The Core Competencies of ICF Coaching

I first encountered Coaching fifteen years ago, during my early NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) courses. Until then, it was a world completely unknown to me. It was love at first sight: the more I learned, the more my desire to deepen, study, and develop new skills grew. This journey led me, a few years later, to discover ICF Coaching – International Coaching Federation – which significantly expanded my understanding and vision of this discipline.

What struck me from the very beginning was the core principle that the Coach does not take responsibility for the Client’s choices, but instead accompanies them through a process of discovering their own answers and resources, developing new self-awareness and insights about the situations they are experiencing. Up until that moment, I had always been in contexts where others decided what was “right” or “wrong” for me. Coaching allowed me to find myself again, to recognize my resources, and to express them in the world. I realized there is no universal “right” or “wrong” – only what is suitable for a person at a specific moment in time.

Coaching taught me to see things from different perspectives, to live in alignment with my Purpose and my Being, instead of following external impositions. This inner transformation generated new energy, new meanings, and more authentic behaviors. That is why I chose to turn this passion into my profession, becoming a Coach.

But how does this change happen? What makes ICF Coaching unique? And what defines ICF’s competency model and professional standards?

ICF identifies eight interconnected core competencies, grouped into four main categories:

I – Foundation of Coaching

1. Demonstrates Ethical Practice
2. Embodies a Coaching Mindset

II – Co-Creating the Relationship

3. Establishes and Maintains Agreements

4. Cultivates Trust and Safety

5. Maintains Presence

III – Communicating Effectively

6. Listens Actively

7. Evokes Awareness

IV – Cultivating Learning and Growth

8. Facilitates Client Growth

In its original form, ICF always uses the third person singular, describing what a professional Coach must be able to do and how to apply each competency within the client relationship.

Before diving deeper into each competency in upcoming articles, it’s worth pausing to reflect on the concept of “competency” itself. The word comes from the Latin competere – “to come together, to converge toward a goal” – and can take on different meanings: from the legal field (capacity to handle a matter) to education (a set of knowledge, skills, and methods necessary to foster personal and professional growth).

A central aspect of ICF Coaching is recognition: a Coach-in-training begins to demonstrate their competencies, receiving feedback from trainers and mentors; similarly, the Coach recognizes in the Client qualities and resources that the Client often has yet to see.

ICF defines Coaching as “a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires people to maximize their personal and professional potential”, always respecting the individuality of the Client.

This approach applies not only to Coaching sessions but also to training, using various learning styles – visual, auditory, and kinesthetic – to facilitate a more natural and effective learning process.

For me, Coaching and Training are much more than a profession – they are a mission. It is to spread this culture and to promote the Coaching of Being that I founded Academia.

Emanuela Mazza
Founder and Educational Director of Academia