Life Coaching Articles
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| International Coaching Federation, International
Association of Coaches & the US Life Coach Association Which organization speaks for the coaching community as a whole? One common myth in the coaching profession is certification and organizational membership. As most professions grow, they form professional membership driven organizations. This is usually followed by conferences and finally certification. Look at most any profession and you will see a similar pattern. I often say that massage therapy as a profession follows chiropractic as a profession by 10 to 20 years. Life Coaching as a profession will follow massage therapy as a profession in the next 10 to 20 years. Lets look at the massage therapy profession to demonstrate how most professions grow. First you have a fledging profession, people helping people. Then the regulators decide that they must govern this new profession to protect the public and make some money at the same time. This is usually handled on a local basis, maybe even state to state. Soon the practitioners realize that they need a voice, they need unity, they need strength in numbers. At this point, a grass roots organization is formed. All with good intentions. It almost sounds like politics. As the organization grows, the budget grows quickly and now we have a big business. Members start to see their grass roots organization change and not always for the better. So a group of strong willed individuals leave the organization to start a new and better organization that has the members best interest at heart. Once the organizations have reached out to the majority of practitioners, it is time to find a method to increase income, so the next step is to offer certification or something similar. Once you exhaust this option, the organization focuses on lobbying the government to require certification and membership in the organizations. This will guarantee membership. Once you have states requiring this membership and certification to protect the public, you have created perpetual income for the organization and soon the organization's main focus is on it's financial condition of the organization, as a business instead of its member. When Thomas decided to start a coaching school, he felt a need to start a member driven organization for coaches. He felt it needed to be separate from his coaching school. He wanted an independent organization. So with a $10,000 donation, he started the ICF, ( International Coaching Federation). His goal was to provide an organization that would benefit the members. The ICF quickly took on a personality of its own. Several years later, Thomas sold Coach U and after a one year cross country tour, he started Coachville. Originally a virtual coaching community, Thomas added a coach training program to his new venture. He contacted the ICF, the very foundation that he funded and asked if his new school would be allowed to join. He was immediately informed that his new coaching program was not welcome. After much thought, Thomas decided to start a new coaching organization, called the IAC ( International Association of Coaches). Thomas felt he could have the largest coaching organization in the world. If Thomas had lived another few years, I think we would see the IAC as the leader in the coaching organizations. After Thomas passed away in February 2003, I felt a need to carry on Thomas's vision. With the help of several distinguished coaches, all of which believed in Thomas's vision, we created the USLCA, ( US Life Coach Association). Today the USLCA is the fastest growing coaching organization in the USA. I am often asked if the ICF is the voice of the coaching community. I must say, I do not agree. Each of the three leading coaching organizations has a specific purpose. Here is my personal opinion of the three organizations. The ICF is the oldest and wealthiest coaching organization. Its primary purpose at this point is to lobby government entities to allow the ICF to be the recognized coaching membership organization. This is very similar to what is happening in the massage profession. The ICF would like to control the entire coaching profession and mandate that all coaches join the ICF. The IAC has seen its share of controversy since Thomas passed away. Originally it was designed to provide a home for graduates of the Schools of Coachville. When Dave Buck inherited Coachville, he decided to reconcile with the ICF and become a ICF certified school. This seriously diminished the value of the IAC. Since that time, Coachville has tried to keep both organizations happy and while awaiting ICF approval, they still support and recommend the IAC. To make matters more confusing, as of earlier this year, Coachville is now issuing their own certification. In February 2003, the USLCA was born. The USLCA has a unique approach. We welcome the other coach training organizations and membership organizations. The USLCA is devoted to helping coaches find clients. Forget about all the fancy conferences, forget about the fancy titles, the USLCA is devoted to brining coaches and clients together. The USLCA is offering a special incentive to the first 10 coaches in each state. The USLCA is a grass roots organization and as of 2005, is now offering certification to all coaches, regardless of the coaching school attended. The USLCA will be known as the people choice. This will be the organization that paying clients contact to find a qualified life coach. The USLCA allows each coach to use his or her person style to coach a client during the certification process. Each coach is approved based on the fact that the client received a true coaching value from the call and the coach did not use therapy during the session. For more information on the US Life Coach Association, please call 1-800-841-8776. |