Use Your Gallup Courses and Coaching Toward an ICF Credential

Called to Coach Webcast Series -- Season 12, Episode 5

Below are audio and video plus a transcript of the conversation, including time stamps.

You're a coach -- maybe even a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach -- with some experience or a lot of experience, and you want to add tools to your coaching toolbox. Maybe you have attended the Gallup Global Strengths Coaching course. Have you thought about ICF certification? In this webcast, Gallup's Angela Davenport walks you through the process of getting an ICF Associate Certified Coach credential -- the 5 requirements involved, what you should expect about timelines, the pitfalls you can avoid -- and how Gallup courses and coaching, including how to leverage your own CliftonStrengths, can help. Join us, learn and be motivated to take the next step in your coaching journey.

This is ... a professional designation that some coaches decide to pursue. It's not a requirement. ... And so it's really up to each coach to decide if they want that credential from ICF and if it's worth pursuing.

Angela Davenport, 2:28

The first four requirements here -- yes, I have them numbered, but they do not need to happen in a step-by-step order. All four of these things could be happening at the same time.

Angela Davenport, 26:43

Some of you might need to begin with the end in mind. Go out to the ICF website, get all the requirements. Document those out. Then start working your way.

Jim Collison, 34:15

Jim Collison 0:00
Hello, everyone! My name is Jim Collison. I'm Gallup's CliftonStrengths^® Community Manager. I'm here today with Angela Davenport, who manages much of our professional credit program here at Gallup. And today, we're talking about how to use your Gallup courses in coaching towards ICF credential. And Angela, welcome to our time together!

Angela Davenport 0:19
Thank you, Jim. Great to be here.

Who Should Get an ICF Credential?

Jim Collison 0:21
So great to be here. Why don't you get us started a little bit. What are we doing here? And what do we hope to accomplish in the time that we have together?

Angela Davenport 0:27
The goal of our session today is to help people understand how they can use their Gallup courses and coaching towards an ICF credential, if that's a goal for, for you. We often get questions about that from the coaching community. So the purpose of today's session is to help answer those questions and show a few examples of how Gallup courses can contribute towards the requirements of an ICF credential.

Jim Collison 0:51
Let's, as, let's go ahead and advance to the next slide. I think, Angela, for us, who does this really apply to? Like, if I've gone through a course or I'm thinking about going through a course, really quick, just set up -- before we talk about how to apply -- Who is this for?

Angela Davenport 1:08
Yeah. This is for anybody who is thinking about an ICF credential, right. So oftentimes, people attend our Gallup Global Strengths Coach course, and they're exposed to the ICF competencies. Or they are an experienced coach who has many tools in their toolbox, and they're adding CliftonStrengths coaching to their toolbox. And they're thinking about either renewing an ICF credential or pursuing an ICF credential for the first time. So we're going to talk through, like, How can you use your Gallup experiences to support either an initial credential or a renewal?

What Is ICF?

Jim Collison 1:44
And I think some individuals come to ICF, and they may know nothing about it. They've heard about it. They've come to one of our courses because their employer sent them or it's something they wanted to do. Before you dive in on this, I'm, I'm sure a lot of questions are answered on the ICF website, right? So they can head out there; that might be a good place to start to get requirements, to figure some things out, to get familiar with it. Was it, would there be anything else you'd recommend if folks are coming to this saying, I've never heard of ICF before? What are you talking about?

Angela Davenport 2:16
Yes, absolutely. That's such a great point, Jim, because ICF is the International Coach[ing] Federation. And they are known globally for their coach education and certification credentials. And this is something that it's a professional designation that some coaches decide to pursue. It's not a requirement. It's, we have no, you know, we're, as a Gallup program, we know that our programs can contribute to an ICF certification. And so it's really up to each coach to decide if they want that credential from ICF and if it's worth pursuing. And I will say that you really need to be committed to that goal if you're considering it, because there are quite a few requirements. And that's exactly why we're doing this session today. Because people get confused. And there's a lot to it, and it takes dedicated time and effort on the coach's part to, to earn, to meet the requirements and then submit the application and sustain the credential.

