ICF Celebrates 20 years

Reflecting Back & Looking Forward

Celebrating Two Decades of Professional Coaching

This year marks the 20 th anniversary of the International Coach Federation’s Australasia Charter Chapter, and it is remarkable just how far the coaching profession has come. In 1999, coaching was a profession in its infancy, with few practitioners, no commonly accepted standards and a very limited evidence base.

Twenty years on, the coaching profession is thriving. It’s a key tool to helping managers and leaders reach their full potential, with dedicated budgets and coaching programs. Organisations, the large and the small, are leveraging the full range of coaching modalities: external professional coaches, internal coaches, team coaches and leaders using coaching skills.

In society at large, we’re seeing coaching become commonplace in many areas, just some of which include wellbeing, third age, ADHD, real estate, family business, entrepreneurs, health, education, career and life coaching.

Why has this happened? First off, we’ve seen an explosion in the volume of research on coaching’s effectiveness. The profession now rests on a proven evidence base including goal theory, positive psychology, cognitive behavioural

and systems theories, peak performance and neuroscience, amongst many others.

Professions need standards. The International Coach Federation has played a central role in setting these standards worldwide. The ICF’s Code of Ethics sets the ground rules for ethical coaching practice, and its Core Competencies deliver a framework for coaching excellence. The ICF’s Coaching Credentials – Associate, Professional and Master Certified Coach – are the most widely recognised and respected set of coaching certifications in the world. When organisations engage coaches, an ICF credential sets the benchmark.

The Australasia Charter Chapter has in excess of 1,600 members, including almost 700 credentialed coaches, and is building powerful partnerships in the market, such as with the Australian Human Resources Institute, which has incorporated the ICF’s Code of Ethics and coaching Core Competencies into its HR Certification program.

So, what lies ahead? We expect to see professional coaching to continue to thrive, with rapid growth in the number of internal coaching practitioners, increasing

demand for team coaches, and more and more leaders leveraging coaching skills in their work.

Technology is starting to both disrupt and enable the profession, with a growing number of coaching platforms, as well as the early emergence of artificial intelligence in the coaching field.

The coaching profession has never been in a healthier position and, as it enters its third decade, the International Coach Federation’s Australasia Charter Chapter is committed to continuing to support the growth of coaching, for its members, the broader coaching industry, and society overall.

If you are interested in joining the ICF, you can find out more information at coachfederation.org/join-icf

Find an ICF Credentialed Coach at coachfederation.org/find-a-coach

Revel Gordon PCC is the Acting Head of External Stakeholder Engagement at the International Coach Federation, Australasia Charter Chapter.

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