Criteria for Assessing Coaching at the MCC Credential Level

Among the hallmarks of MCC-level coaching is the fluidity and artistry with which a coach engages in a coaching conversation. This can manifest in a variety of ways. Most commonly, MCC-level coaching is demonstrated through the depth of skill in a specific coaching behavior or through the integration of multiple competencies simultaneously in a seamlessly blended manner.

The structure of the Minimum Skills Requirements for MCC-level coaching is designed to reflect the unique characteristics of masterful coaching, with behaviors identified for each of the Core Competency areas, as well as overarching behaviors and skills that reflect MCC-level coaching across the competencies. Both the overall MCC-level coaching behaviors and the competency-specific skills have been identified through research with MCC-credentialed coaches.

At the MCC level of coaching, you should:

• Demonstrate trust in the client as a full partner throughout the coaching engagement, supporting the client in directing the focus and approach of the session and exploring the client’s learning in a way that supports their continued growth.
• Exhibit a genuine interest and curiosity in and support for the client as a whole person — beyond the client’s situation or immediate goals — and support the client in reflecting on their learning and discovery about themselves at a holistic level.
• Demonstrate genuine trust in and respect for the client’s choices, perceptions, insights, and contributions throughout the coaching, engaging in the coaching as a supporter and active learner and encouraging the client to explore their learning and growth at a deep level.

Specifically, as an MCC applicant, you are assessed on the following general coaching behaviors as part of the Performance Evaluation process:

• Coach invites the client to explore the lens through which the client is observing their current situation.
• The coach’s comments and questions come from the totality of what they have learned about who the client is and their coaching purpose.
• Coach’s invitations to the client primarily focus on exploring deeper learning or a path forward.

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 Credentialing 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 the MCC level, the minimum standard of skill that must be demonstrated to achieve a passing score for this competency is that the coach fully explores with the client what the client wants to work on. The coach partners with the client to thoroughly explore the importance of the topic to the client, measures of success, and any changes in the direction of the coaching conversation.

Through a partnering discussion, the coach ensures that both the coach and client are clear about the agenda, the measures of success, and the issues to be discussed, and the coach attends to that agenda and those measures throughout the coaching, unless redirected by the client. The coach regularly checks with the client throughout the session to ensure that the client’s goals for the session are being achieved and that the direction and process are supporting the client in moving toward their desired outcome.

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

• Coach partners with the client to explore the topic or focus of the session at a level that is meaningful to the client.
• Coach partners with the client to keep the desired outcome as a guide to the coaching conversation in a flexible, gentle and natural manner.
• Coach notices subtle shifts in the conversation and invites the client to change direction if the client desires.

Below the Standard

You will not receive a passing score for this competency on your MCC Performance Evaluation if full partnership with the client is not demonstrated. Full partnership will not be demonstrated if you choose the topic(s) for the client or if you do not coach around the topic(s) the client has chosen.

The evaluation for this competency will also be negatively impacted if you:

• Do not explore the measures of success for each topic with the client to a degree that achieves clarity about the client’s intent or direction for the session.
• Do not allow the client full input into the issues that should be discussed relative to the client’s stated objectives for the session.
• Do not check with the client about whether the client is moving toward what the client wanted from the session.

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 depth of trust in and respect for the client and the client’s processes of thinking, 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 MCC level, the minimum standard of skill that must be demonstrated to receive a passing score for this competency is that the coach demonstrates complete and open trust in the client and the process by engaging the client as an equal partner in the coaching, and by the coach’s willingness to be vulnerable with the client and creating a safe space for the client to be vulnerable in return.

The MCC-level coach demonstrates complete confidence in the self, the coaching process, and the client as a whole, and has a genuine curiosity about — and respect for — the client’s perceptions, learning style, and personal being. The client is treated as an equal partner in the relationship with a full invitation to participate in the development and creation of the coaching process and their own new learning and behaviors.

