinguishing the respective expertise of both professions.

Psychotherapy Language

Verbs

Unearth

Surface

Alleviate

Expose

Intervene

Adjust

Help/rescue

Heal (discomfort/pain)

Confront

Diagnose

Treat

Process (feelings)

Induce

Manifest (symptoms)

Content

Issues

Attitudes

Pain

Dysfunction

Symptoms and sources

Conditions

Disorder

Normal/abnormal

Unconscious/subconscious

Low self-worth

Mood disorders

Anxiety disorders

Social disorders

Suicide

Phobia

Addiction

Depression

Latent desires

Abusive behavior

Destructive behavior

Recurrent/repetitive patterns

Psychic roots of problems

Delusion

Types and subtypes of disorders

Severity levels

Transference

Adult/child behavior

Personality disorders

Antisocial behavior

Chronic behavior

Onset

Pathology

Dependence issues

Withdrawal

Loneliness and isolation (effects of )

Grief (effects and processing of )

Disturbance

Functioning level

Periods of

Panic attacks

Obsessive behavior

Functioning level

Impairment

Causation

Episodes

Trauma

Course (of a disorder)

Illness

Associated features (of a disorder or disease)

Clinical

Coaching Language

Verbs

Focus

Prioritize

Clarify

Measure

Move forward

Plan

Be proactive

Take action

Achieve

Delegate

Solve

Acknowledge

Brainstorm

Mind map

Request

Sort

Emphasize

Develop

Learn

Educate

Accomplish

Target

Complete

Take action

Train

Follow-up/Follow-through

Respond

Communicate

Content

Outcome

Positive action steps

Accountability

Self-improvement

Results

Self-responsibility

Projects

Measurement

Problems

Skills development

Money management

Systems

Organization

Management

Interpersonal communication skills

Intention

Purpose

Success

Balance

Choice

Options

Leadership

Actions

Tasks

Checklists

Possibilities

Response

Integrity

Deadline

Inquiry

Assignments

Follow-up and Follow-through

Goal setting

Vision and mission

Prompted self-discovery

Values

Planning

Strategies

Spiritual development/fulfillment (as a result of actions taken)

Please direct your comments, questions, and follow-up to:

David Matthew Prior, MCC, MBA

Co-chair, ICF Ethics & Standards Committee

Email: [email protected]

Office: 201–825–2082 (EST)

Notes

* A distinction should be drawn between relationship counseling and relationship coaching. Generally speaking, relationship counseling is a therapeutic process that is oriented toward and focuses on the healing of pain, dysfunction, and conflict within a relationship. Relationship counseling is performed by licensed counselors. Relationship coaching focuses on identifying and clarifying the current goals of a relationship with an emphasis on action, accountability, and follow-through.

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