Angela Davenport 3:17
So there is a significant investment -- time, effort. There is, of course, a financial investment as well. The ICF website is great. There's tons of information. The thing to know is that there are three different credential levels. And so sometimes that creates confusion for people. But if you just take a little time to read on the website the credentials, the entry-level credential is the ACC. We're going to talk about that one today. On the slide, you'll see I took a snapshot of the website, because they have this great section of, How do you apply? What are the steps you need to work through to think about applying, to prepare for applying? And what documentation do you need? So I always recommend people check this out -- read through it first, to really get a lay of the land of what the requirements are, to then decide, Is this something I want to invest in? And if so, then you have clarity around like, What do I need? What do I have? Where are my gaps?

Jim Collison 4:14
We, I hear from Gallup-Certified Coaches that an ICF, going through the ICF process is in more detail. There's more work to do with that. So I think, for folks coming at it from our certification first -- you mentioned this -- it is a commitment. It's a commitment of time, of tracking, of all those kinds of things. But many, many of our coaches do it. And the two work hand in hand together. It's not an either/or; it can be a both-and. We have, if you're, you know, we have coaches that are ICF-certified first, and then come to get their Gallup certification. So both of them work together -- not the same thing, but both of them work together. Continue on.

Angela Davenport 4:57
Right, exactly. So couple of just high-level tips for success, right? Like the very first thing is you got to familiarize yourself with the requirements, because of the depth that's involved here. Right? Then my second tip is, Organize your documents, right? Because for that application, you're going to need documentation of all the requirements. And you upload those into this very nice portal on the ICF website that helps things organize your, what you have. But you, you have to have the documentation first or you can't, you can't apply. And then you have to pay attention to the requirements. So there's some hours requirements, and I'll talk through some of those today. But you have to know what you have and what you're missing, so that you can close those gaps to meet the requirements before you can hit that Submit button on the application. And then, of course, I would say just make a plan to reach your goal. I like to challenge coaches to think about their top strengths, and which strength or strengths can they use to achieve this goal? Because it does take that time and investment. And it may take many months to meet the requirements, to do everything, and submit. So this is a much longer journey than, say, even what it takes to go through the Gallup-Certified Coach credential.

The Process of Becoming ICF Certified

Jim Collison 6:13
Yeah. In most cases, you know, we require 6 coaching sessions. Post-2023, we, we don't that you, we don't require you track it; we don't have any documentation around it. We just ask you to verify that you've done it. A different situation with ICF. So be ready. They're gonna, you're gonna want to track everything with them. You're gonna want to start a spreadsheet, keep track of all the things that you're doing, and be well-organized for this. I think, in the feedback that I've gotten from some of our coaches that have gone through this, this is not a thing you do in an afternoon; it's gonna take some time to work through. Angela, walk us through, we've got kind of an outline of how you go through this. Walk us through that.

Angela Davenport 6:55
Yeah, so I'll talk through the Associate Certified Coach requirements, because that's the entry-level credential, which most people start with. And there's 5 components to this, right. So the coach education and training, which is you as a learner going through coach-specific training, and then your coaching experience. There's a mentoring component. There's a performance evaluation, where you're recording yourself coaching so they can hear you coaching. And then lastly, there's an exam. So all of these things are components to the process. We'll dive into each of these a little more detail.

Jim Collison 7:34
Yeah, let's keep going.

The 5 Requirements: 1. Training

Angela Davenport 7:36
Sol let's talk about the training. So this is where you're a student, and you are learning about coaching. And you have to have at least 60 hours of training, coach education training. And within those 60, 48 of those hours have to be focused on the ICF core competencies. So I'm going to walk you through two examples showing how our Gallup courses contribute, because, of course, Gallup Global Strengths Coaching course, right? Like, that's a great course that gets you a good chunk of hours towards this requirement. And we'll walk through some examples. And then I will talk through the other requirements as well.

Angela Davenport 8:11
So let's dive into some examples. We have multiple courses, as many people know, focused on coaching. And we very intentionally include ICF credits on those courses, because we know that the core competencies and coaching best practices, you know, make a difference in that curriculum. So we have that as a part of those courses. But we also know CliftonStrengths coaching is a little bit different, in that we're providing additional education and knowledge and understanding, which is slightly different than how, say, the, the definition of coaching from ICF includes. They're, they're slightly different. So, so just know that, and they complement each other, though, very well. So here's a list of the courses we have. I'll click to the next slide and show you an example.