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

• Coach engages the client as an equal partner in a collaborative coaching process.
• Coach exhibits genuine curiosity about the client as a whole person by inviting the client to share more about themself or their identity.
• Coach provides space for the client to fully express themself, share feelings, beliefs, and perspectives, without judgment.
• Coach acknowledges the client and celebrates client progress.

Below the Standard

You will not receive a passing score for this competency in the MCC Performance Evaluation if you do not treat the client as a full partner, choosing not only the agenda but also participating in the creation of the coaching process itself.

Lack of full partnership will be demonstrated if you:

• Exhibit an interest in your view of the situation rather than the client’s view.
• Do not seek information from the client about the client’s thinking.
• Do not seek information about the client’s goals.
• Demonstrates a lack of interest in or disrespect toward the client as a whole.

In addition, the evaluation for this competency will be negatively impacted if you:

• Do not invite the client to share their thinking on an equal level with you.
• Choose the direction and approach without significant input from the client.
• Are teaching rather than coaching.

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 MCC level, the minimum standard of skill that must be demonstrated to receive a passing score for this competency is that the coach is fully partnering with the client in the coaching dialogue and is a connected observer to the client, holding both objective and emotional perspectives simultaneously. The connection is to the whole of the client – who the client is, what the client wants, how the client learns and creates, and how the client leads the coaching conversation.

The coach evidences a genuine curiosity in the client. As with “Competency 4. Cultivates Trust and Safety,” the coach is in a complete partnership with the client where the client is an equal or greater contributor to the conversation and direction of the coaching than the coach. At the MCC level, the conversation between coach and client is equal and easy, even in uncomfortable moments.

Specifically, you are assessed on the following behavioral statements within “Competency 5: Maintains Presence” as part of the Performance Evaluation process:

• Coach responds to the client in a manner that keeps the conversation flowing with the client leading the way.
• Coach remains curious and attentive to the client, exploring what the client needs throughout the session.
• Coach engages in the coaching conversation with ease and fluidity.
• Coach leverages silence to support the client and the client’s growth.

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 MCC Performance Evaluation if you do not treat the client as a full partner, choosing not only the agenda but also participating in the creation of the coaching process itself. Such lack of full partnership is demonstrated if you:

• Exhibit interest in your view of the situation rather than the client’s view.
• Do not seek information from the client about the client’s thinking.
• Do not seek information about the client’s goals.
• Are focused on your own performance or demonstration of knowledge.

In addition, the evaluation will be negatively impacted if you do not invite the client to share their thinking on an equal level with you.

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 MCC level, the minimum standard of skill that must be demonstrated to receive a passing score for this competency is that the coach listens as a learner and demonstrates an ability to listen at the logical and emotional level at the same time.

Responses from the coach evidence learning about the client at multiple levels. The coach’s responses evidence that the coach is hearing:

• The client’s intuitive abilities.
• The client’s energy.
• When the client speaks of important things.
• When new growth is occurring for the client.
• How that growth is related to the client’s stated objectives and agenda.
• When the client is finding, creating, and using a more powerful sense of self.

The coach is also able to hear the client’s current thinking and growth and relate it to the future the client is trying to create. An MCC-level coach hears the totality of the client’s greatness and gifts as well as limiting beliefs and patterns. The coach’s listening is cumulative from session to session and throughout each individual session.

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

• Coach responds to the client with an invitation into a deeper exploration of client thinking and behaviors.
• Coach’s responses to the client demonstrates an understanding of the client’s emotions, energy, or learning and growth, in alignment with the client’s agenda.
• Coach reflects what the client communicates in relation to the context of the whole person.

Below the Standard

You will not receive a passing score for “Listens Actively” on the MCC Performance Evaluation if:

• You do not demonstrate listening that is based on the whole client and an ability to hear the client’s thinking, learning, and feeling at multiple levels.
• Your listening is filtered only through your methods of thinking, learning, and creating, and you do not actively hear and use as a significant coaching tool, the client’s methods of thinking, learning, and creating.

