Jan O'Brien, IAC-CC, is the latest coach that we have helped get certified.
I talked to Jan by phone yesterday, because I knew our readers would be curious about how she did it and what it was like. Jan is one of the 25% of coaches whose applications are passed by the IAC Certifiers. She's also one of an even smaller number of coaches who pass on the first try. I wasn't surprised to hear that, because Jan is a wonderful coach. And as I said in our interview, it's a big accomplishment and now she's a member of 'the club'!
What follows are a few excerpts from our conversation and then the entire 23-minute recording, so you can listen in. There also is a link at the bottom to a new SCM program called, Certified Coach: Master What the Certifiers Are Looking For.
Disclaimer: Jan says some extremely nice things about School of Coaching Mastery and of course, she was saying them to the owner of the school, so take it with a grain of salt if you like, but I believed her. ;-)
On what it means to her to be an IAC Certified Coach now: ‘Profound meaning to me. Professionally that makes a big difference in the coaching business. I'm an IAC-CC and it's wonderful to put that after my name. But knowing that I stayed with it that. I was committed and it was what I really wanted and I'm absolutely passionate about it!'
Her background and how she got into coaching: ‘I'm an intercultural trainer and consultant, cultural orientation training. Originally I'm from the UK and am now living in Houston, Texas. I came into coaching via my coach who is a totally astounding and wonderful coach, called Mattison Grey. I just was so impressed and so assisted by being coached. I thought, Wow this might be a really amazing job to do!'
On what she learned while preparing for certification: ‘I found that going through your certification course was, my experience of person development, was very profound, more than I could have imagined. It seemed to get deeper and deeper and deeper. And that's my own experience...I want to do that, anyway. It also put me on the fast track for that personal development. So that's a very significant piece for me.
I found the instruction to be absolutely excellent, classes with you and Natalie. They were very well facilitated and you both held us in the highest respect even when we were struggling. And it's not easy! There was so much more to this!
I had to hold onto the stair rails very tightly at times. And it was through those challenging times that I so appreciated everybody, the instructors as well as the other people in the class.'
On IAC grading: ‘Challenging. Very high standards. You don't get away with anything, and not that I was trying to get away with anything, but even the masteries I thought I had really gotten well in the recordings. Everything is thoroughly sliced and diced and of course also very honoring...That was little surprising only because I didn't know what to expect.'
Advice for coaches who want to get certified: ‘The practicums are extremely helpful in getting the feedback you need. In addition...I personally have been working with a group of wonderful coaches here in Houston in a study group. That's been absolutely wonderful.
I would also recommend that to get ones own coach whilst you're working on it. There might be things that come up...old deep-seated fears...working with a coach to remove some of the blocks that come up.'
‘It's an absolutely just glorious feeling!'
Listen to the entire recording here:
