We are pleased to share an article entitled “Must Coaching Mastery Credentialing Be So Difficult?“ written by Jo-Ann Harris.
Every coach’s MCC journey is different. Some embrace the journey fully from the outset and dive straight in. Others rely too heavily on just meeting the required hours of coaching practice and are surprised to fail their first attempt. And a few even equate it to conquering their own personal ‘Mount Everest’. But what they all have in common is a sense of supreme gratitude for the journey that it took them on – and for the journey that it continues to take them on every day since.
One such MCC Coach and Mentor is Jo-Ann Harris, who is currently facilitating Erickson Coaching International’s first The Art & Science of Coaching™’s Level 3 MCC course this year.
“It has been so transformational, and it impacts absolutely everything I do, in one way or another,” Jo-Ann says of achieving her MCC. “That’s not to say it’s been easy; it has taught me real humility in the realization that there’s still so much more I need to learn. But that’s the gift of coaching, isn’t it? It provides us a learning opportunity every time we start a coaching conversation.”
When Jo-Ann completed her MCC, around 12 years ago, she recalls that only about 7% of coaches passed their oral assessments. And while the pass rates have certainly improved, she believes there’s still a lot of room for improvement, particularly when comparing the MCC pass rates to that of the ACC and PCC credentialing exams.
Interrogating why the failure rates were so high, and wanting to help more coaches prepare for (and pass) their MCC exams, led to Jo-Ann developing a Level 3 course for Erickson Coaching International. Along the way, she’s noticed some common MCC misconceptions, many of which she’s passionate about dispelling.
Here are three of them:
Misconception 1
If you’ve got the required 2500 hours of PCC coaching experience, you’re sure to pass your MCC exam
“People think that they can become a PCC coach, build up to their 2500 hours of coaching, then do 10 mentor sessions and boom, they can now coach at the MCC level,” Jo-Ann explains. “But it doesn’t work like that at all, and that’s why they might fail.”
“At the MCC coaching level, we have to undergo an inner transformation and really expand ourselves as coaches and cultivate a deep sense of self-awareness,” she explains. “My philosophy is that the coach has to be a little bit more expanded than the client, so that the client has a safe space in which they, in turn, can expand and grow. And that’s a core premise behind the Level 3 course I developed.”
“Sure, we spend a lot of time on the ICF core competencies, and on skills development, throughout the course, but we also have to revisit what we call ‘a beginner’s mind’ to relearn how we think and act. If we don’t do that, we cannot expand enough within the space we hold for our clients so that they have room to expand as well.”
Misconception 2
I tried to get my MCC credential but I failed. It’s just ‘not for me’.
Many coaches fail their MCC credentialing exams the first time around. And sadly, many don’t ever try again.
The greatest disappointment in this, Jo-Ann explains, is that if we don’t try again, we’re not practising what we preach as MCC coaches to keep an open (beginner’s) mindset.
“I’ve seen many coaches pass one of the two recordings they need to submit as part of their credentialing, but then fail the second recording they had submitted. In that scenario, what I’d love to see them doing is embracing the fact that this is all part of the learning experience, and understanding where they need to grow and strengthen their skills to one day try again. Some coaches do, and some don’t. And that’s a real shame, because they’re often good coaches, but they’ve shut themselves off from re-learning and growing further.”
“There really isn’t any defined parameter that outlines when you’ll be ready or not, but you do need to be confident and strong in your PCC competencies, and you also need to be willing to do some internal work on yourself, to expand your abilities and ways of thinking. In a nutshell? You need to want to – and be ready to – move to the highest level of coaching.”
Misconception 3
If you’re an MCC coach, you always coach at the MCC level
“I always tell my students that you can never coach anyone at a level if you haven’t been coached there yourself. So, in this MCC course, we’re going to be doing really deep dives to support you to expand yourself, so that you can meet your client in a world where they step in and begin to expand as well, in partnership with you. It’s an entirely different ballgame.”
“Having said that, however, just because you’re an MCC, doesn’t mean you always coach at the MCC level,” Jo-Ann explains. “Your clients need to be ready, willing and able, and a lot are not, so most of the time, I don’t coach at the MCC level. But when my client is ready, so am I.”
In trying to unpack what really differentiates an ACC, PCC and MCC coach, Jo-Ann uses the metaphor of a coach and client navigating a forest together:
- At the ACC level, you’re supporting your client to get the outcome they want: If a client needs some help finding their way from one side of the forest to the other, the ACC coach will lead them through the forest, sometimes holding their hand, sometimes using questions to nudge them forward. In short, the coach is really focused on getting the client the outcome they desire.
- At the PCC level, you’re partially partnering with your client to help them become more self-reliant: Now the PCC coach is much more interested in the client themself. Yes, they’ll help them through the forest, but they’re also creating an environment where they’re asking questions and using techniques so that the client is starting to learn more about themself. By the end of it, the client can now find many different paths through the forest, all on their own; they understand themselves better, so the actions follow naturally.
- And lastly, at the MCC level, you’re fully partnering with the client: At this level, the coach and the client are on the journey through the forest together. The coach becomes a container of sorts, holding ideas and using their intuition and observation to ‘float’ concepts to their client to see if those concepts resonate with them. Essentially, at the MCC level, coach and client meet in a world where they’re both expanding and exploring ideas, in a partnership.
In closing
“When I did my MCC, there really wasn’t a lot of material or training to support you,” Jo-Ann recalls. “But it’s not like that today, and we’ve done a lot of research with credentialed MCC’s to understand what their credentialing experience was like and what we can offer PCC coaches to give them the best chance possible at meeting the ICF competencies and criteria.”
“Creating The Art & Science of Coaching™’s Level 3 MCC course for Erickson has been, without a doubt, the most amazing thing I’ve done in all of my years in education and course development. In a sense, my journey created this journey, and I really hope that coaches have an easier time getting their MCCs than we did back in the day.”
SIDEBAR
As of December 31, 2023, there were 2,204 active MCC credential-holders worldwide. (Source: ICF)
To apply for the MCC Credential, you must currently hold, or have previously held, a PCC Credential, in addition to meeting further requirements specific to the MCC Credential.
Eligibility:
- 200+ hours of coaching education
- 2,500+ hours of coaching experience
- 10 hours of Mentor Coaching with an eligible mentor coach
- Holds, or previously held, PCC Credential
Requirements:
- Successful completion (passing score) of a performance evaluation
- Successful completion (passing score) of the ICF Credentialing Exam
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