Angela Davenport 9:03
Our Gallup Global Strengths Coach course is obviously the one that most people attend and think about, related to their coach development with, with Gallup. So that course, you know, depending on if you take it in person or virtually, the, the credits are a little bit different, because the courses are slightly different, based on modality. So in this example, we have a coach who went to our virtual course, 34.6 hours -- 18.6 of those are core; 16 are resource development. Now that coach went on to attend our Advanced CliftonStrengths Coaching course, which is also approved -- 14.75 hours. Again, you can see the split here of the credit types. The coach came to the Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach Learning Series, right? So both in 2023 and 2022, and we offered 6 sessions at each of those. They attended those live; all of those credits are adding up.

Angela Davenport 9:57
And then, of course, this coach also came to our Summit, the Gallup at Work Summit, and attended our coach-specific breakout sessions, which gave them another 5.5 hours. So thinking back to that requirement of 60 hours, with 48 being, a minimum of 48 being focused on core competency, in this example, you can see that from all of that experiences with Gallup, this coach has over 66 hours of training, and they need just 5.4 more hours of core to meet the requirement. So they're at 42.6; they have to get to 48 core competencies. So they're almost there; one more course from another provider would get them to the 60. And, of course, ICF allows you to go over 48 core, right? You could, you could take programs that have less resource development hours, but they do allow up to 12 hours of resource development.

Core Competencies and Resource Development

Jim Collison 10:56
Angela, I think it's important for individuals, if you want to dig into these definitions of what does core competency, what does resource development mean? Those are available in detail on the ICF website, to be able to understand those. That is the No. 1 question I get around the training, around our Learning Series and around the Summit. And folks particularly get frustrated when they, because the, the, the -- it's different if you attend live, because you can, in theory, you can ask questions, you can input into what is happening, versus just watching it, which is still, can still be credit. Right? But it's counted differently. Do you want to add to that at all?

Angela Davenport 11:39
Yes, excellent point. So, for example, the Learning Series: Per the ICF rules, you know, we offer the Learning Series recordings on demand after the fact, because we know everybody cannot attend live. Well, per the ICF guidelines, if you watch that on demand, even if we're, it's a demonstration of coaching, that, if you watch it on demand is considered resource development hours, because ICF knows in that learning environment, you can, you cannot ask a question of the instructors or the presenters, right. Versus if you attended live, you could participate after we do the demo coaching, you can ask questions in the chat. And you can have dialogue with, within the learning context. So that is something that on-demand learning is fantastic. But ICF realizes, there's not that instructor interaction. So again, that's an example of one of their requirements, clearly defined on their website. And as a learning provider, we are committed to following that. We have to, to issue the credits appropriately. So we align and we communicate about that, so people understand that. But it does create confusion, because they're like, "But I watched the coaching session." So yes, that's a great callout. I have one -- OK --

Jim Collison 12:55
Let's move to example 2.

Angela Davenport 12:57
Perfect. So in this example -- oops, I'm sorry, I clicked ahead -- in this example, similar, we had a coach who went to Gallup Global Strengths Coaching course, but they went to the in-person course. So the credits are slightly different. And then they came -- I'm planning ahead, right -- and they came to the 2024 Learning Series. And we already know that is approved for 4 core and 2 resource development hours, based on the topics we're covering. They also went to our Advanced course. They came to the 2022 and the 2023 Learning Series. So here again, you see they already have 68 hours of coach development training; they're at 41.5 core. So they do need 6 1/2 more core competency hours, and they have plenty of resource development hours. So the big thing with these two examples is I want to show that every single coach will have a different mix of coursework. And it could be you take one Gallup course, and you have four other offerings from other coach education providers. What that mix looks like for you is, is your, your choice. But, to your point earlier about, you have to count that, right. Like, I tell people, make a spreadsheet and put your courses in there, and track. Like, look at your completion letters, so that you can see, Oh, this course gave me this many core, this many resource development. This course gave me, you know, this many core. Because you have to, you have to hit that threshold of 48.

