Program Description

The Program has a number of fundamental cornerstones that inform our approach to training:

1. That “Coaches lead, and Leaders coach”™. Leadership is a fundamental part of being a coach. Coaching is a fundamental part of effective leadership. Our coaches know that in coaching another person, they are providing leadership and partnership, and are clear about the responsibility and humble service that must always be included in this collaborative relationship.

2. That the Being is as important as the Doing. That is, action without clarity of purpose, intention and awareness of one’s Being is insufficient for lasting change. Any meaningful and lasting change incorporates mindfulness (awareness) of one’s own Being and the Being of others, along with actions required to produce the desired results.

3. That working from the future, with awareness of past habits or patterns and present tendencies, is effective in producing breakthrough results. Our focus is to create awareness of the past and present circumstances and beliefs as simply that: from the past and present, not as governing constructs for all that is, or is possible. In effect, the client/employee is able to distinguish and choose between past/present constructs or created/future constructs, aware of the consequences of either choice.

4. That coaches must know how to be successful business people, and must develop effective methods of keeping their coaching skills healthy and growing.

5. That coaches must be responsible, caring professionals who are clear about their own boundaries, and the boundaries of the profession. Our coaches are trained in professional ethics and rules of conduct including the ICF’s Ethical Guidelines.

6. That it is the coach’s job to reveal the client/employee’s brilliance. Our coaches are trained to coach free from ego and personal agenda. By remaining outside the client’s context or belief systems, the coach is able to ask powerful questions that support the client to reveal any limits the present context has for the client on what is possible.

7. That any area where a coach has not addressed his/her challenges or issues in life becomes a blind spot for the coach, and the client is under-served. Our coaches know their strengths and their weaknesses, and have worked on their own blind spots, to bring to light whatever they have been avoiding in life. While they are not perfect, our work encourages coaches to be “in process” in every area where there is a perceived challenge.

Our goals are to provide and create the following:

1. Each participant has created a thriving, successful coaching business or leadership initiative as defined by the participant.
2. Each participant has the knowledge and skills to maintain and grow his or her coaching practice or expand their leadership capabilities within their own environment.
3. Each participant is well trained, practiced and competent to coach individuals in any of the following areas or topics: Money, Time, Relationships, Career, Business, Creative Projects, Spirituality, Well Being, Making Choices, Dealing with Breakdowns, Commitment, and Creating a Life according to a designed future.
4. Each participant is trained and evaluated to reliably and consistently coach with proficiency in all the International Coach Federation Core Competencies and within the ICF Ethical Guidelines.
5. Each participant is a coaching professional, and is clear about the ethical, professional, emotional and physical boundaries of the coaching profession. Also, the participant is aware of the signs and indicators that a client/employee is in need of a referral to another professional (e.g.human resources, therapist, medical doctor, etc.) and has created resources for those referrals.
6. Each participant has made major desired changes in his or her own life. It is a fundamental tenet of our program that the participant must have applied the power of coaching to his or her own life objectives as a foundation for being effective with clients/employees.
7. Each participant has used the tools and distinctions from the training to coach people during the course of the program. The participant has had the experience of valuing him/herself and of making a profound difference with other people.

The program’s measurable objectives for student success include the following:

1. Demonstrate ability and facility with tools, concepts, and practices key to coaching, by:
2. Generating a score of 70% or greater on all exams including the written and oral Final Exams.
3. Achieved their goal of creating a coaching practice and/or fulfilling on their leadership objective.
4. Maintaining their coaching business over time and/or expanding their leadership in their organization.
5. Producing increased levels of competency in their coaching as evaluated by Mentor Coaches and Program Leaders throughout the program.
6. Producing specific, measurable results with their own clients/employees.
7. Maintaining ethical boundaries.
8. Producing a fundamental breakthrough in their own lives and their way of being as a human being and a leader.

The following prerequisites are required of students entering the Coaches Training Program:

1. The desire to commit to a year-long, challenging program of training and development.
2. The willingness and ability to manage their own health and well-being throughout the program.
3. The willingness to practice “coachability” (i.e. being willing to create a powerful partnership) with their Mentor Coach and Program Leaders.
4. A successful written application and review by a Leader of the program.
5. A successful interview by a Leader of the program.
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   In our Victoria, BC program the following prerequisites also apply:
   1. Minimum 21 years old.
   2. Highschool graduate.
   3. English proficiency. if English is not the first language, the applicant is required to either submit a transcript/certificate from an English post-secondary institution or complete an IELTS exam with a minimum score of 5.

• The in-person components of the program include 12 weekend intensives where participants are trained through direct interaction (face to face) with the Program Leaders.
• The in-person training sessions are a small group format and include didactic learning, experiential exercises, practice coaching, coaching demonstrations, and participant coaching in every weekend.
• The program weekends are led by two Program Leaders who present the course material with the support of the “Leaders-in-Training” and “Mentor Coaches”.  These coaches comprise the “Leader Team”.
• The program is supplemented by weekly one-to-one coaching (for one hour, phone or video conferencing) with a graduate Mentor Coach who also attends the weekends. Participants work with their Mentor Coaches on a weekly basis to further hone their coaching skills and produce results in their goal areas. In addition, Mentor Coaches provide “co-coaching”.  In co-coaching, the participant records coaching sessions and are provided with verbal and written feedback and training.
• Each weekend class is held from 10:00am to 6:00pm on Saturday and Sunday.
• Each weekend has 14 Student Contact Learning Hours with a total of 168 hours provided during the weekends. The weekly mentor coaching provides an additional 48 hours of real time contact for a total of 216 Student contact Learning Hours provided throughout the whole program.
• The material is presented through a variety of means. There is didactic training/teaching, exploration and discussion of topics, practice coaching, experiential exercises, guest speakers and an experiential field trip.
• There is an emphasis on practice coaching throughout all of the weekends: formally with evaluators providing verbal and written feedback, and informally, as the group works together to learn coaching skills.
• The participants are assigned buddies each month and given assignments to interact with their buddies for practice, support, and accountability.
• The participants also create online communication and conference calls to fulfill on coursework and client goals between the weekends.
• They create both individual and group commitments to the monthly coursework which becomes an important training tool in coaching groups and teams as well as developing leadership strengths.

This is a comprehensive training program that is designed to create a cumulative learning process over the course of one year. Participants cannot take weekends individually or start the program midway through.

The program is designed on a gradient so that the beginning of the program addresses basic coaching and leadership skills and concepts, the middle addresses more complex concepts and intensive practice coaching, and the end focuses on refining participants’ coaching proficiency.

By the end of the program participants are trained to coach in a variety of coaching arrangements (individuals, teams, etc).

Each of the 12 weekends is designed to address core competencies, issues in coaching, the development of a coaching business, and the development of the coach and leader.

Over the program’s 12 weekends, the skills of speaking and listening as a coach/leader are developed from the simple, Such as being present to receive a person’s communication,  the more complex such as “multi-dimensional speaking and listening” where the coach/leader is speaking and listening on many levels at once (context, content, etc).

Early on, participants are trained in how to support clients/employees in creating effective goals, how to ask provocative coaching questions, and how to track progress. As the program progresses, the participants are expected to generate themselves as coaches and leaders more and more. At the beginning, the leadership of the program directs and guides the conversations as well as models coaching to a much larger degree. Towards the middle of the program, participants are asked to lead various group discussions and to practice coaching their co-participants. Toward the end of the program, participants are asked to respond to others’ questions and to provide coaching to one another to a much greater degree.