Exploring the Formative Development Process

Join us for Exploring the Formative Development Process: Hopes, Fears and Emerging Best Practices with Lerae Gidyk, MCC, and Carly Anderson, MCC, for a highly interactive Mentor Coaching Community of Practice session exploring the shift from performative assessment toward formative development in mentor coaching. 

Who Is This For?

• Mentor coaches who want to better understand the shift from performative assessment toward formative development and navigate emerging expectations in mentor coaching. 
• Professional and experienced coaches who are looking to understand mentor coaching as a developmental process that supports growth over time. 
• Coach educators and coaching leaders who want to strengthen coach development, credential readiness, and feedback literacy. 
• ICF assessors and experienced coaches who are interested in how verbal and written feedback can support meaningful, human-centered development. 
• Credentialing candidates and coaches considering mentor coaching who want to explore developmental feedback, mentor coach mindset, and emerging best practices. 

What You Will Learn:

• Distinguish between performative assessment and formative development and consider how each approach influences mentor coaching. 
• Examine the mindset and presence needed to provide effective formative verbal and written feedback. 
• Apply human-centered, competency-informed approaches to feedback that support coach development over time. 
• Identify emerging best practices for developmental dialogue, feedback, and psychological safety in mentor coaching. 
• Reflect on evolving expectations and build shared language for navigating changes in mentor coaching practice. 

Course Details

The mentor coaching field is evolving, bringing new language, expectations, and opportunities to rethink how mentor coaches support the development of coaches over time. 

In this highly interactive Mentor Coaching Community of Practice session, Lerae Gidyk, MCC, and Carly Anderson, MCC, will invite participants to explore the shift from a primarily performative orientation toward a more formative developmental process. Participants will examine the distinction between assessing a coach’s performance at a single point in time and supporting ongoing learning, reflection, and growth. 

Together, participants will consider what formative development asks of mentor coaches, including the mindset and presence needed to provide feedback that is direct, useful, human-centered, and grounded in the ICF Core Competencies. The conversation will also create space to explore the hopes, fears, uncertainties, and learning edges that may arise as mentor coaches adapt to evolving expectations. 

Attention will be given to verbal and written formative feedback. Participants will consider how these forms of feedback require different skills and levels of intentionality, as well as how mentor coaches can maintain trust and psychological safety while engaging in honest developmental dialogue. 

Through reflective inquiry, small-group breakout conversations, and whole-group discussion, participants will have opportunities to examine their own practice, learn from the experiences of peers, and identify emerging approaches that can support coach growth over time. 

Rather than focusing on forms, logistics, or technical requirements, this session centers on the human and developmental dimensions of mentor coaching. Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of formative development, greater awareness of the mindset required to support it, and practical considerations for providing competency-informed feedback that encourages continued growth. 

This session is especially relevant for mentor coaches, experienced professional coaches, coach educators, ICF assessors, credentialing candidates, and coaching leaders interested in strengthening feedback practices and supporting a developmental approach to mentor coaching.