Jim Collison 14:23
Yeah, this is where it's important to keep a spreadsheet, keep something, keep track of this, and then understand the, what the quality component is -- not good or bad, but as we think about core or resource, what those are and how are you going to do that. And then strategize. I think this is one of the areas where the community can help is by asking other coaches, Hey, I'm currently going through ICF. We have a lot of coaches in our community that are doing that. What are you doing for core and resource hours, and how are you making that work?

Angela Davenport 14:56
Yes, and the ICF website has a great search engine, where you can find additional coach education that they've approved. So the local ICF chapters host courses in person and online. You can find other providers who, who deliver coach education, ICF-approved. So in the ICF website, they, you can search all the programs they have approved, to see how many credits they are, how they're offered, what modality, how much they, you know, cost, all that stuff. So, again, ICF website is, needs to be bookmarked.

The Gallup at Work Summit and ICF Certification

Jim Collison 15:29
And I think sometimes, the tracking is the hardest part. All these, going to classes or listening these courses, once you get in the habit of that, fairly easy -- just make sure you're keeping track of it. You'd mentioned the Gallup at Work Summit; we now provide that both virtually and in person -- another opportunity. Spend a little time talking about how that works, because we now have both -- and this is different from the last time we recorded this video -- we now have a couple options.

Angela Davenport 15:57
Yes. And the Gallup at Work Summit is really designed to cover a variety of workplace topics, right. So we do cover coaching, but it's one of the many topics in that event that we cover. So as a result, each year, the number of, say, breakout sessions focused on coaching will vary. And it's not the entire event -- not at all. So, for example, in 2023, we had a couple of breakout sessions, 3 or 4, and they totaled 4.5 hours of learning. So if you came as a coach to the event and you, you attended the coaching track per se, and got all the breakouts, that were focused on coaching, you could get 5.5 hours of core competency credits. And you could get that by attending in person in Omaha or virtually on the day it was led, right -- when you could interact with the instructor via chat on the virtual platform.

Angela Davenport 16:49
Now, again, if you went and watched those sessions later on demand, because we usually offer that for 90 days after the Summit, those become resource development hours, because no longer do you have that opportunity to interact with the instructor. And at the end of every single Gallup at Work Summit, we provide a document right from the platform that you can download your completion certificate. It has everything you attended. So if you attended, say, a session on engagement, that will be tracked there. And that would be an hour of, say, resource development, because it's not specific to the ICF competencies. But hey, if you need resource development hours, there you go.

The Learning Series

Jim Collison 17:29
This is a very visible, public-facing, for anyone can come on this. I'm hoping -- do you have a slide for the Learning Series, because we've mentioned that a couple of times? The, for our Certified Coaches, what are the opportunities that are there?

Angela Davenport 17:43
You know what? I didn't put a slide in here on the Learning Series. But I will say, for our Certified Coaches, right, that's a, an event we host specifically for them. That's an event we do every year. And our, the purpose of that event is ongoing coach development for our Certified Coaches. So indeed, every year there are sessions that are dedicated to coach-specific training, where we are connecting to the ICF competencies. In 2024, we're doing 6 sessions, and 4 of those sessions are approved for core competency; 2 are resource development, based on the topics we're covering. And those vary every year. But we always have sessions that are tied, tied to coaching and ICF competencies. And again, at the end of the event, we provide a completion letter to, for those who have attended, so they can have that documentation. Regardless, if it's for an ICF credential, it could be for a SHRM credential, HRCI credential, or just ongoing documentation to provide somebody's employer, to show that ongoing learning.

Jim Collison 18:46
And for our Certified Coaches, that takes place early in the year -- Jan -- late January, early February. That's happening right now, if you need information on that -- or even after the fact -- send us an email: coaching@gallup.com. And we can get you the information on that. Angela, let's talk about coaching.

