Welcome to "The coach within," where transformation begins from the inside out. In this crucial episode, your host Coach Jedi dives deep into the ICF Code of Ethics, focusing intensely on its four Core Values: Professionalism, Collaboration, Humanity, and Equity. This discussion is essential for coaches, leaders, and anyone on a journey of personal growth, offering clarity, sparking insight, and bringing you closer to your purpose.

And here's a bonus: This episode includes challenging sample questions to test your knowledge of these critical ethical concepts, perfect for self-assessment and refining your understanding of the ICF Core Values and ethical principles. This is especially valuable if you're preparing for ICF credentials like the ACC, PCC, or MCC exams, where ethics comprises a significant portion of the test!

Learn why ICF Core Values are the foundational framework for understanding the entire Code of Ethics, ethical principles, and standards of conduct. We emphasize their importance for guiding all ethical reasoning and decision-making, with all values and principles being equally important, supporting one another, and aspirational.

We break down each core value, providing definitions and practical insights:

• Professionalism: A commitment to a coaching mindset and professional quality that encompasses responsibility, respect, integrity, competence, and excellence. This includes being true and accurate in your statements (e.g., representing yourself as a "coach in training" if not credentialed). We discuss the importance of lifelong professional learning and making clear, accurate representations in all professional interactions, prohibiting misrepresentations like guaranteeing earnings or offering kickbacks for referrals.
• Collaboration: A commitment to developing social connection and community building. This involves working collaboratively, fostering joint creativity, partnering with diverse social identity groups, and cooperating with other ICF professionals, associations, and coaching organizations.
• Humanity: A commitment to being humane, kind, compassionate, and respectful to others. This value encourages accepting imperfections as an opportunity to spread a culture of openness and self-acceptance, continuously seeking self-awareness, owning mistakes, and avoiding any communication that suggests superiority (e.g., using grand titles like "Dr. Coach" to clients).
• Equity: A commitment to using a coaching mindset to explore and understand the needs of others, creating equality for all. This means recognizing and respecting all identity groups, treating everyone with dignity, bringing awareness to conscious and unconscious biases, and maintaining equality in all coaching relationships (coach-client, trainer-student, mentor-coach, supervisor-coach).

This episode also highlights the "do good principle" for navigating challenging situations and making courageous decisions. Whether you are preparing for your ICF credentials or simply aiming to deepen your understanding of ethical coaching practices, this episode provides invaluable insights and practical tools.

For more real stories, practical tools, and thought-provoking reflections, or to explore upcoming programs, visit jedi.coach.

If this podcast helped you grow, please follow, share, and leave a review – it helps more people find us. Until next time, keep listening, keep reflecting, and keep braving your story from within.

Welcome to "The coach within," where transformation begins from the inside out. In this crucial episode, your host Coach Jedi dives deep into the ICF Code of Ethics, specifically exploring its purpose, core values, and the commitments required from all within the ICF ecosystem. This discussion is essential for coaches, leaders, and anyone on a journey of personal growth, offering clarity, sparking insight, and bringing you closer to your purpose.

And here's a bonus: This episode includes challenging sample questions to test your knowledge of these critical ethical concepts, perfect for self-assessment and refining your understanding of the ICF Code of Ethics Purpose section. This is especially valuable if you're preparing for ICF credentials like the ACC exam, where ethics comprises a significant of at least 60% of the test!

Discover how the ICF's revised Code of Ethics (2025 version) sets the ethical standards of professional conduct required to be adhered by all within the extensive ICF ecosystem, not just credentialed coaches. We break down the six family organizations that form this ecosystem – including ICF Professional Coaches, Credentials & Standards, Coaching & Education, Foundation, Coaching in Organizations, and the Thought Leadership Institute – and how they are strategically coordinated by the ICF Global Board.

Learn why ICF Core Values are the foundational framework for understanding the entire Code of Ethics, ethical principles, and standards of conduct. We emphasize their importance for guiding all ethical reasoning and decision-making.

This episode also sheds light on critical areas such as:

• The Ethical Conduct Review (ECR) process and how the ICF Independent Review Board upholds and preserves ICF ethical standards through it, applicable to all ICF professionals.
• The mandatory requirement for continuous ethical education training for all credentialed ICF professionals, highlighting its role as a foundational element in accredited programs and its significant presence (60%) in the ACC exam.
• Recognizing and addressing misrepresentation and unethical practices within the coaching profession, such as incorrect use of ICF credentials or logos, blurring of lines by those rebranding as "coaches" while performing other roles like financial advising or training, and unethical claims by coaching education companies. Understanding these common pitfalls helps uphold the integrity of the global coaching profession.
• The role of the "do good principle" in navigating difficult ethical dilemmas, encouraging courageous decision-making in the best interest of the client, even though the ICF Core Values are the primary foundation for ethical reasoning.

Whether you are preparing for your ICF credentials (ACC, PCC, MCC) or simply aiming to deepen your understanding of ethical coaching practices, this episode provides invaluable insights and practical tools.

For more real stories, practical tools, and thought-provoking reflections, or to explore upcoming programs, visit jedi.coach.

If this podcast helped you grow, please follow, share, and leave a review – it helps more people find us.

Until next time, keep listening, keep reflecting, and keep braving your story from within.

The episode introduces the powerful framework developed by Coach Jedi called the 3A Ethical Presence Model: Aware, Assess, and Act.

Learn to be aware of your own beliefs, generational attitudes, and personal triggers that might influence your coaching. For instance, recognizing if a client's request, such as "teach me how to become a better person," falls beyond the scope of coaching, or if a sensitive topic like retrenchment or miscarriage triggers your own personal experiences. This self-awareness is vital to ensure your passion for a topic doesn't override the client's present needs.

A central focus is navigating the common ethical dilemma of a client asking for advice. While some coaches might take a "hard approach" and immediately refuse, this episode explores a more nuanced strategy. We learn the importance of clarifying what the client truly wants when they ask for advice, exploring their "ends" or desired outcomes rather than just getting stuck on the "means" they initially request. The goal is to help clients connect their own dots and gain genuine clarity, not to feed them immediate answers.

The discussion extends to how a coach can offer observations, thoughts, or perspectives to evoke awareness without giving direct advice, which carries the connotation that the client "have to listen to my advice". This is possible, especially after the midway point of a session, by inviting the client to consider new ideas or possibilities "very lightly".

It's crucial to avoid imposing your viewpoints or concluding for the client with phrases like "So..." or "Therefore...". The source also clarifies that offering additional resources or book recommendations towards the end of a session (aligned with Competency 8) is distinct from giving advice, as long as it's presented for consideration.

We also touch upon the significance of the coaching agreement. Even if explained at the start, clients may forget, making it essential for coaches to reconfirm roles and expectations if a mismatch arises. The ultimate aim is to honor the client's experience, help them define the problem, evoke awareness, and empower them to design their own actions.

This requires discipline from both coach and client to remain within the core intent of coaching. As the discussion emphasizes, helping a "fellow human being in whatever way you can" is important, but it must cycle back to the core intent of coaching.