Changing the Game
In January, I invited us all to try our best at making 2019 a year when coaching expands its reach and advances societal progress. I wholeheartedly thank you and everyone who spread the positive ripple effects of coaching around the world! It mattered more than ever.
Of course, our society needs way more coaching! It’s time for coaches to weave our mission and shared values into a new form of leadership that unlocks vibrant possibilities for the future of humanity. In 2019, at ICF, we enabled ourselves to boldly advance the reach of coaching, in service of our members, our profession and society.
Growing, To Change the Game
In January 2020, the International Coach Federation will become the International Coaching Federation. The International Coaching Federation will have a global mindset and demonstrate forward-thinking and expanded ways of serving coaches, coaching clients, our communities and the world.
We’ll achieve this transformation with six family organizations within our “ONE ICF” ecosystem, each with a dedicated board and resources to move forward.
Learn more about these exciting changes here.
Landmark Contributions to Professional Standards
Another evolution we will all enjoy results from the stellar work of volunteers and staff who finalized, in 2019, what no other global certification body has undertaken: the completion of our updated Core Competency model. More than 1,300 coaches—both ICF Members and non-members, from a diverse range of backgrounds and experience—from around the globe participated in the process.
We are incredibly proud of the quality, integrity and validity of our evidence-based approach to credentialing and of the value it brings to ICF coaches and their clients. You can learn more about the revised competency model here.
The ICF Code of Ethics is reviewed every three years. Our latest review began last year and involved a large Code Review Team with members from 16 countries. The team’s multi-layered review process involved hundreds of hours of research, conversation and thoughtful review. We are enormously grateful for the Code Review Team’s enormous contributions to this process!
We released the revised Code earlier this month, and it will go into effect January 1, 2020. It includes refreshed definitions and standards, and a very helpful introduction. You can download a PDF of the revised Code here.
Milestones and Celebrations
Our annual International Coaching Week (ICW) celebration was truly exceptional: More than 100 ICF Chapters hosted over 600 events, and ICW was mentioned in the media 236 times across 27 countries!
ICF Converge 2019, our biennial conference, was another highlight. Close to 1,000 coaches from 75 countries came together in Prague, Czech Republic, for outstanding learning, sharing and networking. ICF Global Board Directors facilitated Possibilities Beyond conversations to harvest participants’ ideas about how we can empower coaching for the world.
We also launched a new platform to make the ICF Credentialing application and renewal process easier for coaches.
We conducted the fieldwork of our fourth Global Coaching Survey, in partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers, to provide an up-to-date picture of the coaching profession and enable coaches to embrace the opportunities and overcome the challenges ahead. We broke our previous record for number of respondents, making this the largest coaching industry research study in history! We’ll share the findings in the second half of 2020.
We welcomed seven new ICF Chapters:
- ICF Caribbean
- ICF Doha
- ICF High Country
- ICF Iran
- ICF Serbia
- ICF Slovenia
- ICF Uganda
Five ICF Chapters achieved Charter Chapter status this year:
- ICF Arkansas-Oklahoma
- ICF Morocco
- ICF Nebraska
- ICF Nigeria
- ICF San Antonio
And we shared stories of coaching’s transformative impact through our #ExperienceCoaching series. Our first season was viewed more than 1.3 million times so far.
Looking Ahead to an Inspiring 2020
In 2020, ICF will celebrate 25 years of advancing coaching. Besides bringing our new family organizations to life, we’ll enhance ICF’s contribution to the important fields of supervision and Team Coaching.
2019 has been a game-changing year. Together, we’ve created vibrant new possibilities for the future of coaching. On behalf of ICF Global Board I wish to thank wholeheartedly every member of our ONE ICF ecosystem. ICF’s global community of volunteer leaders, members and staff is the heartbeat of our Association!
Here’s to wishing you and your loved ones a wonderful holiday season and a great 2020!
To you and to coaching, with love.
Jean-François Cousin, MCC
Jean-François Cousin, MCC, has been an Executive Coach for more than a decade. Previously, he served in senior leadership positions in Asia and Europe for a global company. Jean-François coaches CEOs, CXOs and board members worldwide on topics including leadership development, board relations, strategic planning, organizational and cultural change management, onboarding and role transition. A longtime member of the ICF Singapore Charter Chapter, Jean-François has contributed to multiple coaching conferences and actively supported the launch of ICF Bangkok. Dedicated to the growth of the coaching profession, he has advocated coaching to numerous corporate audiences, co-authored two books promoting coaching and written Game Changers at the Circus about unleashing greatness in organizations with a coaching culture. Jean-François currently serves as the 2019 ICF Global Board Chair and was Secretary/Treasurer on the 2018 ICF Global Board.
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Great leadership Jean Francois! We’ll keep ourselselves accountable to excellent community services!
Thanks for your contributions to this long list of accomplishments! Your behind-the-scenes work has been enormous, timely and BOLD! Your will be a hard act to follow. Thanks from all of us! Your friend, colleague and partner in impacting the profession, Sara Smith
Thank you for this inspiring look at the role and place of ICF coaches in influencing the globe. I feel very proud to be a member.
Thank you very much for your remark, Ruth, I also feel proud to belong to our great family of members, and excited that we are up to doing more and more, and better and better, together, for our Globe!
My best wishes to you and your loved ones for the 2020’s!
Thank you very much for your remark, Ruth, I also feel proud to belong to our great family of members, and excited that we are up to doing more and more, and better and better, together, for our Globe!
My best wishes to you and your loved ones for the 2020’s!
Thanks for your contributions to this long list of accomplishments!