The 5 Requirements: 2. Coaching Experience

Angela Davenport 19:02
Yes. So back to the 5 requirements, right. So we talked about education; that's a big one that, I would say, typically takes the most time in the process. And then the, the requirement around coaching: You have to have coaching experience to apply for the ICF credential. So for the ACC credential, that entry-level one, you need at least 100 hours of coaching experience. So all of your CliftonStrengths coaching can count towards that, including the 6 you do to earn your Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach credential, right. So you have to keep track of, of that. They do have a couple of requirements I highlighted here on this slide around, you know, at least 25 of them need to be in the last 18 months. So if you used to coach a few years ago, or you've been coaching for years, but now you've decided to pursue this goal, that's fine. You can go back. And they do require at least 75 of those to be paid.

Jim Collison 19:52
75 hours of those to be paid?

Angela Davenport 19:53
Yes. Yeah. So you can, you know, some people do coaching pro bono. So if you do that, 25 of those hours can be counted towards the 100.

The 5 Requirements: 3. Mentoring

Jim Collison 20:03
We, the coaching piece we see a lot of, because we teach that. Mentoring, though, maybe a little bit of a different requirement. So talk a little bit about their mentoring requirement.

Angela Davenport 20:13
Yes. So this is where as, as the coach, I'm learning from a more experienced ICF-certified coach. So I'm the mentee. And I am learning from somebody who has an ICF credential already. And I have to have 10 hours of this. And the idea is, they want you to do this over time, so that you could learn from an experienced coach, and apply what you learn in your next coaching session, say, with a client, and then come back to your mentor, talk about how that went. And again, apply in your next coaching. So they require that 10 hours to span over a minimum of 3 months. So you cannot smash this into an afternoon, like you mentioned earlier, right? Like, you have to do it over time, so you're integrating what you're learning from that mentor into your coaching.

Angela Davenport 21:02
And, again, there's requirements around that who can qualify as a mentor. Somebody has to be an ACC-certified, certified coach in their second cycle. So that basically means they've been ICF-certified for at least 3 years. Or they can be a PCC or an MCC, because those are the higher-tier credentials. Now, at Gallup, you know, we have full-time coaches who are CliftonStrengths experts who are also ICF certified. So if you wanted to do a mentoring hour with a Gallup coach -- 1 hour, multiple hours, all 10 hours -- you could do that. We do offer those services. And you can find that information about that coaching on our website. So store.gallup.com, and you just search "Coaching," and we have a specific offering out there listed as Coaching Session for Coaches. And, you know, when you register for, when you schedule that, you just say, Hey, I want to work with an ICF-certified coach who can qualify as a mentor. And then you could be paired with one of our ICF-certified coaches.

Jim Collison 22:05
If I wanted to book all 4, or book multiple sessions, is there, can I do that as well?

Angela Davenport 22:13
Yes, you can. And on the store, we list that if you, if you purchase 4 sessions or more, we do offer a discount. ICF allows you to have multiple mentors. So you do not need to do all 10 hours with one coach; you can do it with 4, 5, 6. I mean, you can have multiple, right. So this is an area where I think the community can help each other too. I know sometimes coaches will say, "Hey, I need ICF mentoring hours. Can I coach you, and you coach me?" And then it's an exchange. And if you're partnering with an ICF-certified coach, that can count for a mentoring hour.

The 5 Requirements: 4. Performance Evaluation

Jim Collison 22:46
Yeah, we see that communication happening in our Facebook groups. And so that's, that's an option as well, if you want to reach out that way. Like always, if you have some questions around this, or you want some specific information, or you want us to have somebody get in touch with you to help you get these done, you can send us an email: coaching@gallup.com. And, and maybe flag that you're going through ICF training so we can get it to the right folks and get you some help on that. All right, let's move on. Next requirement. Talk about performance eval -- this one makes me nervous, by the way -- performance evaluations. They gonna judge me?

Angela Davenport 23:21
Yes, they want to know if you're a good coach -- totally. Which, you know what? I appreciate about the credential. Because it takes a lot of time and effort to record a coaching session. And then ICF listens to it. And they give you feedback. And they give you a report that shows how they assess how you, your coaching stacked up against the ICF competencies. So it is very insightful to people to get that back. Now, yes, it causes people to be very nervous, right. And you have to submit a recording with a transcript. And I always tell people: Plan to record, like, three or four, not one. Because the minute somebody wants to record one, they feel like they have to be perfect in that coaching session. And then they're not present in the coaching. So it, I think it frees people up if you book multiple.

