Introducing One ICF | Thought Leadership Institute

The International Coaching Federation (ICF) has taken a bold step forward into the future of coaching. A refreshed brand identity now reflects ICF’s interests in many areas of the coaching industry, represented by six unique family organizations that make the whole or “One” ICF.

First, ICF’s CEO Magdalena Mook introduced the new brand for the entire ICF ecosystem. Then, we interviewed the vice presidents of ICF Professional Coaches, ICF Credentials and Standards,  ICF Coach Training and ICF Foundation to introduce us to their respective family organizations.

Now, part six of the seven-part series continues with the ICF Thought Leadership Institute family organization – one of two new additions to the ICF ecosystem. Coaching World interviewed ICF Thought Leadership Institute Vice President Alicia Hullinger to bring you insights and inspiration as ICF forges ahead and empowers the world through coaching.

Q: ICF Thought Leadership Institute is brand new to the ICF ecosystem.  Tell us about why it was established and what purpose it serves for the coaching community. 

A: The ICF Thought Leadership Institute was one of the brainstorming ideas when ICF started to explore what came next in its life cycle. This process of transition and expansion has been part of our thinking about how to take ICF and coaching into the future. ICF just celebrated its 25-year anniversary in 2020 and then unveiled the six family organizations that make up the ecosystem of One ICF.  

As coaching matures into its own and continues emerging as a discipline, ICF Thought Leadership Institute is all about advancing the art, science and practice of coaching by creating and contributing to a body of knowledge to that effect. When I joined the ICF Thought Leadership Institute in December 2019, I had the exciting task of working with the inaugural board of directors to flesh out what this family organization would look like. And for the past year, we’ve been looking at our strategic vision and mission. We now have a strategic plan in place and are ready to start implementing it and building the ICF Thought Leadership Institute. 

Q: ICF has been offering thought leadership for many years before its formal launch into the ICF ecosystem. Can you tell us about some of the key things that ICF Thought Leadership Institute will continue to do under this new structure? 

A: Our vision is really to be a global hub for human development that shows how coaching contributes to the United Nations Action Plan for Peace, Prosperity, People, Planet and Partnership. This vision is grounded in the UN’s action plan framework, and we want to lead the way in how coaching contributes to societal well-being and sustainability. So, over the past year, we’ve grounded our mission in something that’s big and something that’s looking to the future because that’s what we’re about. The UN’s sustainable development goals and its agenda really is something that we all can be working toward and contributing to. As part of our framework, we also have identified five thematic pillars that our work will engage in: the Future of Work, the Future of Coaching, the Future of Education, the Future of Social Policy and the Future of Planetary Ecology. We want to look at the intersections between coaching and each of these pillars and how they relate to the UN’s Action Plan. We not only want to bring coaching into the conversation, but also look beyond coaching to other parts of society that intersect with coaching. 

Q: On a day-to-day basis, how would members of the coaching community or ICF Members interact with ICF Thought Leadership Institute? 

A: We have three different service areas – convenings, research and the dissemination of a body of knowledge. We see these services coming together to create that global hub of shared knowledge for human development that’s designed to help create and influence the future of coaching. So, it’s about coming together and having conversations through convenings with thought leaders in all different kinds of positions and from diverse disciplines, using those conversations as catalysts for change, and contributing to that body of knowledge.  

Another way we want to build this body of knowledge is by building a digital library. We want to have a global, digital space where we can disseminate all this knowledge and contribute to the science and to the evidence-based practice of coaching. Coaches are going to be able to access content through our digital library that will help them in their practice of coaching, contribute to the conversation, and co-shape the future of possibility. It’s bringing different perspectives together from different areas to contribute to the bigger picture of the advancement of the coaching profession.  

Q: Why is this new brand important and how does it reflect ICF’s work in the coaching industry? 

A: The new brand is a great opportunity for ICF to evolve into its next stage of development. It’s been around for 25 years, and I think refreshing the brand is just the natural way to be relevant for the present and going into the next 25 years. The new brand helps ICF go into its next chapter as an organization that is on a mission to ensure that coaching is an integral part of a thriving society and that professional coaching is available across the world.  

Q: Tell us what this new brand identity means for ICF Thought Leadership Institute.  

A: The nice thing about this new brand is that it’s an ecosystem – each of the family organizations come together as One ICF.   It’s very interconnected across the ecosystem, and each family organization has its own identity that is connected to One ICF. For ICF Thought Leadership Institute, our logo color is red, which is a very bold color. So thinking boldly, it’s all about innovation, about that fire sparking the imagination. Thought leadership is meant to be provocative, so we’re going to be asking questions that help open our imagination and provoke our thinking. And the red really represents that bold thinking. We really want people to be curious and ask questions through some of our different types of interactions – convenings and research.   

Q: For industry researchers, innovators and other stakeholders, how does the establishment of this family organization and its brand add value to the work they do? 

A: When I look at the logo and I see the “C,” in ICF, it’s nice to have that letter take on the different color for each family organization, but again it’s all interconnected as One ICF.  To me, that stands for diversity and inclusion. It symbolizes openness and possibility.  I think it gets at how we’re going to connect with coaches and beyond.  It’s about movement and flow and the journey that represents change, which is what coaching is all about – transformation, learning and growing. 

Q: What are you most excited about in terms of aesthetic changes to the brand, and what do you think the ICF community will be most excited to see? 

A: I think it’s a bright, vibrant logo that has lots of energy and that sense of flow and openness, possibility and transformation. It’s exciting to think about a logo that really represents the essence and the heart of what coaching is all about. Having the opportunity to share that story with more people across the world is going to be very exciting as coaching continues to expand. We now have a logo that tells the story of coaching transformations and future possibilities. 

Q: Anything else to add? 

A: I think we’re all excited about the One ICF ecosystem of family organizations and having the opportunity to build on this 25-year legacy and embark on the next 25 years. It’s a very exciting time to be a part of the organization. I’m really excited to be a part of ICF Thought Leadership Institute and guide how we make connections in a very different way than we have before and making those connections to coaching and beyond. I’m excited to help people across the globe see what coaching is all about and how it contributes to societal well-being and help them think about it as an integral part of a thriving society.