International Coaching Week 2018: A Reflection on our Collective Impact
Last week, ICF Chapters and coaches all over the world celebrated International Coaching Week, bringing more awareness to the positive impacts of coaching. I spent the week with a couple chapters and followed the conversation online with the hashtag #ExperienceCoaching. I was so impressed by all of your efforts.
At a glance, this is the impact that we created together with ICW 2018:
- More than 80 ICF Chapters participated
- Over 1,000 events held
- Over 5 million impressions made with the hashtag #ExperienceCoaching
- 3,285 people used the Facebook Profile Picture Overlay
- 741 media mentions made
My Experience
I’d like to share some of the impacts that I was lucky enough to witness.
My week began in San Diego, California, USA, where a number of HR and other talent professionals experienced coaching firsthand at the 2018 Association for Talent Development (ATD) International Conference and Exposition. Eight ICF-credentialed coaches from ICF San Diego offered 45-minute pro bono career coaching sessions to more than 140 attendees. The energy created by these sessions was so inspiring. One piece of feedback our staff received was that some participants equated their career coaching experience as being on par with that of seeing conference keynote speaker Barack Obama!
After the ATD event, ICF CEO/Executive Director Magdalena Mook and I attended a great conference hosted by the ICF San Diego Chapter, where speakers addressed personal branding for coaches as well as how EY, 2017 International Prism Award Honorable Mention recipient, has positively leveraged coaching within its organization.
I joined the ICF Puerto Rico Chapter later in the week for a coaching summit. Professionals from the community came to learn about Executive Coaching, Life Vision and Enhancement Coaching, and Coaching in education. We used real-life examples from past International Prism Award finalists to illustrate how coaching can truly transform people and organizations. Attendees left that event with a new awareness, understanding and appreciation for coaching.
Online, myself and 281 others participated in a Thunderclap. On May 8, one message of “Unlock your potential: Experience coaching now during International Coaching Week! Thousands of events worldwide. http://thndr.me/LZV2ZU” was shared with over 331,000 people at the same time across our participants’ social media profiles.
The Collective Experience
According to the 2017 ICF Global Consumer Awareness Study, 66 percent of consumers are aware of coaching, but only 30 percent of those aware actually recognize coaching by the ICF definition. Many confuse it with mentoring, consulting and other modalities.
With your local and regional efforts, you are demystifying coaching and making a difference in your communities. Here are just a few examples:
- The ICF San Antonio Chapter used social media video to discuss different aspects and benefits of coaching
- ICF Malaysia offered coaching awareness and pro bono sessions to the public and organizations
- A number of ICF Chapters in Latin America and the Caribbean banded together to offer over 20 webinars throughout the week
- The second annual ICF Middle East Prism Awards ceremony took place during ICW, recognizing organizations in the Middle East that have strong coaching cultures
- ICF Australasia offered five webinars for coaches and organizations alike
- ICF Romania offered over 350 hours of pro bono coaching
I would like to extend my personal thanks to all those who embraced and engaged in ICW this year and who helped to make it such a huge success. When looking at all of our efforts as a whole, we are making a difference in the world. Imagine what we could accomplish if we kept this momentum and chatter going all year!
Your Experience
What did you do for ICW? What was your impact? How might you continue to help people experience coaching? I’d love to know. Please share in the comments and/or on the ICF ICW Facebook Event page. ICF Chapters can also report on their activities at icf.to/posticw2018.
Tracy Sinclair, MCC (United Kingdom)
Tracy Sinclair, MCC, is also a trained coaching supervisor, a mentor coach and an ICF assessor. Tracy trains coaches and works with managers and leaders to develop their coaching capability. She works with a wide range of organizations as an international corporate executive and board-level coach, a leadership development designer, and a facilitator. Tracy also specializes in working with organizations to develop their coaching cultures. She was the president of ICF United Kingdom from 2013-2014 and the 2018 ICF Global Board Chair.
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