Criteria for Assessing Coaching at the ACC Credential Level

Familiarity with the ICF Code of Ethics and its application is required for all levels of coaching. You must demonstrate a strong ethical understanding to earn any level of ICF credential.

Minimum Standard Skill to Pass This Competency

To receive a passing score for this first core competency, you must:

• Demonstrate a strong understanding and alignment with the ICF Code of Ethics. Ethical behavior is critical to earning your credential.
• Consistently stay in the role of the coach. This means focusing on inquiry and exploration, and working on present and future issues, rather than telling the client what to do (consulting mode) or focusing on past emotional issues (therapeutic mode).
• Use your coaching skills. The foundation of your coaching should be built on core skills like active listening, evoking awareness, and facilitating client growth. You must demonstrate clarity and competence in using these skills in the Performance Evaluation.

Below the Standard

You will not receive a passing score for this competency if you:

• Are in clear violation of the ICF Code of Ethics. This will result in an automatic failure, and your credential application will be denied.
• Focus primarily on telling the client what to do (consulting mode) or delve mostly into past emotional issues (therapeutic mode). Coaching should be focused on the present and future, guiding the client through inquiry and exploration.
• Fail to demonstrate basic coaching skills. If you primarily give advice or tell the client what to do, instead of facilitating their own insights, key coaching skills such as trust, presence, active listening, and evoking awareness will be absent. This lack of competency will result in a denial of your credential.

This foundational competency is focused primarily on the “being” of the coach, rather than specific behaviors in individual sessions. It reflects how a coach shows up consistently across their practice.

As a result, there are no specific behavioral criteria for this competency in the Performance Evaluation. Instead, your understanding and application of this core competency are evaluated in the ICF ACC Exam.

Key Skills Evaluated

For “Competency 3: Establishes and Maintains Agreements,” the key skills evaluated are:

1. The clarity and depth in creating an agreement for the session.
2. The coach’s ability to partner and the depth of partnering with the client in the creation of agreement, measures of success, and issues to be addressed.
3. The coach’s ability to attend to the client’s agenda throughout the session.

Minimum Standard Skill to Pass This Competency

At an ACC level, the minimum standard of skill that must be demonstrated to achieve a passing score for this competency is that the coach invites the client to identify what the client wants to accomplish in the session and the coach attends to that agenda throughout the coaching, unless the client indicates otherwise.

Specifically, you are assessed on the following behavioral statements within “Competency 3: Establishes and Maintains Agreements” as part of the Performance Evaluation process:

• Coach invites the client to identify their desired coaching outcome.
• Coach and client reach an agreement on what the client wants to accomplish in the session.
• Coach shows curiosity about the client and how the client relates to what they want to accomplish.
• Coach attends to the agenda set by the client throughout the session, unless the client indicates otherwise.

Below the Standard

You will not receive a passing score for this competency on your ACC Performance Evaluation if you choose the topic for the client or if you do not coach around the topic the client has chosen.

Key Skills Evaluated

For “Competency 4: Cultivates Trust and Safety,” the key skills evaluated are:

1. The coach’s depth of connection to and support of the client.
2. The coach’s demonstration of trust in and respect for the client and the client’s processes of thinking and creating.
3. The coach’s willingness to be open, authentic, and vulnerable with the client to build mutual trust.

Minimum Standard Skill to Pass This Competency

At an ACC level, the minimum standard of skill that must be demonstrated to receive a passing score for this competency is that the coach shows genuine concern, support, and respect for the client and is attuned to client’s beliefs, perceptions, learning style, and personal being.

Specifically, you are assessed on the following behavioral statements within “Competency 4: Cultivates Trust and Safety” as part of the Performance Evaluation process:

• Coach acknowledges client insights and learning in the moment.
• Coach explores the client’s expression of feelings, perceptions, concerns, beliefs, or suggestions.
• Coach expresses support and concern for the client, which may focus on the client’s context, problem, or situation, rather than the client holistically.

Below the Standard

You will not receive a passing score for this competency in the ACC Performance Evaluation if you:

• Demonstrate significant interest in your own view of the situation rather than the client’s view of the situation.
• Do not seek information from the client about the client’s thinking around the situation.
• Are unsupportive or disrespectful to the client.
• Seem to be focused on your own performance or demonstration of knowledge about the topic rather than on the client.

Key Skills Evaluated

For “Competency 5: Maintains Presence,” the key skills evaluated are:

1. The coach’s depth of focus on and partnership with the client.
2. The coach’s depth of observation and use of the whole of the client in the coaching process.
3. The coach’s ability to create space for reflection and remain present to the client through both conversation and silence.

Minimum Standard Skill to Pass This Competency

At an ACC level, the minimum standard of skill that must be demonstrated to receive a passing score for this competency is that the coach demonstrates curiosity about the client and the client’s agenda and is responsive to the information the client offers throughout the session.
Specifically, you are assessed on the following behavioral statements within “Competency 5: Maintains Presence” as part of the Performance Evaluation process:

• Coach is curious throughout the session.
• Coach acknowledges situations that the client presents.
• Coach allows the client to direct the conversation at least some of the time.

