Becoming an ICF Credentialed Coach: The Journey to ACC, PCC and MCC – Practice Insights from ICF Assessors

Contents

Contributors ix

Foreword – Marcia Reynolds and Philippe Rosinski xvii

Introduction xx

Section 1: ICF BARS and Markers 1

Section 1 Introduction 1

Chapter 1: An Assessor’s Perspective on the ICF BARS –

Francine Campone 2

Chapter 2: An Assessor’s Perspective on the ICF PCC Markers – Giuseppe Totino and Ann Fogolin 9

Section 2: ICF Competencies 17

Section 2 Introduction 17

Chapter 3: Exploring Competency 1: Demonstrates Ethical

Practice – Frances Penafort, Anita Gupta, João Luiz Pasqual and Jonathan Passmore

with contributions from Svea van der Hoorn, Sandra L. Stewart

and Lola Chetti 18

Chapter 4: Exploring Competency 2: Embodies a Coaching Mindset – Peter J. Reding, Peter Hayward and Eileen Laskar 41

Chapter 5: Exploring Competency 3: Establishes and Maintains Agreements – Judit Ábri von Bartheld, Karen Burke and Kaveh Mir

with contributions from Fran Fisher 65

Chapter 6: Exploring Competency 4: Cultivates Trust and Safety – Chérie Carter-Scott and Michael Pomije 93

Chapter 7: Exploring Competency 5: Maintains Presence –

Svea van der Hoorn and Cindy Muthukarapan

with contributions from Philippe R. Declercq 118

Chapter 8: Exploring Competency 6: Listens Actively –

Tracy Tresidder, Osama Al-Mosa and Johan van Bavel 146

Chapter 9: Exploring Competency 7: Evokes Awareness –

Karen Foy, Leda Turai, Elena Espinal and Ram S. Ramanathan 169

Chapter 10: Exploring Competency 8: Facilitates Client Growth –

Meryl Moritz, Dalia Nakar and Keiko Hirano 195

Section 3: Masterful Insights 219

Section 3 Introduction 219

Chapter 11: Reflective Practice – Jonathan Passmore 220

Chapter 12: Dare to be LAZY – Judit Ábri von Bartheld 223

Chapter 13: Questions at the Heart of Coaching – Elena Espinal 227

Chapter 14: Pause Gives More Time than it Takes – Janet Harvey 229

Chapter 15: Walking Home to Self – Karen Foy 231

Chapter 16: Learning for Transcripts and Recordings –

Carly Anderson 233

Chapter 17: Trust and Safety – Michael Pomije 236

Chapter 18: The Trap of the Knower – Michael Stratford 238

Chapter 19: The Polarity between the Science and Art –

Osama Al-Mosa 241

Chapter 20: Make Your Coaching Client Do the Work! –

Peter J. Reding 241

Chapter 21: Dancing with Polarities – Ram S. Ramanathan 243

Chapter 22: A Beginner’s Mind – Dalia Nakar 246

Chapter 23: Graceful Steps to Mastery – Meryl Moritz 247

Chapter 24: Learning from Feedback – Sandra L. Stewart 249

Chapter 25: Focusing on Exploration, Partnership

and Intentionality – Damian Goldvarg 251

Chapter 26: State – Leda Turai 253

Chapter 27: The Dynamic Process – Keiko Hirano 255

Chapter 28: The Paradox of Asking Powerful Questions in

Coaching – Johan van Bavel 257

Chapter 29: The Power of the Pause – Teri-E Belf 259

Chapter 30: The Magical Journey to the Center of the Self –

Chérie Carter-Scott 261

Chapter 31: Synchronizing Presence through the Three Selves –

Paul Jeong 263

Chapter 32: Letting Go in Three Steps – Karen Burke 265

Chapter 33: Shifting from Transactional to Transformational –

Tracy Tresidder 267

Chapter 34: Client Readiness – Kaveh Mir 269

Chapter 35: Imbalances in Power and Coaching – Lola Chetti 273

Chapter 36: Managing Our Own Saboteurs – Frances Penafort 275

Chapter 37: Coaching Mindset – Ann Fogolin 277

Chapter 38: Using Silence, Pauses and Reflections –

Cindy Muthukarapan 279

Chapter 39: The Significance of Opening Coaching Sessions –

Svea van der Hoorn 282

Chapter 40: Humility – Peter Hayward 288

Chapter 41: Bias – João Luiz Pasqual 295

Chapter 42: Not Knowing Is Your Greatest Strength –

Philippe R. Declercq 308

References 290

Section 4: Appendices 293

Appendix 1: Useful Links 294

Appendix 2: Minimum Skills Requirements for ACC Credential 295

Appendix 3: ICF PCC Markers 308

Appendix 4: Minimum Skills Requirements for MCC Credential 312

Appendix 5: ICF Code of Ethics 329

Contributors

Contributors

Editors

Professor Jonathan Passmore, D.Occ.Psych, MBA, MSc, BSc (Hons), BA (Hons), FBPS, CPsychol, PCC, FHEA, MC (UK)

