My Coaching Journey, Part 2: Becoming a Coach

Last week, I talked about my experiences working with coaches that led me to pursue becoming a coach myself. One of my personal passions is helping people to overcome challenges, solve problems, and grow personally. I’ve done a lot of mentoring at work and through my college alumni network, as well as an organization called PCF that supports first-generation college students. I’ve been a people manager for many years and find it highly rewarding. After seeing the impact that a single coaching conversation could have to shift my mindset from lacking confidence and feeling stuck to being more resourceful, I wanted to learn how to coach. During the pandemic, I decided to finally take the plunge. I can’t remember exactly what the catalyst was, but most likely, I was going through a period of restlessness.

The first step was deciding on a program. I had already looked at a couple of local coaching training programs in the Bay Area in the past, but they were at least an hour away from my home, and I didn’t want to spend precious time on a second commute. Fortunately, some institutions started offering virtual courses. One of these was Erickson International in Vancouver, which I learned about through a list of coaching certification programs that some of my co-workers had put together. I signed up for an information seminar that included a coaching demonstration. Everything sounded good to me, so I decided to move forward with Erickson. When I had asked my coach Valerie for advice on selecting a coaching cert program, she said the most important factor was that it was ICF accredited, so I didn’t spend too much time deliberating on the selection.

The hardest part for me was just getting started, namely picking a course date and time and paying the fees. I had recently taken on a new role at work, and was hesitant to choose a class time because I didn’t know if I would be able to make the commitment. After a few months of procrastination, in January 2022, I finally signed up for a course on Wednesday afternoons from 4 to 7:15 pm that began in late February.

I chose the Art & Science of Coaching program, which included three courses - Essentials, Advanced Applications, and Mentoring - in preparation to qualify for Erickson Professional Certified Coach and the ACC or PCC ICF credential.

Around the same time, I signed up to become an internal coach at work through the g2g (Googler-to-Googler) coaching program. I attended a training session where we learned high level principles of coaching and a simple model for structuring the coaching conversations. I created a few hours of coaching appointments per month, and people started to sign up right away.

Then I started the Essentials course. I’m not going to sugar coat it – taking a class on Wednesday afternoons in the middle of a busy work week was not easy. My job was stressful and I struggled to sit through a 3-hour Zoom call with lots of class participation when I just wanted a glass of wine and dinner. In addition to the class, we had a couple hours of homework each week  where we watched instructional videos and coaching demos, completed quizzes, and participated in a discussion forum about the week’s topics. 

We learned so many principles and methods that were both fascinating and, at times, overwhelming. During most classes we had time for breakouts to practice coaching in a dyad or triad. I felt flustered and awkward trying to learn, remember, and apply all the new concepts at once.

In spite of all these challenges, I really loved the subject matter. We learned about taking the “coach position” and actively listening to our clients – not just the words, but also their tone and what they weren’t saying. I loved learning about the brain science, metaprograms, logical levels, and other frameworks and methods. And over time, as we met weekly to learn and practice together, I got to know my classmates despite never having met any of them in person. Within our group, we hailed from Canada, Texas, Kansas, California, and Australia! 

We learned so much from our teacher Jenny and TA Cory. After 16 weeks of the Essentials Course, we had a week or two of break and proceeded to the Advanced Applications course. Five of us from the Essentials class had continued to the second course, so it was nice to already know my classmates as we got to know our 2 new teachers, Brigit and Kim. We learned a lot about how to partner with our client and rely less on a specific structure or exercises.

Once we finished 16 weeks of the Advanced course, we moved on to the Mentoring stage. We had one class where we reviewed everything we had learned, and we were grouped with another cohort of new coaches. Then we were on our own to sign up for mentoring sessions with master coaches from Erickson. We had to record and upload a 30-minute coaching sessions with a client in order to get feedback from the mentor. I enjoyed meeting a variety of experienced coaches, many of whom were in the demo videos we watched throughout the course. At first, I was really nervous and focused primarily on the assessment component - how well did I demonstrate the ICF Core Competencies through the PCC markers?  But then I realized that I should take advantage of the opportunity to learn from these seasoned mentor coaches and came prepared with questions and problems.

After completing the 6 required mentoring sessions, the last step was the oral assessment. It was very similar in format to the mentoring, but instead of an evaluation, I was told that I had passed. With that, I met the requirements for Erickson Professional Certified Coach.

The final step was to complete 100 hours of coaching. I logged the majority of these hours through g2 coaching, but I also continued to do dyads with other coaches. I loved these coaching exchanges where we coached each other for 30 minutes, and also compared notes on how we were progressing towards certification. I had a standing bi-weekly coaching call with one of my Erickson classmates, Heidi, who has become a close friend even though she lives in another state and we have never met in person. My fellow coaches have helped me process many professional and personal issues and make critical decisions in the past year!

Finally, I had the 100 hours required to apply for the ICF ACC credential. While my training prepared me for PCC, I’m only about 25% of the way towards the 500 hours of coaching experience, so that will come later. After filling out the forms and paying the fee, I scheduled my ICF credentialing exam. They had both virtual and in-person options, and I opted to go to a testing center so I wouldn’t have to worry about any technical issues. I didn’t do much to prepare besides reviewing the ICF Core Competencies. I thought the exam was pretty difficult, because for each of the 80 scenarios we had to pick both the best and worst action out of four options. But all I needed was a passing score and I found out that I had passed immediately after finishing. Within a few days I received my credential by email!

I don’t know yet what my coaching practice will look like in the long run. I like my job and don’t feel like it’s time to quit and pursue coaching full time, but I’m taking on clients outside of work and building my network of coaches. The process to get here has been intense, so I’m enjoying not having homework for a while as I figure things out!