Below the Standard

ICF notes that “Competency 4: Cultivates Trust and Safety” and “Competency 5: Maintains Presence” are interrelated competencies. Therefore, you will not receive a passing score for this competency on the ACC Performance Evaluation if you:

• Demonstrate significant interest in your own view of the situation rather than exploring the client’s view of the situation.
• Do not seek information from the client about the client’s thinking around the situation or is unresponsive to that information.
• Consistently directs the conversation, or the attention seems to be on your own performance or demonstration of knowledge about the topic.

Key Skills Evaluated

For “Competency 6: Listens Actively,” the key skills evaluated are:

1. The coach’s depth of attention to what the client communicates in relation to the client and the client’s agenda.
2. The coach’s ability to hear on multiple levels including both the emotional and substantive content of the words.
3. The coach’s ability to hear underlying beliefs, thinking, creating, and learning that are occurring for the client including recognizing incongruities in language, emotions, and actions.
4. The coach’s ability to hear and integrate the client’s language and to invite the client to deeper exploration.

Minimum Standard Skill to Pass This Competency

At an ACC level, the minimum standard of skill that must be demonstrated to receive a passing score for this competency is that the coach listens to what the client communicates in relation to the client’s agenda, responds to what the client offers to ensure clarity of understanding, and integrates what the client has communicated to support the client in achieving their agenda. The coach’s behaviors in this competency may include listening to what the client has communicated verbally, as well as what the client may communicate in other ways, such as tone of voice, energy,  emotional shifts, or body language.

Specifically, you are assessed on the following behavioral statements within this competency as part of the Performance Evaluation process:

• Coach uses summarizing or paraphrasing to make sure they understood the client correctly.
• Coach makes observations that support the client in creating new associations.
• Coach co-creates a shared vision with the client.

Below the Standard

You will not receive a passing score for “Listens Actively” on the ACC Performance Evaluation if you do not demonstrate listening that is focused on and responds to what the client communicates or if your responses are not related to what the client is trying to achieve.

You will not receive a passing grade on the ACC Performance Evaluation if you appear to be listening for the place where you can demonstrate your knowledge about the topic or tell the client what to do about the topic.

Key Skills Evaluated

For “Competency 7: Evokes Awareness,” the key skills evaluated are:

1. The coach’s use of inquiry, exploration, silence, and other techniques that support the client in achieving new or deeper learning and awareness.
2. The coach’s ability to explore with and evoke exploration by the client of the emotional and substantive meaning of the client’s words.
3. The coach’s ability to explore with and evoke exploration by the client of the underlying beliefs and means of thinking, creating, and learning that are occurring for the client.
4. The coach’s ability to support the client in exploring new or expanded perspectives or ways of thinking.
5. The coach’s invitation to and integration of the client’s intuition, thinking, and language as critical tools in the coaching process.

Minimum Standard Skill to Pass This Competency

At an ACC level, the minimum standard of skill that must be demonstrated to receive a passing score for this competency is that the coach uses inquiry, exploration, silence, and other techniques to support the client in achieving new or deeper learning and awareness.

Specifically, you are assessed on the following behavioral statements within this competency as part of the Performance Evaluation process:

• Coach acknowledges the client’s new awareness, learning, and movement toward the desired outcome.
• Coach supports the client in viewing the situation from new or different perspectives.
• Coach inquires about or explores the client’s ideas, beliefs, thinking, emotions, and behaviors in relation to the desired outcome.

Below the Standard

You will not receive a passing score for “Evokes Awareness” on the ACC Performance Evaluation if:

• You focus consistently on instructing the client or sharing your own knowledge, ideas, or beliefs.
• The majority of your questions are leading or contain predetermined answers by you.
• Your questions and explorations attend to an agenda or issues not set by the client, but set by you as the coach.

Key Skills Evaluated

For “Competency 8: Facilitates Client Growth,” the key skills evaluated are:

1. The coach’s ability to support the client in exploring their learning about themselves and their situation and the application of that learning toward the client’s goals.
2. The coach’s ability to partner fully with the client in designing actions from their new awareness — which may include thinking, feeling, or learning — that support the client in moving toward their stated agenda or goals.
3. The coach’s ability to support the client in developing measurable achievements that are steps toward the client’s stated goals or outcomes.
4. The coach’s ability to partner with the client to explore and acknowledge the client’s progress throughout the session.
5. The coach’s depth of partnership in closing the session.

Minimum Standard Skill to Pass This Competency

At an ACC level, the minimum standard of skill that must be demonstrated to receive a passing score for this competency is that the coach supports the client in exploring how to apply the client’s learning and awareness to post-session actions that are related to the client’s stated agenda and have the potential to move the client forward in their thinking, learning, or growth. At this level, the coach may also suggest resources to assist the client in achieving their goals so long as the resources are not forced on the client.

Specifically, you are assessed on the following behavioral statements within this competency as part of the

Performance Evaluation process:

• Coach partners with the client to create or confirm specific action plans.
• Coach asks questions to support the client in translating awareness into action.
• Coach supports the client to close the session.

Below the Standard

You will not receive a passing score for “Facilitates Client Growth” on the ACC Performance Evaluation if you:

• Insist the client carry out specific actions prescribed by you.
• Suggests actions or steps to the client that do not have a clear relationship to the client’s stated agenda.
• Do not invite the client to identify or explore how the client’s learning can be applied to future actions or activities that support the client’s agenda.
• Do not support the client to close the session.