Jonathan is a licensed psychologist and holds five degrees and three professional coaching qualifications, with ICF, EMCC and ILM. He is Professor of Coaching and Behavioral Change at Henley Business School UK and is also Senior Vice President with EZRA Coaching, part of the Adecco Group. He has written and published widely over the past three decades, including forty books and 250 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, making him one of the most published researchers in the field of coaching. His work has been globally recognized with multiple awards and is listed in the Thinkers50 and Global Gurus coaching lists. His most recent books include Becoming a Coach: The Essential ICF Guide (2024) with Tracy Sinclair and Becoming a Team Coach: The Essential ICF Guide (2024) with Lucy Widdowson, Paul Barbour and Katarina Kanelidouk. He shares a lot of his work for free via his website. www.jonathanpassmore.com; https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-passmore-08427b57

Judit Ábri von Bartheld, MCC, ACTC (Hungary)

Judit is an executive coach, a mentor coach and a coach educator on all levels. She has been an ICF assessor since 2013 and in 2014 established, and runs, an ICF ACSTH / Level 1 coach school (CHN International Coach School). In 2024 the CHN coach school received  ICF Level 3 accreditation for their MCC Mastery Accelerator program. She is an ICF accredited team coach (ACTC), in 2023 CHN coach school received the ICF AATC team coach training accreditation. In 2024 she became a GTCI Certified Systemic Team Coach Senior Practitioner among the first ones globally. Between 2017 – 2024 Judit as a mentor coach and an assessor at Henley Business School, Reading University, UK contributed to the introduction of the ICF coaching standards to the PCEC coach training program. She received her MA in coaching from Middlesex University, UK. Her program Coaching Without Borders Hungary (CHN) has, over eight years, hosted more than sixty well-known speakers from the global world of coaching. Judit developed the Hungarian version of Becoming a Coach: The Essential ICF Guide. Judit was invited several times to be an evaluator on the ICF Impact Awards. She is a contributor to the ACC and also to the MCC ICF Assessors’ Guide Book, a member of the ACC Task Force for ICF Assessors and also currently a member of the task force reviewing the ACC and MCC BARS. www.becomingacredentialedcoach.com

Contributors

Carly Anderson, MCC (US; originally from Australia)

Carly has mentored more than 700 coaches since 2013 for ACC, PCC and MCC development, using recordings and transcripts. Carly has twenty years of active experience as an ICF assessor for all three credentials.

Johan van Bavel, MCC, ACTC (Netherlands)

Johan van Bavel is the founder of the Intention Center for Leadership and Coaching, an ICF-accredited institution based in the Netherlands. Within this capacity, he educates coaches and leaders on attaining certification as ICF professional coaches and leaders.

Teri-E Belf, MCC (US)

The first MCC, a global coaching pioneer since 1987, Teri-E collaborated in co-creating the profession and received the ICF Circle of Distinction Award. Her ancient wisdom explorations surfaced as our foundational coaching principles. Purposefully, she inspires people to take steps towards their dreams, inspiring authentic service to the sacred. https://www.healthcoachescenterforeducation.com

Karen Burke, MCC (US)

KB (Karen) Burke is an MCC, engineer, MBA, coach assessor and supervisor, and teaches and assesses coaching globally. KB specializes in guiding technical clients and their teams through intricate leadership challenges.

Francine Campone, Ed.D., MCC (US)

Francine supports coaches through supervision, mentoring and training, drawing on a three-decade career as a leadership coach and adult educator. She researches, writes and edits in the coaching field. A native New Yorker, she is currently a senior student at the Zen Center of Denver. [email protected];

Chérie Carter-Scott, Ph.D., MCC (US and Thailand)

Chérie, known as the Mother of Coaching, pioneered the coaching industry in 1974. She founded MMS Worldwide Institute (www.mmsworldwideinstitute.com) and has trained over 10,000 coaches globally in five decades. She is a NYT No. 1 bestselling author of If Life is a Game, These are the Rules, which Oprah celebrated, and her new memoir, Life IS a Game, which chronicles the beginning of coaching.

