I am thinking of training and qualifying as an executive coach and am currently looking at 2 options:
1.Henley Professional Certificate, which is accredited by the Association for Coaching, the European Mentoring and Coaching Council and the International Coach Federation (cost £6,250 online) or
2.ILM level 7 Executive Coaching Diploma through the British School of Coaching (cost £4,790 online).
My gut feel is that the Henley Certificate is more recognized within the HR community but I was wondering whether any of you have come across either or have any recommendations/thoughts on this?
Your feedback would be greatly appreciated:)
Hi Britta
I've been an Exec coach for many many years, and like most here rely on referral to get work, and when employing others will always seek recommendation over qualification.
The brutal truth is, however, as sourcing policies become automated, it is increasingly useful to have a qualification.
As an experienced coach i found ILM7 to be suitable - it should be aimed at experienced coaches, with rigorous and specific feedback, review and reflection. It could be used to attain ICF or EMCC accreditation (with more work), but these are not essential to be a good coach.
After looking around for some time, and following recommendation (!) i studied with Love Your Coaching run by Charlie Warshawski www.loveyourcoaching.com LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/charliewarshawski
I found value in the level of challenge and benefitted from the reviews and feedback on real client sessions.
A qualification is no substitute for experience (business and coaching), and the ILM7 is not for those starting out. A qualification alone should not get you clients, and will not be enough to be an effective coach. It might, however, get you some way through a poor selection process.
This won’t be my first career change either. I have a business degree and worked for almost 8 years in advertising (account management) before moving into GR after a couple of years in Executive Search. How did you manage to get started in Coaching and setting up your own business?
I started off in the NHS in an area called health promotion, health education doing health behaviour change, projects, policy and campaigning work including what would now be called wellbeing at work work. I did lots of learning and development, managed teams and projects and got into HR and Organisational development from that working across sectors and ended up in an international law firm. I coached internally for about 6 years and then resigned to set up my own business. Been doing it ever since.
We all have very different paths to doing what we do, which I find fascinating. Good luck with your work and finding that coach training qualification you need and want. If you'd like to connect on Linked In I'd also be open to that. No pressure.
Hi Britta
It started, and continues to do so, alongside other types of related work.
After years in operations and logistics, i moved into HR and leadership development; coaching became part of the offering and I was lucky to be mentored by some very good coaches to help develop my skills. I got lots of experience before starting my own business.
So now coaching forms part of my business. I know very few people who operate solely as coaches full time.
There are many types of coaching; exec, outplacement, performance, life, career transition, to name a few.
Some choose to specialise, others have a wider range. I cover exec, performance, leadership and consulting/solopreneurs, as well as a rather specialist sector in retirement transition.
The first question is really - who is your target audience? Why? How does this fit with your background, experience, passion and approach? Do you want to be a solopreneur, or happier working as part of a consultancy or larger organisation?
Would recommend you build a network of like minded coaches, get yourself at least one mentor, and think about how you will get Supervision. There's much more to this than the qualification! But don't be put off - start practising and build from there, no-one does it all in a week (year / decade...)
Hope that helps. Good luck with whichever path you choose.
Anne
Hi Sharon - I’d love to connect on LinkedIn . My full name is Britta Corrigan - let me know if you have trouble finding me. Looking forward to connect:)
Thank you Anne - this is very helpful advice:) Really looking forward to get started with the training and practice now:) Would you also like to connect on LinkedIn?
