NCC Coaching Trends 2009 Interview No. 8: Don H. Morris
My friend and colleague Jessie Hipolit of coachesplayingtowin.com was the guest host for this interview, since I was the interviewee. Yes, as promised, on this call I gave my own answer to the question What is the current state of coaching as an industry or profession?
I’m not sure I asked my previous guests the question exactly that way, but I believe this is actually two different questions. We didn’t get to the second question about the challenges and opportunities facing coaches in 2009, and I still talked for more than forty-five minutes. 
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Although, as previous guests in this series have said, the coaching industry is alive and well, in my opinion the profession of coaching is in its infancy. Coaching lacks a theoretical framework, a professional association that is independent and has the means and the clout to sanction members who violate the ethical code and standards of practice, adequate training and access to use the best assessment tools, and a knowledge of best practices based on well-designed and implemented research. One reason for this is that at this date only a few accredited universities offer graduate degrees in coaching.
Most universities that offer coach training grant certificates, not degrees. A prominent organization that credentials coach training program, the International Coach Federation (ICF), requires 125 clock hours of coach-specific instruction for the PCC, their mid-level credential. This is roughly equivalent to nine semester hours, or three college courses. In contrast, the typical master’s degree requires 36- 48 semester hours of post-baccalaureate ate training, and doctoral degrees usually require 90-100 semester hours (which includes the courses taken for the master’s degree).
Much of the training required by the ICF would fit into a core offering for a graduate degree in coaching skills and interventions. In addition, a graduate degree in coaching would require from six to twelve hours of supervised experience (adequate supervision is another difference between current coach training and university-based coach training). There would be courses in social and cultural foundations, assessment and statistics, research design and implementation, and human development across the lifespan.
While Australia and the United Kingdom are ahead of the U.S. in offering university-based coach training, there are several that do. The University of Pennsylvania is offering a Master of Applied Positive Psychology. It is not a coaching degree per se, but many coaches are pursuing it. The University of Texas at Dallas offers a certificate coach training program that awards twelve graduate hours based on the ICF’s core competencies. For other universities offering degrees or certificates in coach training, along with a proposed coach training curriculum, see the repository at Coaching Research: Programs and Curriculum Project. The tag line this project is Building Executive Coaching as an Academic Discipline. These are all indications that coaching may in time become a true profession, like medicine, law, and psychology. It has a long way to go.
YOUR TURN: What do you think about my view of coaching as a baby profession? And does coaching even need to become more professionalized,or is it doing just fine as it is? Please leave a comment with your thoughts. We wanna know!
Jessie Hipolit, PCC, is a life and mentor coach who, along with her partner Nancy James, assists coaches seeking to complete all the requirements for the ICF Professional Certified Coach credential. Visit her site, Coaches Playing to Win, to learn more.
Don H. Morris, Ed.D., LPC, is a life and relationship coach in Memphis, Tennessee. Don was a campus minister and an adjustment coach for blind and visually impaired adults prior to becoming a coach. Don holds the Doctor of Education degree in Counseling and Personnel Services from the University of Memphis and Is a Licensed Professional Counselor. Read Three Faces of Adjustment Counseling to see his views of how lifeskills coaching fits into rehabilitation counseling for visually impaired persons. Don is also the list manager and active participant in the new Coach connection discussion list. Learn more at his website, donhmorris.com.
I have to agree with you saying that coaching is still an emerging
profession. At the 10th anniversary conference of the WABC (May
2007) in Vancouver, Professor David Lane held a compelling
presentation about our emerging profession and talked about the
challenges and opportunities that we are facing. Coaching is a
booming business around the world. Every day new coaching
institutes offer training programs for coaches. Every day more
coaches enter the market and offer their services. There obviously
is a high demand for coaches and the results that coaching will get
our coachees. Although this is a good development for the coaching
industry, we are faced with challenges and opportunities. Around
the world a sense of urgency is tangible about regulating the
development of our emerging profession. Before regulation is forced
upon us, either by government or the corporate world, we have to
take matters into our own hands. We have to come up with some
answers. This sense of urgency has resulted in the organizing of
the Global Coaching Convention which was held in July 2008 in
Dublin. It resulted in setting up the Global Coaching Community
(more info: http://gccweb.ning.com/) . The Worldwide Association of
Business Coaches, as the leading association for business coaches,
is one of the bodies that enter the discussion about the future of
our emerging profession. WABC is continuing to set the highest
international standards for business coaches and training
providers. For business coaches: Chartered Business Coach (ChBC),
WABC Certified Master Business Coach (CMBC), WABC Certified
Business Coach (CBC) and Registered Corporate Coach (RCC). For
business coach training providers: WABC Accredited. The questions
that still have to be answered are: are we a profession? Do we want
to build a case for a distinct profession of Business Coach
(regulated as such)? Should we be a part of the broader area of
coaching practice with business coaching being one of the many
niches? Or should we be a part of a different discipline, like
business or psychology? Should we have our own body of knowledge?
Or should I ask a more basic question: which problem is being
solved by certifying coaches and accrediting coach training
providers?
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Don makes some excellent points, and he has the courage to
challenge the presumption stated over and over again by the ICF
that is “the” professional association for coaching. Don’s call for
more a more independent professional association is being captured
by the ICF as they start to use the word “independent” in more and
more of their literature and promotional material. The irony is
that the wonderful interviews that Don is conducting through the
NCC blog are really the kind of dialogue that ought to be appearing
on the website of the ICF. This isn’t a criticism of the ICF, but
reveals how so many other truly “independent” sources have outpaced
the largest and richest of the coaching organizations.