Lola Chetti, MCC (Mauritius and France)

Lola is Mauritian–French. She is based in New York and has worked globally as an executive coach, team coach and organizational coach trainer for fifteen years. She is a board member of the ICF’s Independent Review Board (IRB). She has a master’s degree with distinction from INSEAD in leadership and systems psychodynamic coaching. https://holdingspacecoach.com

Philippe R. Declercq, MCC (Belgium)

Philippe has eighteen years of experience in individual and team coaching. Active in Europe and Africa, he cultivates a passion for personal and professional development, with a particular openness to multiculturalism. His services include coaching education, supervision and certification mentoring. He is fluent in French, English and Dutch.

Elena Espinal, MCC (Mexico)

Elena is a global coach, supervisor and mentor, specializing in diversity and future design across more than thirty countries. She collaborates with Fortune 500 companies as a coach. Author of Crafting the Future, she has contributed to more than ten coaching and philosophy books. Elena directs Team Power (www.team-power.com.mx), also working with blind coaches and social programs.

Fran Fisher, MCC (US)

Fran has been an MCC and an ICF assessor since 1998. She is one of the pioneers for coaching, a visionary leader and published author. She provides advanced-level mentoring and mentor training for MCC accreditation. In 2022, Fran received the honor of the ICF Circle of Distinction Award.

Ann Fogolin, MCC (Canada)

A seasoned coach, coach educator, registered mentor coach, coach supervisor, ICF assessor and trainer of ICF assessors, Ann participated in the update of the ICF PCC-level Coaching Competency Markers and is a member of the task force reviewing the ACC and MCC BARS.

Karen Foy, MCC (UK)

Karen is a Master Certified Coach with over twenty years’ experience, and a certified coach mentor and supervisor. Karen holds a BA Psychology from the University of Sheffield and an MSc Coaching Psychology from the University of East London. She was program director of accredited coaching programs at Henley Business School, University of Reading, UK, where she is still a visiting tutor. Outside of Henley she continues as a coach and coach educator.

Dr. Damian Goldvarg, MCC, ACTC, ESIA (Argentina/United States)

Damian has thirty years of experience providing coaching services in over fifty countries. He facilitates virtual certifications in coaching, team coaching, mentor coaching and supervision. He has been an ICF assessor for fifteen years, and was the 2013–2014 ICF global president. He has published nine coaching-related books.

Anita Gupta, MCC (India)

Anita is a Master Certified Coach deeply passionate about the entire coaching realm – whether as a coach, mentor coach, coach trainer or contributing to ICF, particularly in the realm of ethics.

Janet M. Harvey, MCC (US)

Visionary CEO of inviteCHANGE, a human-development company driving productivity and performance, Janet Harvey uses her executive and entrepreneurial experience to cultivate leaders in sustainable excellence through Generative Wholeness™ (https://vimeo.com/448672025), their signature coaching and learning process. Also a bestselling author and keynote speaker, you can contact Janet via her website.

Peter C. Hayward, MCC (Germany)

Peter is a Master Certified Coach with over thirty years of experience working in fast-changing, multicultural environments. His areas of expertise include professional development and organizational transformation. He is a strong believer in utilizing humor as an approachable coaching technique. www.baldcoach.com

Keiko Hirano, MCC (Japan)

Keiko is a founding member of COACH A, the first coaching and coach-training firm in Japan (http://www.coacha.com). Keiko was awarded the ICF Circle of Distinction in 2018 for her contribution to the global coaching industry.

Svea van der Hoorn, MCC (South Africa)

Educator. Mentor coach. Supervisor. Author. D.Ed (Ed Psych). Cultivating your unique coaching style and capability in alignment with the quality-assurance frameworks. Enabling impeccable client service and joy in your work via continuous learning and growth. Stay steady. Go beyond. Keep ingenuity alive.

Dr. Paul Jeong, MCC (Korea)

Paul is the founder and president of Global Coaching Company, the largest coaching company in Korea. He provides services that include leadership coaching, energy coaching, organizational change, emotional intelligence, executive coaching and ICF Level 2 coach training.

Eileen Laskar, MCC (Kenya)

Eileen is a proud African woman, a coaching pioneer committed to raising the coaching standard and scaling coaching impact in Africa.

