5 Steps to Coaching Accreditation | Step 3 - Mentor Coaching

Building a Coaching Culture - #123: 5 Steps to Coaching Accreditation | Step 3 - Mentor Coaching === J.R. Flatter: [00:00:00] Hey, welcome back, everybody. J. R. Flatter here with my co host, Lucas. How are you doing? Lucas Flatter: Pretty good. J.R. Flatter: In this session, we wanted to talk about mentor coaching. Just as a reminder, in two earlier sessions we talked about the education requirements for an ICF accreditation, the experience requirements for an ICF accreditation, and in this session, we wanted to talk about mentor coaching. J.R. Flatter: All right, mentor coaching. Um, another step in the journey. there is an exact requirement or [00:01:00] sequencing for any of these, uh, sessions other than, uh, the fifth one taking the coaching exam has to be after all the other four have been successfully completed. but with regard to mentor coaching, at a minimum you would want 20 to 30 hours of education under your belt so that when you jump into the mentor coaching You know what you're doing, and you know some of the language of coaching. You have some familiarity with the core competencies, the ethics, and the core values. Because most of your peers that are in the mentor coaching cohort are going to have that knowledge, and they're going to be speaking in that language. And so you don't want to have to play catch up. But that's not an absolute requirement. That's just a suggestion that we would make. So a little of the fundamentals of mentor coaching. It's you in a cohort of 10 people or fewer. Can be one on one, but no more than 10. And this is our opportunity [00:02:00] as a education program To have the closest look we're going to have of you. And so there's some, uh, requirements other than the 10, uh, the group of 10 or fewer. And that is, um, it has to occur over a minimum of three months, uh, not 12 weeks. But three months. So if you're in February and March, uh, those are two months, even though one of them is shorter in days. 12 weeks, 12 times seven. that's not what the ICF accepts. The ICF accepts three full months. So January, February, and March, if that were your sequence. So groups of 10 or smaller a minimum of three months. And, depending on the accreditation of your mentor, usually they're a PCC or higher. The ICF makes an [00:03:00] exception for an ACC who's been re accredited. So not on their first three years, but beyond their first accreditation, they've been re accredited. They can be a mentor. ACC that have been re accredited, PCCs and MCCs. We have all levels in our mentor cohort, ACC that have been re accredited, PCCs and Lucas Flatter: re accredited, PCCs and MCCs. J.R. Flatter: we do a dozen or so cohorts a year, maybe more, and we publish those cohorts if you want to jump in. I think the ideal sequence is do a 30 hour coach certification, then do your mentor coaching. And then come to the live coach training to get your last 20 hours, because the 10 hours of mentor coaching count in the 60 hours that you must get to get an ACC. They count in the, 125 hours and they count in the, 200 hours for, uh, coaching. MCC and PCC. of the 10 sessions, it's 10 hours. [00:04:00] Again, the ICEP goes back to the clock and uses hours as their baseline. Seven of those can be in group, but three of them must be one on one at a minimum. You can do all 10 sessions one on one, but I leave that up to you to decide. Most time, you'll be in a 10 person cohort, uh, of which no more than 7 of those can be in group. And we have a bit of a framework that we put around them. The first section is an introduction. What is mentor coaching? It's not you receiving an accreditation as a mentor coach, but rather it's you being mentored. By an accredited coach. And so the, that's what the mentor coaching is. The mentor will be at all 10 sessions. You'll be in the first seven, uh, as a group, and then you'll break out into one-on-one with your mentor of all the phases of this journey. This is. An opportunity to really get up close and personal from our [00:05:00] side as the educator, but also from your side is to having that kind of repeated access to a mentor and that kind of engagement in such a small cohort. So across the arc of the coaching journey, Through education and experience and mentor coaching, uh, and the performance evaluation, Lucas Flatter: uh, J.R. Flatter: this is really the best opportunity to have that kind of intimacy. So strongly recommend that you not do one on one, but rather do it in that cohort where you can learn from your peers, you can hear your peers. Lucas Flatter: So the J.R. Flatter: structure beyond the introduction for us, the next six are case studies, uh, real world case studies. Uh, we're constantly refreshing those case studies. But your mentor can choose whatever framework they want. They're an experienced coach and so they'll have their own style. We leave a great deal of autonomy with our mentors beyond the six, seven sessions in group and the three one on [00:06:00] ones of what they do in them and how they mentor. The ICF gives us a lot of autonomy in our coaching practice, beyond the fundamentals of the competencies and the core values and the ethics, how you employ those, how you demonstrate those are up to you. And you'll see that kind of variation with your mentors, but we don't want to constrain them. Beyond the the seven sessions, three one on ones