Core Coaching Competencies
Welcome to our Further Information Section
There are a set of Core Coaching Competencies for each of the 3 levels of accreditation.
- Accredited Associate Coaches Competencies
- Accredited Professional Coaches Competencies
- Accredited Master Coaches Competencies
Scroll down the page to view each set of competencies.
Accredited Associate Coach (AAC) Competencies
Build Rapport
- Establishes and builds rapport effectively
- Maintains rapport throughout the entire session
- Demonstrates empathy
- Creates an environment of trust, confidentiality and honesty
- Calibrates the Client throughout the session
Communication and Interpersonal Skills
- Demonstrates effective questioning skills
- Displays active listening skills
- Provides encouragement and acknowledgement appropriately
- Checks for understanding
- Motivates the Client appropriately
- Provides feedback effectively
Facilitate Basic Coaching Techniques
- Assists the Client to explore and agree goals or to develop action plans
- Explores a range of options for achieving goals or working through action plans
- Reviews progress against goals and action plans
- Provides supportive challenge to assist the Client to enhance performance
- Assists the Client to develop strategies for overcoming obstacles
- Ensures that agreed goals, actions or steps are realistic and achievable by the Client
- Supports the discussion in a way that the Client can discover their own solutions
- Acknowledges and celebrates successes and milestones
Provide an effective coaching session:
- Provides clear agenda for the format of the coaching session
- Keeps session to agenda and to time
- Minimises distractions and interruptions
- Ensures that the Client maintains accountability
- Provides a summary and agrees any actions
- Provides opportunity for Client to provide feedback
Ethics and Conduct
- Abides by the ANZI Coaching Code of Conduct
- Understands situations, symptoms and signs which need referral
- Makes appropriate referral to other professionals or coaches where appropriate
- Able to manage the referral process with sensitivity to the needs of the client
Accredited Professional Coach (APC) Competencies
Working with Beliefs, Values & Behaviours
- Is able to elicit values and beliefs
- Explains the relationship between the current values and beliefs and the current results
- Challenges language, behaviour and patterns which do not support the Client
- Assists the Client to make positive changes to language and behaviour patterns
Manages complex Coaching Relationships
- Ascertains who the parties to the coaching relationship are (‘key stakeholders’)
- Manages the expectations for all key stakeholders to the coaching relationship
- Agrees outcomes with all key stakeholders including any formal measurements or KPIs
- Defines the boundaries including feedback, progress reports, need for referral, etc
- Understands and works within any constraints such as workplace culture and organisational frameworks
- Defines the roles of the Coach, Client and any key stakeholders to the coaching relationship
- Maintains the roles and boundaries as defined above throughout the coaching session
- Provides an appropriate debrief to all key stakeholders including details/results of any agreed measurements or KPIs
Coaching Frameworks
- Establishes an Agreement or Contract for the coaching services to be provided
- Makes and securely manages Client notes which are appropriate to the coaching
- Maintains confidentiality at all times
- Ensures that the Client maintains responsibility for their language, behaviour and actions
- Ensures that the Client maintains accountability for the transformation to take effect
- Refrains from providing feedback or updates to any person outside of the defined key stakeholders
- Terminates the coaching relationship when it is appropriate to do so
Key Coaching Skills
- Creates an effective metaphor
- Provides a statement or questions which effective ‘breaks the state’ of the Client
- Uses third position to assist Client to see other viewpoints
- Reframes to assist Client to understand alternatives
Accredited Master Coach (AMC) Competencies
Creates and Implements a Coaching Program
- Agrees the needs identified with the key stakeholders
- Agrees the frameworks for the coaching program including people, resources, finance and timescales
- Creates a plan for implementing coaching objectives responding to the needs identified
- Designs and develops a coaching program to meet the needs identified
- Implements the delivery of the coaching program in line with agreed frameworks
Evaluates the success of the Coaching Program
- Evaluates the effectiveness of the coaching program
- Reviews the effectiveness of the coaching program with key stakeholders
- Identifies any improvements to the coaching program
- Implements any improvements to the coaching program
- Reports on the success of the coaching program against the needs identified
Selects appropriate coaching methodologies
- Uses a variety of coaching models and techniques and can explain the benefits and limitations for each
- Adapts and tailors existing coaching models and techniques to the needs of particular situations or circumstances
- Understands the distinctions of evidence-based and belief-based coaching
- Accesses a range of profiling, questionnaire and evaluative tools within their coaching practice
Is a leader in the Coaching Industry
- Assists other Coaches to develop their coaching skills
- Applies Coaching in a setting which benefits the wider community (schools, prisons, charitable causes, etc)
- Acts as an Ambassador to the Coaching Community
Note: AMC must be competent in all of the coaching competencies above. APC must be competent in both the AAC and the APC coaching competencies.