Kaveh Mir, MCC (UK and Iran)

Kaveh has coached senior executives from international organizations such as Capgemini, Amazon, HSBC, IBM, Novartis, Unilever, Mars and Google. Kaveh is currently an ICF Global Director at the Institute of Thought Leadership. Kaveh’s methodology follows the foundational knowledge of coaching: Humanistic Psychology, Constructivism, Linguistics, Positive Psychology, Neuroscience and Systemic. linkedin.com/in/kavehmir

Meryl Moritz, MCC (USA)

Meryl is a leadership and team coach, educator, coach supervisor, mentor and member of the ICF Circle of Distinction. She supports leaders to develop agile responses as they strive to stabilize their organizations and position them for post-traumatic growth.

Osama Al-Mosa, MCC, ACTC, ICTA (Jordan)

An accredited global leadership coach and consultant with a psychology background, Osama Al-Mosa coaches senior leaders and teams in more than sixty-five countries. He owns a coaching services and coach-development school, is an ICF assessor and Prism Award judge, and has held board leadership roles globally and in the MENA region.

Cindy Muthukarapan, MCC, ACTC (South Africa)

Cindy is an internationally recognized leadership coach and mentor, holding significant roles as a director of education and a board director, where she leverages her extensive experience to contribute to elevating coaching excellence and shaping the future of coaching. Cindy is a PhD candidate in applied leadership at Monarch University, Switzerland.

Dalia Nakar, MCC (Israel)

Dalia founded a coaching retirement center to coach people to design their new life chapter. Dalia is an executive and team coach, a Jungian coach, a mentor coach and an ICF assessor. She is a former president of Israel’s ICF chapter and an ambassador.

João Luiz Pasqual, MCC (Brazil)

João Luiz Pasqual is a certified mentor coach and supervisor, and holds the vice-chair of development position on the ICF’s Independent Review Board (IRB). His dedication to ethical coaching is unwavering, with a strong focus on ethics in practice and education. Learn more at his website.

Dr. Frances Penafort, MCC (Malaysia)

Frances is committed to progressing the level of ethical maturity and knowledge of core competencies. She contributes extensively in this field and is a much-sought-after keynote speaker on ethics and core competencies, regionally and globally. More information is on her website.

Michael Pomije, MCC (US and Thailand)

Michael brings thirty years of diverse experience from NBC Sports to founding a global lecture agency, showcasing his commitment to leadership and communication. Now, alongside Dr. Chérie Carter-Scott, they are the sole married Master Certified Coaches jointly leading all three ICF levels of Transformational Executive Coach Certification programs. www.michaelpomije.com

Ram S. Ramanathan, MCC (India)

Ram is a spiritual systemic team master coach, mentor and trainer, helping executive CXO teams to emotionally bond to collaborative vision and OKR goals, using his decades of corporate leadership and Eastern spiritual wisdom aligned with sciences.

Peter J. Reding, MCC (US)

Peter is a pioneer in professional coaching, globally. He is a strong advocate for knowing, living and celebrating the uniquely brilliant person you were created to be.

Sandra L. Stewart, MCC (US)

Sandra is the author of Building the Core Competencies of Change: A Guide to Coaching in Organizations and contributor to Building an Organizational Coaching Culture. She is an instructor and mentor for coaching certification and a member of the ICF IRB. www.sandraLstewart.com

Michael Stratford, MCC (US)

Michael is a champion of uniqueness, with over three decades coaching clients from rock bands to Fortune 100 company executives and their teams. He is the creator of MillonQuest™: 7 Realms of Self-Mastery. ;

Giuseppe Totino, MCC (Italy and US)

Giuseppe is an executive coach and leadership development expert. He also holds the IAF CPF certification. He is committed to fostering organizational coaching cultures and raising coaching standards. He played an instrumental role in developing the ICF core competencies and assessors’ training. He lives in Central Florida with his family.

Tracy Tresidder, MCC (Australia)

An award-winning coach, lecturer and leader with over twenty-one years of experience, Tracy has 7,000+ coaching hours, 1,000+ mentoring hours and held leadership roles in ICF and academia. Known as the coach’s coach, she supports coaches in developing competency, capability and capacity, and clients in achieving conscious, purposeful living.