and the ethics and core competencies. And so we give them a lot of autonomy. And so you'll get two very different mentoring experiences from two different coaches. All of us are looking for the same things when we're listening to you, coach, and watching you, coach. We're looking for the demonstration of the core competencies. We're looking for demonstrations of ethics and core values. Are you maintaining a coaching mindset? that will be consistent across any mentor. So what questions do you have for Lucas Flatter: me about mentor coaching? so [00:07:00] straight from ICF, um, the way that they justify this three month minimum is so that you can integrate feedback received, um, so you know, you're getting feedback, you're going back into the world, so would you recommend that people that are going through mentor coaching have, um, Either education ongoing or having clients ongoing? What are they doing? Homework, I J.R. Flatter: guess. Yeah, great question. It just so happens that most people are doing them concurrently. They're getting their education while they're getting their mentor coaching, while they're getting their experience. And so even though it's three distinct requirements, they're oftentimes taking place simultaneously. And I agree with the three months, you wouldn't want to cram seven hours or ten hours of mentor coaching into one day, for example. You couldn't possibly absorb all of that, you couldn't possibly go home and be reflective and journal on what you've been seen and heard [00:08:00] and been told. Lucas Flatter: So we normally spread the 10 sessions out across that minimum of three months. And so when we start a mentor coaching cohort, we tell the mentor J.R. Flatter: you can't complete your training until this Lucas Flatter: date J.R. Flatter: And so that third one on one session can't be scheduled before this date and we'll put it on the calendar We'll have a one on one with the mentor and tell them and you know You've struck right at the heart of what the mentor coaching is all about. It's to get That kind of feedback. So one of our requirements as a program is to observe Lucas Flatter: you J.R. Flatter: and the closest observation you're going to get. Is in the mentor coaching and so you're going to get written and verbal feedback a minimum of six times from us in our program. And most of those written and verbal feedbacks are gonna come during your mentor coaching. The [00:09:00] sequencing of the three one-on-ones should be spread out sufficiently. That when you do get feedback, you have time to go reflect, you have time to go practice what you've been taught, and then come back and have another one on one session. Lucas Flatter: to J.R. Flatter: Use what you've learned between the sessions. Lucas Flatter: another question about ethical practices. How are we presenting students with maybe real world? I know you mentioned case studies of some of these ethical dilemmas that might Sure. Yeah, so all of our case studies, and we use a lot of case studies, are from our own coaching experiences. We scrub. Any identifying details out of them, times, genders, uh, places, names, and then present them back as a case study, uh, for our students to learn from. J.R. Flatter: So, the confidentiality of the live podcast. Real coaching [00:10:00] session isn't broken. We're very careful about that. Lucas Flatter: yeah, I don't have any more questions. I just wanted to summarize some of these numbers. Ten hours of mentor coaching over a minimum of three months. ten or fewer students in the class. Three hours of the seven must be one on one. and you can find all of those on our checklist that we're going to provide, um, after you watch this video. J.R. Flatter: Yeah. The only reminder I'd put in there is that the level of accreditation of your mentor, make sure they're qualified to be a mentor. Otherwise it could be 10 hours. You'll learn from, but then you couldn't put that you had completed mentor Lucas Flatter: coaching. J.R. Flatter: one of the realities of a mentor coaching relationship is, when you put your application in for your accreditation, you'll Lucas Flatter: list J.R. Flatter: who you took your mentor coaching from and their email Lucas Flatter: address. J.R. Flatter: And if I were your mentor, I will immediately Lucas Flatter: get J.R. Flatter: an Lucas Flatter: email J.R. Flatter: the ICF asking [00:11:00] me if you successfully completed mentor coaching with Lucas Flatter: me. J.R. Flatter: So that's the check and balance there. If the ICF checks my accreditation, and I'm not qualified to be your Lucas Flatter: mentor, J.R. Flatter: you're going to get an email, unfortunately, informing Lucas Flatter: you that J.R. Flatter: that mentor coaching Lucas Flatter: can't count. Yeah, this is a long journey, so you don't want to commit to the wrong J.R. Flatter: powers. Yeah, exactly. All Lucas Flatter: right, J.R. Flatter: so that's the end of session three, talking about mentor coaching. we'll be back, uh, with session four, talking about the performance evaluations that you'll have to take to get an ICF accreditation. if you missed any of the earlier sessions, you can find them on our website. Lucas Flatter: And all of this information can be found in the checklist PDF that we're going to provide on the video description. J.R. Flatter: so we'll see you in the next session. Lucas Flatter: Thanks. Bye bye. J.R. Flatter: Lucas, [00:12:00]