The score for this competency will also be negatively impacted if any of the following are apparent:

• Nuances of the client’s language are not reflected in your responses.
• You do not respond to what the client communicates.
• Your response is not related to what the client is trying to achieve.
• Your listening is primarily focused on the client’s problems or weaknesses.

You will not receive a passing grade on the MCC 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 content of the 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 MCC level, the minimum standard of skill that must be demonstrated to receive a passing score for this competency is that the coach’s invitations to explore important issues precede and exceed the invitation to a solution.

At an MCC level, the coach’s way of being is consistently curious; the coach is willing to not know and allow the exploration to evolve based on the client’s thinking, learning, and creating. The coach asks mostly — if not always — direct, evocative questions that are fully responsive to the client in the moment, to the client’s agenda and stated objectives, and that require significant thought by the client or take the client to a new place of thinking.

The coach makes frequent and full use of the client’s language and learning style to craft questions, insights, or observations that provide a space for a client to use and expand their own style of thinking, learning, and creating, and to discover their power, gifts, and strengths.

The coach provides sufficient space and encouragement to allow the client to integrate and use new awareness to identify patterns of thinking or behavior, resolve current challenges, achieve current goals, and think how the new awareness may be used in the future.

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

• Coach partners with the client to explore the client’s stories, metaphors, and imagery that support growth and learning.
• Coach stimulates new client insights with minimal, precise questions.
  Coach asks questions that challenge the client to explore more deeply or to go beyond current thinking and feeling.
• Coach shares with fluidity insights, observations, or questions, from the client’s words and actions to foster awareness.

Below the Standard

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

• You do not demonstrate an ability to use questions, insights, silence, or other techniques that encourage the client to deepen their thinking in a larger, more reflective space related to the client or the client’s agenda.
• Your communication limits the thinking and learning direction for the client without specific interaction with, discussion of, and acceptance by the client to the limitation.

In addition, the evaluation will be negatively impacted if any of the following are apparent:

• You frequently ask questions that keep the client in the past or in present detail of a situation rather than in forward thinking.
• You drive the client towards solutions without fully exploring issues that may be important to gaining complete solution or accomplishment for the client.
• The dialogue does not provide sufficient space for the client’s full participation in creating awareness.
• Your communication reflects an agenda or direction of any kind.
• You do not evidence frequent use of the client’s language, learning, thinking, and creating styles.
• You do not often create an easy place for the client to engage in deeper thinking, learning, and discovery.

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 to support 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 MCC level, the minimum standard of skill that must be demonstrated to receive a passing score for this competency is that the coach fully partners with the client to explore the client’s learning about their situation and themselves, and ways to apply new awareness to support the client’s agenda, desired goals, and future growth.

The coach partners with the client throughout the session to explore the client’s progress and learning and supports the client in reflecting on what the client is discovering about themselves.
The MCC coach demonstrates trust in the client to develop actions and accountability structures that are reflective of the client’s agenda and broader learning or accomplishment that the client wants to obtain, integrating the client’s strengths as well as the best of the client’s learning and creating methodologies.

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

• Coach checks in with the client and their progress, learnings, and insights in natural and spontaneous ways throughout the session.
• Coach invites the client to sense and reflect on what they are learning about themselves.
• Coach cultivates an environment for the client to intentionally apply their own learning.

Below the Standard

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

• Do not invite full client participation.
• Do not encourage client leadership in planning strategies, actions, and methods of accountability.
• Dominate in any way the actions or applications of learning that are created.

The evaluation will also be negatively impacted if:

• You do not invite or partner with the client to explore what the client is learning about themself and possible applications of that learning.
• Applications of learning do not reflect a clear potential for forward movement by the client related to the client’s agenda, desired outcomes, or to some other learning that the client has defined as necessary for their growth.
• Designed plans and goals and/or discussion designed actions involve only physical activity with no attention to the thinking, learning, being, and creativity structures of the client.