Leda Turai, MCC, ACTC (Estonia)

Leda Turai, MA, MSc, MCC, ACTC, PhD scholar, executive coach, mentor coach, supervisor, ex-ICF global board chair, ICF assessor and SME, has earned numerous coaching awards and Hungary’s Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit. ;

Foreword

Foreword

I remember when we agreed as a young ICF board to implement certification of coaches in the late 1990s. There was a desire to ensure the integrity of our profession by certifying that people who called themselves an ICF coach were representing the values and the definition of coaching we stand for. Most importantly, we knew we had to differentiate coaching from therapeutic practices, consulting, teaching and mentoring. We felt our young profession would not survive on its own without specifying the behaviors we call coaching when uplifting lives, relationships and business results.

We spent hours arguing and negotiating the definition of coaching that has stood the test of time. The key phrase – partnering in a thought-provoking and creative process – is what the competencies and then the Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS) were built on.

Partnering represents the equal power dynamic that coaches establish to create the safety and trust needed to unlock and maximize the ability for people to expand, even create, new realities to step into. We are thinking partners, not experts, doctors, problem-solvers or healers. We know every client has the seeds of knowledge that can be nurtured so they figure out what to do and who to be with coaching.

The competencies and BARS demonstrate the thought-provoking and creative process we use to create the new awareness clients need to move forward. This process also uplifts the human spirit and expands consciousness in a way that serves the possibility of creating a world that works for all.

After reading just one chapter of this book, I had to sit quietly with my smile and open heart. I am so grateful for the amazing coaches who contributed to the work, the examples they share along with their clear explanations, and how each competency works in service of both the client and coach. The book does more than teach. It inspires us to continue our development on the path of coaching mastery that has no end. As we improve, so do our clients, and the world.

I hope you treasure this book as much as I do and use it until the pages fall out – then buy a new one! Thank you, Jonathan and Judit, for pulling this masterpiece together.

Marcia Reynolds, PsyD, MCC

Since the 1990s, the ICF has played a leading role in the professionalization of coaching. When I participated in the first Executive Coaching Summit in 1999 sponsored by the ICF, our challenge was to ensure that coaching in general, and executive coaching in particular, would become an established profession, whose societal contribution would be recognized. We have come a long way since then, with the best universities offering advanced coaching education, a boom in coaching research papers and literature, and organizations increasingly calling upon coaching to deploy their human potential to benefit multiple stakeholders. The journey continues and hopefully coaching will become one day an integral part of our education across ages and across geographies.

The growing interest in coaching and the possibility for almost anyone to call themselves a coach makes it imperative, though, to be able to distinguish professional coaches from mere opportunists. This precious book will give you a concrete sense of the basic competencies required to be considered a professional coach. The ICF has done a remarkable job in defining competencies that provide a common bedrock while also cultivating diversity. This combination of universalist coherence and particularist flexibility provides the necessary safeguards while still encouraging each coach to be the unique professional they can be.

Becoming a masterful coach is not solely a matter of acquiring knowledge, learning techniques and gaining experience. It implies striving to be congruent, embodying the human qualities we help others to develop. It necessitates openness, curiosity and humble self-confidence. It entails turning to our coachees with the intention of establishing a genuine human bond. Becoming a masterful coach also involves, in my view, the readiness to engage in life-long learning from diverse disciplines including psychology as well as medicine, management, interculturalism, politics and philosophy (among others!). Coaches may not have the expert knowledge of psychotherapists, neuroscientists or philosophers. Their unique strength is in being generalists interested in all these disciplines and integrators of multiple perspectives, helping clients address complex challenges from various angles. They help coachees discover new avenues to build more fulfilling lives for themselves and for all those they can impact.

Professional coaching is needed now more than ever. Although the 193 countries of the UN General Assembly in 2015 adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with 17 Sustainable Development Goals (and the associated targets and indicators), we are not on track to achieve these crucial environmental, social and economic objectives. Professional coaching promises to transform the leadership needed to bridge this gap by deploying our human multifaceted potential, evoking our sense of purpose, raising our consciousness and promoting constructive relationships and collaboration. In sum, professional coaching is not only destined to help coaching clients achieve their immediate goals. It can contribute to making our world a better place for all living species.

Delving into this book will allow you to advance on your professional coaching journey by learning directly from diverse master coaches. I want to express my gratitude to all the contributors for sharing their wisdom and to Judit and Jonathan for putting together this essential book.

Prof. Philippe Rosinski, MS, MCC

Introduction

Introduction

The intention with this book is to serve all those who want to perfect their coaching skills and are committed to take it to a higher level of coach professionalism by going through the credentialing system of the International Coaching Federation (ICF).

