Learning to Coach through the Center for Coaching Certification

Blog series by Joann Evans

Joann Evans holds a B.S. in microbiology and chemistry. She is also a certified Paralegal. She has 20 years’ experience in quality assurance, control and engineering in fields such as pharmaceutical, medical device, IVD, biotech and blood banking. This blog series is her journey through being coached and then earning her coaching certification.

Today we had our first coach training webinar or online class. It was titled “About Coaching.” The webinar contained a lot of great information and for me answered a pressing question regarding what a coach is and is not. I think this was a very important session to start with so that a new coach does not get themselves into trouble by crossing into something where a license may be required. I think this is a very important and critical point. It was fun to learn about the other students in the class and the type of work that they do. Everyone has a different reason for deciding to become a coach.

We talked about what a coach is and the types of coaching. We also learned about the ICF Core Competencies. For me, I think that it was a huge advantage that Cathy had me experience coaching prior to taking coaching certification. As I went through this first class I was able to go back through my memory and remember all the times she did exactly as she is telling us we will be doing. I thought about how Cathy kept me moving forward just like the car before the runner in one of the slides of the PowerPoint she showed. She was very diligent in not allowing me to travel back to my past, instead keeping me focused on moving forward. Now, I can see why this is important especially from the perspective of not practicing psychology. If we address the past we are sparking memories and raising up emotions.   While I have had some very traumatic experiences there really is no reason now to keep thinking of them. How can it possibly help me to continuously talk about what happened? What matters now is what happens tomorrow.   If my mind is focused on yesterday it takes away from what I can do today to make the future better.

At the end of the class we were given an assignment with three questions. Our job was to write two full pages in response. I think this is a great idea because it causes you to think more about coaching and to research additional information for the learning process.