Angela Davenport 24:13
And these are the ones that, you know, if you want to book with a good friend, and coach somebody for this purpose, go for it. But remember to treat that person like you would a client, because they're listening for -- are you establishing rapport? Are you establishing the coaching relationship? You know, they're looking for all the competencies in there. So they have some requirements around length, right? They won't take anything less than 20 minutes. And if it's over 60, They're like, Forget it. We're not listening to that. So you have to be within that time frame. And you also have to provide a transcript. And the details around the file and how you upload and all that are on the ICF website as well. But my pro tip is record multiple.

Jim Collison 24:56
Do -- yeah, for sure. And this used to be a, a lot harder before CO, you know, before the COVID hit us. Because the services just weren't there to do this. But we got so much better at remote access. Zoom can do this now, provide the transcripts; there's transla-, or there's transcription services as well you can upload your audio to, record that. There's different platforms to get this done. So just know, getting it recorded best and easiest, just connect -- Teams can do this as well -- connect on that service. Make sure you hit the Record button. I always say, hit that Record button early, and forget that it's on, right. Because some people get a little, you know, they kind of tighten up a little bit. And trust me -- doing this work here for Gallup all the time where I'm on -- just hit Record early on. Just let them know it's being recorded. And, and forget about it, and get through the good coaching session. Would you add, Angela, would you add anything else to that before we move on to the exam?

Angela Davenport 25:56
Yes. I would add, this is also a great opportunity to learn from your mentor. So if you record a session or two, and you ask your mentor, you should, one, go back and listen to yourself coaching, right? Because there's a lot of self-awareness that happens there. But have your mentor listen to it. And then use one of those hours (in the 10 hours of mentoring) to have your mentor talk about your coaching. Have them give you feedback. Because then you can improve, and you can hear, like, Where, where do they hear gaps? Doing all that before you send it to ICF to listen, have them listen to you is a great way to make sure you're really ready, so the recording that you are sending to ICF is your, your strongest submission.

The 5 Requirements: 5. The Exam

Jim Collison 26:37
Great. Good, all good advice. Let's talk about the coaching -- or the exam, sorry.

Angela Davenport 26:41
Yes. The one the other thing I'd mention: The first four requirements here -- yes, I have them numbered, but they do not need to happen in a step-by-step order, right? All four of these things could be happening at the same time. So you can be working on your training. You can be, obviously, you're coaching, right? You can have those mentoring sessions. So you decide when you're ready to record your coaching for the performance evaluation. The exam is the only thing that happens at the very end.

Angela Davenport 27:10
So if you're nervous about the exam -- I swear, people always get nervous about the exam -- the thing I would remind you is the exam is, like, a couple months away from the day you start the school, because you have to do all, the first four. And then actually, you're, before even the exam, you're going to the ICF website. You're logging in. You're taking a brief survey to answer what type of credential you're pursuing. And then you get this, your login to go into the portal. And you upload all your documentation around these first four requirements. And then once all that is in, and you hit Submit and you pay, they're reviewing your application. Once that step is done, then you get the invitation to take the exam. So don't hold on the first four because you're nervous about the exam. And then you have time, right, to decide when you want to take the exam. You don't have to take it the day they send you the link. You want to do it shortly thereafter, but, so again, the exam is something -- multiple pages on their website that talks about how many questions. What's the pass, passing score? How does that all work? Right, all those details on their website.

Applying Your CliftonStrengths During the Certification Process

Jim Collison 28:21
Yeah, we see the exam. You know, a lot of folks have exam anxiety, and it's a real thing. And I, Angela, as we've talked about this a bunch over the years you and I have been working together, I think it's a really great idea to take your CliftonStrengths Top 5 and apply them as you look at this 5-step process and say, Hey, how am I built? And how can I lean into my themes? How can I use these to get through this process? And so as you organize it, don't forget about your CliftonStrengths in this of taking advantage of those and each one of these steps of through the exam. And, like you mentioned, ICF, on the ICF website -- you're gonna talk about that here in just a second -- has a lot of resources as well. Make sure you become a student of their website as well.

