Safety and opportunity
As I sit here in the South of England writing this blog, Spring is in the air, and I notice the many beautiful signs of new growth: green shoots, buds and leaves, birds and bees reappearing…
It is also at this time of year that new ICF growth is incorporated into our annual budgeting process, and I am really proud and excited to share that this spring we have approved our largest budget ever for this coming fiscal year.
As any accountant will tell you, a budget needs to strike a balance; on the one hand, risk is something to be careful with and needs to be offset with sufficient safety. However, on the other hand, in minimizing risk, we can also miss out on potential opportunities, and this can lead to stagnation and a lack of growth. The reason I am so happy about this budget is because it strikes a great balance between these elements and we have both safety and opportunity!
On the safety side, we apply a high level of governance and due diligence to the budgeting process. In January each year, the Board approves a number of budgetary assumptions around factors including membership growth and retention, other revenues, operational costs and operational reserves. These assumptions are based on historical data and trends as well as future projections and are given to our ICF staff to begin the preparation of a draft budget proposal. This is done by each director and manager working in close consultation with all team members across the various departments and functions, meaning that everyone is involved.
The finance team review the draft budget for accuracy and then the staff cross-checks it again to ensure that all items are correctly posted. At this point, the Finance Committee, which includes our CFO, CEO, Board Treasurer and one other Board Director, complete a detailed review of the budget and raise any comments or questions, which are directed back to the staff for response. The Finance Committee meets to thoroughly review the budget, discuss the comments, questions and responses and carefully consider the overall financial position of ICF. Based on this conversation, the budget is finalized and presented to the Board for approval at our March meeting.
On the opportunity side, we have noted some key areas of strategic focus for this year:
- ICF Members represent excellence in professional coaching. ICF researches, develops and implements robust standards, governance and operational procedures/structures and applicant requirements for all aspects of the ICF Credentialing program.
- ICF is the most relevant professional coaching organization. ICF assumes a thought–leadership role for the evolution of global coaching.
- ICF has the strongest global brand. ICF is to provide leading-edge technology resources and applications for all coaching stakeholders (e.g., coaches, public, organizations).
- ICF fosters the application of coaching for societal change. ICF will initiate conversations with the ICF Foundation to determine interest in and capability for investment in social change.
- ICF will further develop and progress the plans to expand the scope and influence of the organization.
To support these ambitious priorities, we have undertaken a thorough financial review to draw upon important historical lessons, and we are using that knowledge and experience to project towards an exciting and challenging future! These priorities are over and above the successful “business as usual” operation of our growing organization, which now offers many benefits for around 30,000 members and 131 chapters all over the globe.
In this way, both safety and opportunity are carefully interwoven into the budget so that we can be confident of our financial platform and stability and, at the time, invest significant time and money in growing and strengthening ICF through the achievement of our strategic plans.
Whichever season you are currently in, I send you the spirit of Spring, a season that leverages a solid foundation from times before to give rise to new growth, new beginnings and new opportunities!
With warmest wishes,
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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Hi Tracy,
Thank you for your wonderful writing and interesting article.
Happy springtime from Sweden.
All the best,
Jenny Andersson
Thanks for these messages. They are generally helpful. Respectfully, this one makes no sense to me. I am an adult and I would much rather value direct communication from our elected board members v/s empty platitudes about process that reveal very little information about the choices being made by our board and the direction our association is headed. I read this post twice and still don’t know what it’s trying to convey other than, “don’t worry, we have everything under control.”
For once, I’d love to hear from our global board what’s working and what’s not (an honest and candid assessment of the state of our association — things that are going well and things that are not going as well. Is this too much to ask from those we’ve entrusted with leading our global association?
Thank you for reading the blog and taking the time to respond.