Ethics in Coaching for Coaches

Author: Team xMonks | Published on: Tue, 16 Mar 2021 10:42:52 +0000

Coaches work with niche specializations to support their clients. They receive training in coaching through schools or mentor coaches and integrate their own life experiences into their work. While they may be referred to as coaches, mentors, or facilitators, their goal is always to help clients achieve their goals or make desired transitions using long-term strategies. This Ethics Code provides the structure and principles that professional coaches use to guide their work, especially since most coaching relationships are personal.

The Purposes of This Code

This Code serves three main purposes:

• It outlines the fundamental concepts and values that coaches adhere to, such as confidentiality and respect for the client's well-being and progress.
• It offers guidelines for coaches to navigate various unique scenarios they may encounter.
• It acts as a foundation for coaches' ethical and moral values. While the coach agrees to follow this Code, they are encouraged to supplement and add to it over time to cultivate a lifelong commitment to ethical conduct in their work and career.

Ethical Codes Laid by the ICF

The International Coaching Federation (ICF), EMCC, and other organizations have established codes of professional conduct based on laws and prevailing customs that their members and credential holders must adhere to. Some of the most relevant codes include:

• Using clear result agreements to contract for the coaching journey, ensuring client centricity.
• Establishing well-defined boundaries between the coach, client, and sponsor to avoid conflicts.
• Specifying clear definitions of what coaching is and is not.
• Maintaining confidentiality regarding client matters.
• Demonstrating personal integrity through appearance and behavior.
• Engaging in ongoing professional growth.
• Following state regulations.
• Adhering to principles of Diversity & Equality (EMCC only).
• Observing best practices (EMCC only).

While coaching is not yet a regulated licensed profession, there are instances of client complaints reviewed by credentialing agencies (and litigated outside the agency). Many of these complaints stem from unclear coaching definitions, unmet expectations, and, in rarer cases, other common law violations.

From an ethical standpoint, it's crucial to differentiate between solution-oriented mentoring and counseling strategies, therapy-based de-conditioning techniques in psychology, and the outcome-oriented, asking-based, awareness-creation approaches of coaching.

Implementing Ethics in Your Coaching Practice

Coaching should be viewed as a respectful and trustworthy partnership between coach and client, with the coach acting in the client's best interest regarding learning and results without judgmental interference. The coach's ego should be kept in check.

Coaching management enhances the ethical behavior of coaches. Supervision, conducted by a competent supervisor, leads to a reflective understanding of the coach's process within the practice, which is distinct from competency results. A good manager serves as a mirror for a coach, just as a good coach serves as a mirror for the client. This reflection provides valuable insights related to ethics.

Client contracts are an essential component of ethics. Most organizations have sample agreements prepared by their legal department and enforced by their purchasing department. However, these agreements often lack a focus on coaching ethics or motivation for coaches to improve their practices.

To prevent misunderstandings and conflicts, coaches should clarify with clients about communication limitations, confidentiality guidelines, commitment to the desired outcome, and contract terms regarding payments, logistics, cancellation, and other locally required aspects.

Coaching ethics are the responsibility of the coach, not the client or sponsor. One way to ensure ethical conduct is to set personal ethical standards that surpass professional requirements and commit to always acting in the client's best interest.

The best way to develop ethical coaching practices is through training and continuous learning. This involves discussing various scenarios and how to handle them professionally and personally with integrity, responsibility, and sincerity.

The next topic in this series will delve into the ethical responsibilities of a coach. Stay tuned!