Angela Davenport 29:08
Yes! Yes. And, to your CliftonStrengths example, if you need an accountability buddy, who is that person? Is it the, is it the friend you connect with once a month anyway for book club or something else? Right? Like, who can, who can you share this goal with, so that you don't give up or you don't stall out? For sure. Like, using your CliftonStrengths is, is a key thing too.

Jim Collison 29:34
Yeah, don't forget about those. List them out, and then say, you know, we, for, in the kits is an individual development plan. Grab that plan and that your goal is ICF certification. Then list your strengths, and then say, How am I going to get through the fill-in-the-blank of the requirement? How am I going to do the learning? How am I going to do the training? How am I going to do the mentoring? What am I thinking about with the exam? And I think, Angela, it's just a great idea to get some focus -- small "f" -- get some focus on what you're doing, and make sure you have a plan put together, based on what you're best at.

Angela Davenport 30:08
Yes. And there'll be times where you're like, Man, I have a question. I, I'm not sure where to go next, right? Like, studying the ICF website is, is critical, because they have everything you need out there, and then more, right. So spending some time on that website, and I've noticed even they have videos now that help walk you through the process. They have chat so you can, you know, put a question in to their team. So again, reminding everybody that that isn't, like that's your core resource. As a Gallup team, we can provide documentation for courses you've completed with us, right? We can help with coaching for that mentor coaching. But to really earn the ICF credential, you work with ICF, right. And you have to go to their website, and you have to use their portal, and you have to ask your questions there and really invest in, in those resources. And it's a great site, in terms of plenty there to answer questions, because they know lots of people are going through this process. And there's a lot of components to it.

Helpful Tips in Getting Certified

Jim Collison 31:14
And you're not alone. And there's a lot of CliftonStrengths-Certified Coaches that have gone through this process, are going through this process, and can also continue to give tips, based on their own Top 5 as well, and how they approached it. As we think about kind of bringing this in for a landing, Angela, you've got some kind of final tips for us. Why don't you roll through those.

Angela Davenport 31:34
Yeah, and this is just a reminder of what we talked about at the beginning, right? Get to know their requirements. Keep good documentation. Save a folder on your server for anything you do. Save the emails, save the completion letters, save -- remember, our calendars, sometimes the appointments drop off, so you got to keep track of those mentor coaching appointments, all of that stuff. Because when it comes time to do the application and upload -- and you can upload your stuff as you're progressing through the requirements. So that's a great way to save it. And, like, once you upload it to the portal, it's saved there, right? But you, you have to initially save it. I, I get emails from people saying, I went, I'm going to pursue ICF. I went to the Gallup at Work Summit in 2019. Can you help me? You know, because they didn't think to save their documentation. Right? So that's a key thing. Count, count, count. See where you are. Count your hours, count your split of hours, what type of credits you have. All the completion letters you're going to get from any coach education provider will list, Are they core hours? Are they resource development hours? Are they a combination? Like, that will be provided. And then again, make that plan, right, to reach your goal, and, and know that it will take a little time.

Jim Collison 32:53
It does take -- I think some folks are, they are like, I should have this done in a week. And you're like, Well, no. It's gonna take some time. Buckle down for that. I think, you know, I'd love a spreadsheet that had a tab that just said "Hours" on it. And I would treat those hours like I do a timesheet, where I'm, as I do those, I'm going to put the date, I'm going to record the time, and I'm gonna record what it was. And the consistency is, is really the goal on this thing of getting through it, document it, stay on top of it. You don't want to come back to it. That's -- you and I hear that all the time. It's like, Can you help me reconstruct these things? Yeah, we can, in some cases -- not all -- but we can in some cases. But try to stay on top of those as we, as you progress.

Angela Davenport 33:36
Yes. And to that point, I tell people too: Put a reoccurring, like, monthly reminder on your calendar. 30 minutes, once a month, like ICF documentation. Look back on your calendar. What did I do this month? Do I have everything captured? Do I need to just save everything in the folder? Right? Like, because if it, you got to build in systems to support yourself to make sure you're doing it. Because otherwise you get to the application -- and I've seen this -- and people are like, Forget it. I don't have it, like, right? Like, it becomes overwhelming, because they're like, I had it somewhere. But I don't know, you know, and then -- and so, yes, just keeping yourself organized.

