Agile Coaching vs. Professional Coaching
This is one of the very common questions I came across now a day, what is the difference between an Agile Coach and Professional Coach. Let’s try to find its answer by going to its root. International Coaching Federation (ICF) [1] is considered a gold standard for professional coaching. Similarly, ICAgile (International Consortium for Agile) [2] is an organization to define the learning objectives for different certificates, including the “Agile Coaching” [3]. Here is a definition of Coaching as defined by ICF [4].
“Coaching is partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.”
Here is a definition of “Agile Coach” as per ICAgile [6].
“Agile coaches support, guide, coach, teach, mentor, and facilitate change without colluding with the current reality.”
There is a difference between the definition of coach between ICF and ICAgile. Agile Coach is doing more than just coaching; he/she is also doing training, mentor, and facilitation. It is like you order the apple, but you got a fruit basket as a result. Although Apple is a part of the fruit basket, you also get more fruits in addition to the apple.
Let’s take a look at the core competencies defined by the ICF [5]. Although they changed the model last year, “Coaching Mindset,” and reorganized the competencies, the same applies to the new model as well. Here is a list of 11 core competencies.
- Meeting Ethical Guidelines and Professional Standards
- Establishing the Coaching Agreement
- Establishing Trust and Intimacy with the Client
- Coaching Presence
- Active Listening
- Powerful Questioning
- Direct Communication
- Creating Awareness
- Designing Actions
- Planning and Goal Setting
- Managing Progress and Accountability
ICAgile defined the learning objectives for both facilitation and coaching certificate together [6]. Let’s take a look at Learning Objectives defined by ICAgile [6]
- Development in the Agile Coaching Discipline
- Coach as Facilitator
- Coach as Professional Coach
- Coach as Mentor
- Coach as Teacher
- Coach as Team Coach
- Set Boundaries for Agile Coaching
Let’s take a deep dive and explore both sides by side. Here is a comparison of ICF competencies with ICAgile learning objectives.
There is no direct one-to-one mapping in some areas. Such as ICF core competency 3 “Establish Trust and Intimacy with the Client” is somehow similar to ICAgile learning objective 7.1.2 “Designing a Coaching Alliance”, to the best of my knowledge. As you can see that ICAgile doesn’t cover all the competencies of professional coaching defined by ICF especially ethics, goal setting, and accountability. On the other hand, ICAgile covers other learning objectives such as “Coach as a Mentor”, “Coach as a Teacher”, “Coach as a Facilitator”, and “Coach as a Team Coach,” which are not in the ICF core competencies. This can also be illustrated by the following diagram.