This book came about because as ICF assessors and trainers we have been inspired by all the good coaching we have seen and the impact this makes on our world. Over the past decade, this has made us realize that coaching is colorful and diverse. We need more ways to celebrate it in its wholeness and diversity. The art of coaching manifests itself in that, while you are following the ICF quality framework represented by the ICF core competencies, you can still make your coaching human by developing your own style. You can play with the competencies in a flexible manner as you shape your own coaching style. We hope that this book helps you follow the ICF competencies in an enjoyable way when your learning is more than just a compliance exercise.

This book serves to further the transparency of our profession, so you as a coach know what assessors are looking for. Making your sessions clearer, stronger and more in line with the competencies will make for easier marking, and as we say, a happier assessor is a high-scoring assessor!

This book demonstrates how experienced MCC coaches can work together, with a commitment to share their knowledge and experience, to support the global coaching community and the continued development of the coaching profession.

We would like to express our gratitude to all those who have supported us on our own journeys of development. We also want to express our thanks and gratitude to Carrie Abner, our publishing team and the Master Certified Coaches who have worked on this project. Their generosity in sharing their practice has been amazing, collaborating across styles, cultures and approaches on a complex project that has brought together twenty-three different nationalities and thirty-six Master Certified Coaches.

We invite you to find your own inspiration through this book that will guide you to your own unique coaching mastery along the ICF competencies.

Jonathan Passmore and Judit Ábri von Bartheld

Section 1

ICF BARS and Markers

Section 1 Introduction

In this first section of the book, we start with two chapters to set the context. While most coaches are aware of, and are taught, the eight ICF competencies and the sub-competencies within each, there is little discussion of how assessors actually assess coach submissions.

In the first chapter, Francine Campone dives deep into the assessment process to explain how ICF assessors use the competencies and the Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS). She shares the assessment frameworks and how each is marked using a detailed assessment scale from insufficient evidence to exemplary evidence.

In the second chapter, Giuseppe Totino and Ann Fogolin explore the PCC Markers. They clarify what the markers are, and they share their insights on the benefits of markers and how coaches can use this knowledge in the development and assessment processes.

We hope that by openly sharing how assessors work at ACC, PCC and MCC levels, we can help you on your development journey.

Chapter 1

An Assessor’s Perspective on the ICF BARS

Francine Campone

Introduction

While the ICF competencies and BARS statements describe what a coach does, coaches seeking the ACC and MCC credentials should also understand the rating process used in assessing those two levels. As other chapters in this book indicate, the ACC and MCC BARS are behavioral statements: they describe what the coach must do to meet the standard of competency. In this brief chapter, I will present the rating levels with a brief description of what each indicates, along with examples using selected BARS statements. I will also offer conclusions regarding the path of development to support coaches achieving ratings of sufficient and beyond.

The BARS statements describe a progression from ACC- and MCC-level coaching. The rating scale used to assess at these levels reflects not only what the coach does but the degree of proficiency with which the coach demonstrates the desired behavior. Sufficient performance by an ACC applicant indicates that the coach is technically competent and demonstrates the behaviors described in the BARS statements with a coach mindset. For an MCC applicant, a coach must go beyond prescriptive behaviors in a collaborative and emergent dialogue with the client in order to earn a rating of sufficient or higher.

If this seems a bit abstract, it might be helpful to consider an analogy. Imagine you have gone to see a performance of a classical dance performed by recent graduates of a school known for the performing arts. The dancers are quite good; poised, confident and dancing in unison with others on the stage. You leave, having enjoyed the performance. A week later, a friend invites you to see the same ballet, this time performed by an experienced professional company with two well-known and highly praised dancers in the lead roles. The dancers in the company are fluid and seem almost weightless, imparting grace and elegance to the experience of the dance. Their movements are at one with the music and your experience is of the whole rather than hearing the notes separately from the movement of the performers on the stage. The two special guest performers are exceptional. They embody music, story, emotion and you are fully absorbed in the experience with them.

This is not to suggest that the first performance was inadequate. On the contrary, the performers executed the requisite steps in a polished and professional manner. The lead performers in the second event, however, brought a grace, ease and artistry that transformed a performance into a powerful collective experience.

The Rating Scale

While it can be challenging to describe the difference, looking at the language of the BARS rating scale and competencies can help aspiring coaches understand the tone and manner that distinguish a coach who sufficiently demonstrates the BARS standard from the one who is extremely proficient or perhaps exemplary. The highlighted words in the rating scale below, along with comments I have added in italics, suggest the trajectory of the rating scale as it is applied to submissions by ACC applicants.

Table 1.1: ACC Assessor Rating Scale