Importance of Volunteer Leadership
ICF recognizes that the strength of our coaching profession lies in the leadership of our dedicated volunteers. Like the impact of coaching, your contributions ripple outward to the individuals you serve at ICF, across the larger ICF ecosystem, and into your communities and society.
GLF nurtures this leadership, providing the resources, connections, and fresh thinking necessary to strengthen your influence, foster a sense of belonging, and cultivate a diverse network of empowered leaders committed to excellence.
How to Participate
GLF is an exclusive, online event for all ICF volunteer leaders. Each year, volunteer leaders receive an invitation to participate, and its recordings can be accessed throughout the year on the ICF Learning Portal. By participating, you can contribute to fostering a more diverse and inclusive culture that positively impacts ICF, the coaching profession, and beyond.
How does it benefit you? The Global Leaders Forum provides leadership skill building, access to global expertise, peer learning, and inspiration to fuel your volunteer role.
GLF 2026 Event Overview
Set the tone. Lead the conversation. Inspire collaboration. GLF 2026 will explore how adaptive leadership, strategic thinking, and a focus on belonging and resilience — leading with courage in uncertainty, seeing the system to shape the future, and leading with heart and humanity — can transform the way we lead.
This event is complimentary for our volunteer leaders in support of their impactful work. It is designed to equip you with the tools, insights, and strategies to lead with confidence and purpose. By participating in GLF 2026, you’ll gain:
- Global Perspectives: Learn from thought leaders, cultural experts, and fellow volunteers to explore how adaptive leadership can transform how we lead in a rapidly changing world.
- Adaptive Leadership: Leading with courage in times of uncertainty builds trust and engagement within your teams.
- Strategic Thinking: As the ICF ecosystem develops its strategic plan for the next three years, discover how to translate it for your teams to help shape the future.
- Belonging and Resilience: When leaders focus on building belonging within their teams, they lay the foundation for greater resilience individually and collectively.
Registration opens soon!
Agenda Highlights
Step into your leadership potential with GLF 2026. Through thought-provoking content, you’ll explore:
Adaptive Leadership: Lead with Courage in Uncertainty
Challenges rarely come with clear solutions. Adaptive leaders pivot often, leaning into curiosity, courage, and collaboration to guide others through change. For volunteer leaders, this means inspiring shared ownership and learning — turning challenges into growth.
Leadership today is less about having all the answers and more about creating space for others to find them.
Strategic Thinking: See the System, Shape the Future
Strategic thinking moves leaders beyond short-term action toward purposeful alignment. It calls for systems awareness — spotting patterns, identifying leverage points, and staying responsive to evolving needs.
Strategic thinking is the bridge between vision and action, helping leaders focus energy where it matters most.
Belonging and Resilience: Lead with Heart and Humanity
Leadership is sustainable only when rooted in connection and care. Belonging builds trust, resilience fuels endurance, and both create environments where volunteers feel seen, supported, and inspired.
Leading forward means leading from wholeness — uniting purpose, people, and well-being.
Past ICF GLF Events
GLF 2025 was an exciting event that engaged our volunteer leaders in conversations around managing divergent beliefs within our teams while also laying the foundation of our leadership in wellness. ICF GLF 25 included the following sessions:
- Power of Dialogue.
- Wellness as a Leaders Foundation.
- Building Tams and Communities that promote belonging and unity.
- Leading by Example.
GLF 25 recordings are now available on demand to volunteer leaders in the ICF Learning Portal through February 2026.
Testimonials from Past ICF GLF Attendees
“GLF 24 allowed me to meet coaching leaders from all over the world. It was an inspiring combination of learning and connecting to ICF's broader vision for a new era in coaching.”
Jen Lewi, ACC, ICF Career Coaching Community of Practice Volunteer Ambassador
Featured Events
Looking for additional ways to connect with the ICF community and learn with fellow coaches? Check out our upcoming events.
The Balcony View: A Systems-Inspired Approach to Coaching
We invite you to step back from the dance of team dynamics and observe the wider system at play. In this experiential workshop, you will explore how a systems-inspired perspective helps teams and organisations access greater clarity, alignment, and creative potential. By learning to work from the “balcony view,” you will connect individual behaviours to patterns, relationships, and the broader organisational context.
From Story to Self: Integrating Artistic Process
This experiential session invites coaches to intentionally integrate story, poetry, and meditation into their practice to deepen client awareness, presence, and insight. Grounded in research on creative process and mindfulness, participants will explore how artistic and contemplative approaches strengthen active listening, ethical attunement, and trust-building while remaining aligned with professional coaching standards.
One Map: Science of Leadership & Well-being
Coach Meg will explore how each capacity integrates a way of valuing, thinking, feeling, acting, and leading in the world. She will demonstrate how coaches can cultivate all of these perspectives as coaching intelligence aligned with ICF competencies, including using an AI system she designed called Multi-Perspective AI.
Networking Opportunities for Volunteers
GLF only happens once a year, but you can connect with fellow volunteer leaders at any time via ICF Engage. This exclusive platform is your gateway to connect, collaborate, and network with peers, making it the largest and most dynamic coaching community in the world — all accessible right at your fingertips.