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Many people ask me about the difference between an executive coach and a life coach. There’s a surprising amount of confusion about the difference; most people think that all coaches are about the same.
My goal here is to make a distinction between the two kinds of coaches by informing you what a typical life coach training is like vs. the intensive training an executive coach participates in.
First, most life coaches I know do not have a certification with the ICF, the International Coaching Federation. This is the most well-known, well-respected and universally accepted accreditation entity in the world.
And for the most part, life coaches participate in a short training or even no training before they start practicing and coaching people. That being said, I know some good life coaches whose professions, life experience, and compassion have uniquely prepared them to be a coach. It’s in your best interest to find out what training someone has had before engaging them. Be in the know!
With executive coaching, the picture looks pretty different. To get my ICF accreditation as a level 1 ACC coach, I participated in 78 hours of instruction, peer coaching and mentor coaching, and am required to coach clients for 100 hours before taking the final accreditation exam.
On a more personal note,
Some of you who know me as a professional organizer may wonder: Why did Jenny switch from organizing to coaching?
It’s simple (but not easy). My body made the choice for me. In 2023, my left shoulder wore out and I had shoulder surgery and a lengthy, painful recovery (as anyone who has had shoulder surgery knows well).
When I realized I could no longer organize for clients full time, I started looking into what to do next. Would I go into project management? Real estate? Executive coaching? Those were my top choices.
Though project management was appealing and real estate lucrative, in the end I decided my desire and talents were most aligned with executive coaching. As a professional organizer, I essentially already coached them to a better, less cluttered lifestyle, and in each session I taught them the organizing method I used. Then they could replicate that when our project was finished, and hopefully benefit from it for the rest of their lives.
That kind of transformation is one of the great payoffs of being a professional organizer, and the main reason I stuck with it for 18 years. I knew, from hearing many transformation stories from coaches and their clients, that coaching would be the way to go.
The next hurdle: picking a coaching program.
Of course I created a spreadsheet!
I narrowed it down to 3 programs that stood out. (I won’ t mention the names of the other coaching programs.) Suffice it to say, after investigating all 3 of them, I talked with someone at each program. One crucial phone call decided it.
So when I got on the phone with an executive coach at Coach U and she coached me through a sticky situation with an executive I was working with at the time, I realized Coach U was the program for me. Any organization which could produce a coach that good was one I wanted to be part of.
Phase 1: Education & Training
The program was intense. Basically, we spent six 10-hour days in coaching instruction with our group (about 12 participants). They asked us to clear our schedule, which I did.
Since I had just undergone shoulder surgery, I made a pretty ridiculous picture with an ice pack on one shoulder a lot of the time. I looked like a lopsided football player, or 80s fashion gone awry, with shoulder pads only on one side.
I have to say, though the Core Essentials coaching classes were intense.
Our two instructors, seasoned coaches with 50 years of combined experience, warned us that we would feel strong emotions at times because to become a coach you have to dig deep inside yourself. Often, in the class exercises, you face some fears or beliefs that you may have been avoiding for a long time. This can cause some painful feelings to surface (which is why many people avoid deep reflection).
I thought, no sweat. There aren’t any skeletons in my closet, I’m a well-balanced person. I don’t cry easily, and I am strong. But they were right! I laughed, I cried at times, some old pains came out as I was coached by my classmates and the instructors, and the strong emotions surprised me.
Needless to say, we all grew as individuals and we learned what good coaching could do for a person. The support was amazing. The camaraderie felt great, especially for me to be a part of everyone else’s coaching journey.
And by the end of that intensive 6 days, we started meeting once a week to build on our training.
Coach U Core Essential curriculum
The Core Competencies: Empowering the World Through COACHING
- Demonstrates ethical practice
- Embodies a coaching mindset
- Establishes and maintains agreements
- Cultivates trusts and safety
- Maintains presence
- Listens actively
- Evokes awareness
- Facilitates client growth
Phase 2: Coaching REAL Clients
I say this a bit tongue-in-cheek because we joked about it with each other in class. We had coached each other plenty of times, so it felt a little scary to go out and find clients of our own.
The Coach U model, similar to other coaching programs, encouraged us to do 20 hours of pro-bono or free coaching for the first 20 hours. Which all of us did, I am sure.
It took me a month or two to accomplish this; I wanted to find people who needed me, not just take the easy road and coach family or friends.
I ended up coaching the young executive director of a nonprofit called Tidey Ocean, my massage therapist (a new business owner), and a college student doing her student teaching (and only getting 4 to 5 hrs of sleep when we commenced). I also coached with a life coach I knew, and did some peer coaching with a great executive coach from Chicago who I met through a coaching FB group.
By the way, we had some great results. The college student managed better and got 7 hours of sleep per night when we finished, the massage therapist got really good at boundaries, and the nonprofit director learned how to be a better leader and do what mattered to move the needle. He received 2 very large grants as a result!
Once I had 20 hours of experience, I took the Coach U final exam and submitted a video of a real coaching session. Several coach U educators reviewed my tape and approved it. This means I landed on the core elements of a coaching session: the session agreement followed by these elements.
- Listening
- Questioning
- Acknowledging
- Sharing Observations
- And I partnered with my client to bring clarity, focus, exploration and design.
At the end of the session, I confirmed learning and progression, then wrapped up by asking what they wanted to be accountable for, IDing any obstacles, and expressing confidence in them.
After my 20 hours of pro-bono coaching and passing the final, I needed to find paying coaching clients, which I thought would be easier after we had done a whole unit on starting our business. Marketing has never been my strong suit, and I am still figuring it out.
I have found some great resources for marketing myself as a coach, which I will link to at the end of this article.
That was when I started speaking to groups more, networking, and re-engaging in social media like Facebook and Linkedin to let the world know I’m a coach now!
Phase 3: The final stretch in coaching journey
Here I am in my final stretch. I have 11 hours of coaching left to finish my 100 hours! I am super close. With several clients and all that coaching under my belt, I feel quite prepared for the next phase of coaching.
What’s next for me is taking the ICF exam, which is an intensive and detailed exam based on what we learned in Coach U and the coaching experience since. Also, I will need to submit another video of a coaching session for their scrutiny.
Conclusion
It has definitely been a journey becoming a coach; a transformation if you will.
I wouldn’t trade my coaching experience for the world. And I am very happy with my progress both as a coach and as a businesswoman.
I love this profession, and I am glad I found something where experience and age are seen as a benefit.
As a friend told me on my 51st birthday: “You are entering your wise woman phase”. She made me feel how I want my coaching people to feel: supported. And my goal for them to is be capable, confident and prepared for what lies ahead.
