Coaching World Issue 15: August 2015 | страница 14

Special Update

ICF Announces Updates to
Code of Ethics
As ICF celebrates our 20th
anniversary in 2015, look for
this button in each issue of
Coaching World. It denotes
an article or column that
communicates an aspect of
ICF’s history and legacy as the
world’s leading organization for
professionally trained coaches.
Within three years of its
founding, ICF began the
process of raising the
profile of professional
coaching by setting high
professional standards.
This included establishing
a stringent Code of Ethics
and implementing an Ethical
Conduct Review (ECR)
process and Independent
Review Board (IRB).

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Coaching World

Thanks to a required,
periodic review process,
the ICF Code of Ethics
has evolved to meet the
changing needs of a growing
industry and its consumers.
Today’s ICF Code of Ethics is
rooted in the association’s
core values and based
on an understanding of
what today’s coaches and
consumers need, best
practices and learnings from
other helping professions,
and in-depth research
and discussion of varying
conceptions of ethics around
the globe.

Following the ICF Global Board of Directors’ June 2015 meeting and
strategic planning session, ICF has adopte d a revised Code of Ethics.
Every three years, ICF undertakes a process to review the Code of Ethics and
ensure that it addresses changes within the coaching industry, reflects evolving
processes and remains relevant to ICF Members and Credential-holders. The ICF
Code Review Team convened in April 2014; it was led by Susan Braverman, PCC
(USA), and consisted of coaches from around the globe (see the full list of team
members below).
The revisions to the Code of Ethics reflect a shift away from the view of coaching
ethics as right or wrong toward an understanding of ethics as the concepts and
principles that direct coaches’ behavior. Foregrounding this evolution, the ICF
Code Review Team recommended a set of revisions intended to transform the
Code of Ethics from a document prescribing what not to do to a document that
highlights how to be as an ICF Member and/or Credential-holder.
Susan said the Code Review Team’s work was anchored by a shared reading:
Ethical Maturity in the Helping Professions: Making Difficult Life and Work Decisions,
by Michael Carroll and Elisabeth Shaw (Jessica Kingsley Pub, 2013). She
explained that the book emphasizes “a growth and maturity in how you view
ethics” and focuses on ethical behavior in the context of a relationship. As part
of its work, the team also studied the ethical codes of other helping professions
around the world.
The process of reviewing and revising the ICF Code of Ethics aligns with the
strategic goal of ensuring that ICF is the most relevant professional coaching
organization, for coaches and consumers alike. “If we take ourselves seriously as
professionals, it’s important to make a consistent statement of who we are and
what we stand for,” Susan said. “The ICF Code of Ethics is protection for the public,
too. The public also needs to have clear expectations of who we are and what we
stand for as professional coaches.”
The revised ICF Code of Ethics also includes new provisions that address the
other roles professional coaches may play and that offer a new ethical standard
for internal coach practitioners.
“We wanted to look at coaches in all contexts,”
Susan said. This required exploring not only
the varied professional contexts in which
coaches work (such as coach trainers, mentors
and supervisors, and internal coaches in
organizations as well as external practitioners),
but also different cultural contexts and
associated conceptions of ethics. “ICF needs
to be sensitive to our impact on coaches
practicing globally,” she added.
To read the ICF Code of Ethics online
or download a PDF, please visit
Coachfederation.org/ethics.

ICF Code Review Team:
Teri-E Belf, MCC (USA)
C. B. Bowman (USA)
Susan Braverman, PCC (USA)
Shawna Corden, PCC (USA)
Kees de Vries, PCC (Netherlands)
Tina Elliot, PCC (USA)
Jane Faulkner, PCC (USA)
Joy Harcup, PCC (United Kingdom)
Sue McMahon, PCC (USA)
Mirna Pérez Piris, PCC (Mexico)
Sandy Weiner, MCC (Germany)