Cathy Liska 
In the blog post Monday I mentioned the move toward self or government regulation of the coaching industry. Will it happen? It is only a question of time. A multitude of professions have gone through a similar process – some are now successfully self regulated and others are government regulated.
Because of the attention the coaching profession receives, both good and bad, now is the time when engagement of coaching professionals has the greatest opportunity to impact the outcome of either self or government regulation.
The business and corporate worlds focus on ROI, Return on Investment. Now a multitude of studies provide data that the ROI for coaching is amazing — the most commonly cited statistic is 570% ROI from Manchester Inc. This is incredibly significant in the corporate and business worlds. At the same time, some coaching programs are really mentoring programs and the results are limited. Life and career coaches are enhancing individual successes. On the other hand, there have been several instances where a coach (often well-intentioned and simply unaware) is practicing therapy or counseling without a license, then gets sued – and this adds to the push for regulation. How coaches and coaching are perceived impacts our ability to self-regulate.
Which is better for the coaching industry and the people it serves, self-regulation or government regulation? I am an advocate for successful self-regulation of coaching through the ICF so that coaching remains true to it’s nature and continues to benefit to the people served at a high level.
What do you think?
