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Competency No. 5How do we facilitate growth as we lead and coach? Honoring the ICF Core Competency No 8The International Coaching Federation’s Competency 8 asks its certified coaches to work with clients in ways that great leaders do with their team: consider possibilities, create action plans, and explore learning. It also requires developing measurable achievements. In a new coaching session with MCC Coach Ben Dooley, we review a strong— perhaps an excellent contender for my second recording submission to the ICF for my MCC certification. It seems strong to me—and to Coach Ben— but without time-stamped requests for specific action steps at the end. Does this eliminate me and make this recording? I’m still not su...2025-07-0531 minCompetency No. 5Ben Dooley: “Every coaching call contains a thousand lost connections with our client; but most nobody would notice.”In 2025, the ICF estimates 109,200 ICF certified coaches exist worldwide, an unprecedented milestone exceeding the 100,000 mark. Most recent 2023 data has MCC coaches at 2,203. So reasonable to expect, it’s still under 3,000. How high am I with this long climb and summit of certifying with the International Coaching Federation as a master certified coach, an honor the international non-profit, the largest for coaches globally, bestows to only 4% of its coaches globally. Well. I need to secure my second recording having secured one clear winner. And whilst I see the summit, I’m not quite there yet. I LOV...2025-05-2324 minCompetency No. 5How are you? The Catch-22 of Asking with Heart and Losing the ThreadI’ve not mused about my certification efforts with the International Coaching Federation as a master certified coach for a good while. Much has happened, and not happened since my January update. Here’s where we’re at.To certify as an MCC coach, coaches must submit for thorough evaluation two recorded coaching calls of at least 25 minutes in length. These conversations must resemble pure coaching, not a smidgen of consulting nor therapy, and at a level of coaching the ICF, the world’s largest non profit organization for coaches, deems as “exceptional” even “beautiful coaching.”If you’ve been...2025-03-2913 minCompetency No. 5How do we interrupt our coachees less? And if an ICF evaluator hears, are we failed?I muse and mentor some more with MCC Coach Ben Dooley this week, getting deeper into the nitty-gritty on how to lock in, stay fully present with our coachee. We address the inevitable blunder of speaking over—so hard not to in a 45-minute session, ways to rebound earlier, and wonder: how much does this matter?We also tackle an age-old adage almost every coach in training hears as they master active listening: WAIT (why am I talking?). Coach Ben finds this acronym can make us even more self-judgmental. (He urges us to focus more on whom am...2024-12-0616 minCompetency No. 5Does any ‘perfect’ coaching session exist? How much error do ICF evaluators allow?How to choose which recorded coaching call to submit to the International Coaching Federation to certify at the Master Certified level still perplexes me. And after all this excellent mentoring, I’m feeling more conscious of where I’m falling out of mastery as I coach. Does any perfect coaching call exist? And assuming not, how much margin of error does the ICF allow? These questions I posed to MCC Coach Ben Dooley, my mentor coach, this week. I’m feeling clearer and clearer and even more inspired. Reach out to me, your show host, for key...2024-11-2331 minCompetency No. 5Why the International Coaching Federation is right to ask coaches to clarify the topic (and how to do it)I’ve often bristled with the International Coaching Federation’s rule to establish (clearly—and in multiple ways) the topic and hopes for the coachee (our client) in every coaching call. Why? Because when you’re locked in and connected, the coaching conversation (in the real world vs. the ICF world) unfolds. Even asking the coachee to establish the topic or confirm it can feel prosaic, inserted, or forced, especially as we’ve already been talking about it. But without that established topic, the ICF gets antsy and will likely fail any recorded submission of our coaching without it. I...2024-10-2629 minCompetency No. 5Can I cry with my coachee & still evoke awareness? MCC Coach Ben Dooley says: “Yes!”Part two in a two-part series on maintaining presence when certifying as a Master Certified Coach, especially whilst the International Coaching Federation evaluates us. Reach out to me, your show host, for keynote speaking engagements, group coaching, and training via my website, or find me also on Linkedin. Reach out to MCC Coach Ben Dooley via his website, here. 2024-10-0131 minCompetency No. 5How do we coach, not “perform”? MCC Coach Ben Dooley on managing our evaluators’ judgementTo certify with the International Coaching Federation, the world’s largest nonprofit organization, coaches must submit a recording of a coaching call they deem…well, worthy of certification. The stakes and expense (and the agonizing decision on which recording to submit) goes up with our credentials. The fee to submit a recording for the Master Coaching Certification? Between $675 to $825 US. And the expense of mentoring with a mentor coach, who can review your coaching skills, adds up too. Of course, you’ve the time expense as well — coaching and then analyzing which of your calls might best adhere to...2024-09-1322 minCompetency No. 5Meet Ben Dooley, my new MCC Mentor Coach. Joy (and struggles) with certifying as an ICF master certified coachWarning: This episode's super ad hoc. This week, I met my new mentor coach, Ben Dooley. He's a former actor (among other things) and now runs his own coaching training academy and helps coaches certify in empowering ways. (I felt so inspired connecting with him via our Discovery session, I had to hit record.) In our conversation, we hear from Ben on his first failings as a certifying MCC coach, the blockers many of us striving for that master certification face, and how to navigate the entire process when (like me) you struggle following rules and/or a...2024-08-1727 min