Jim Collison 34:15
Some of you might need to begin with the end in mind. Go out to the ICF website, get all the requirements. Document those out. Then start working your way. Say, Hey, I'm gonna think about doing this 9 months. I'm gonna back into this. For me, Angela, based on who I am, I'm gonna set up a Friday reminder -- Friday at 2. I'm going to say, What did I do this week that's -- because otherwise, by Monday, I've already forgotten, right? That's different for everybody. So make sure you're, you're doing that. We do have some ways to help. Can you talk a little -- go ahead and do that. But we do have some ways to help. Talk about some resources that we can do, and then add what you want to talk about.

Angela Davenport 34:52
You said something that triggered -- Begin with the end in mind. Right? You could go to the ICF website today and take the survey about what credential are you pursuing, even if you have nothing started; you've done nothing on the requirements. And you fill that in. And like, Oh, I'm going to take the Gallup Global Strengths Coaching course. So, right, you have a sense of what your training might be, or a general sense. And then you get, you get the link to open the portal. You don't pay anything yet. But you, then you have the requirements right in there. So as you complete Gallup Global Strengths Coaching course and get your completion letter, you can upload it. You do your first one-on-one mentor coaching session. You can go in and type your coach's name and date, and all of a sudden, and there's this progress bar. I love it. It shows like, Oh, I need 10 hours? I have 1 hour.

Angela Davenport 35:40
And, you know, so you can enter as you're meeting the requirements. You don't actually pay until you hit Submit, once you have everything. So for those who, who want the system that ICF has in place to support their tracking, I always say start, begin with the end in mind. Go to the website first. Let's talk about the resources. Yes. So of course, we've mentioned the ICF website, you know, I think about 40 times so far. That's obviously your primary resource. For any coaching with Gallup, for the mentoring, you can go to store.gallup.com. If you need a completion letter for a course you completed with Gallup in the past that you forgot to save or didn't ask for at the time, because you didn't have the goal yet, you can email us at CEU@gallup.com. So CEU@gallup.com. And then if --

Jim Collison 36:32
Capital C, capital E, capital U -- just for our audio friends -- @gallup.com.

Angela Davenport 36:37
Yes, Continuing Education Units is what that stands for. And then, you know, general questions, of course, we have our coaching@gallup.com inbox. But again, if it's general questions about the ICF requirements, those really need to go to ICF. Check out their website first. Try their chat first. If you have questions around our courses, mentoring with Gallup, that's when you'd want to contact us.

Jim Collison 37:00
Yeah. ICF's very helpful on this. They, they want you to do this. They, this is what they do. They want you to be a part of this, so they're going to make it easy. Angela, anything else you'd add before we wrap it up?

Angela Davenport 37:12
I would just say keep in mind, you know, set your realistic goals. Think about what you want to achieve, why you want to achieve it. And, and then make your plan, right. So know that it's, it's a journey. It'll take some time. But then once you have the credential, there is sustainment to it as well. So there's renewal of the requirements and ongoing education for that as well. So just keep that in mind. It is an investment. It does give you a globally recognized credential. And for independent coaches, that's often very appealing. So if that's for you, check it out. And just know that Gallup experiences can help you reach that goal. And, and we're happy to help provide documentation to support that.

Jim Collison 37:55
Yeah, it's great. Angela, you and I have been doing this for a very long time; we have videos to prove it from, I think, even no-beard days. And, and so we have a lot of expertise around it. So like Angela says, make sure, if you have some questions, you reach out. Start with ICF first, then jump in on it with us. Well, thanks for joining us today. Appreciate you watching the video. Again, coaching@gallup.com if you have any questions. Good luck on your ICF journey. Hopefully after this video, you'll choose to do it. Thanks for coming out. With that, we'll say, Goodbye, everybody.

Angela Davenport's Top 5 CliftonStrengths are Maximizer, Responsibility, Positivity, Empathy and Learner.

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