Many coaches in our ICF certification programs were battered by the consequences of the decisions they made on their ICF journey. Signing up for the wrong program, neglecting the fundamentals, or embarking on a self-guided portfolio journey—like many other coaches seeking credentials—they thought they were taking the easier and cheaper route, but ended up paying more, getting stuck for years, or giving up halfway.
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Making mistakes is a natural part of growth, learning, and becoming a great coach. Luckily for you, others have already made many mistakes, and we compiled a list of the costliest and most time-consuming ones to prevent you from repeating them.
Process Mistakes:
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No Plan: Coaches start training without mapping the full pathway first: how many hours, what credentialing requires, where clients come from once training ends. When they realize the scope, most get overwhelmed and stall instead of building a plan.
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Treating coaching hours as a technicality: Hours get logged, but skills don’t automatically follow. The experience that comes from practice is needed to pass the exam and build coaching expertise.
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Believing the Portfolio Path is cheaper and faster: The DIY path shifts the entire burden of proof onto the coach: a log of every client with proof of payment, a performance evaluation, and two recorded coaching conversations with real clients, transcribed and matched precisely to ICF’s core competencies. Miss the mark, and it comes back for a redo. Compared to an accredited program, only the review of the hours accumulated in the portfolio path takes two to three times longer.
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Feedback that arrives too late: The common pattern runs backward: train, coach, accumulate hours, get evaluated, and only then discover the weakness. The better pattern is continuous: coach, get feedback, reflect, adjust, coach again, repeat—built into training from day one.
Mindset Mistakes:
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Assuming the credential doesn’t matter, since anyone can call themselves a coach: Early on, the coaching industry got filled up with self-declared coaches who skipped real training—tarnishing Coaching’s reputation. Over time, credibility became the factor sets the can-do’s from the wanna-be’s, and ICF is the authority that lends it.
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Confidence treated as a starting requirement: Confidence in one’s abilities and it’s a byproduct of practice, training, feedback, repetition, and client response, not something you must possess before you begin.
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Believing you have to become an entrepreneur to coach: Fifteen years ago, that was close to true; there weren’t many other ways in. Today, coaching platforms, corporate roles, and contract work are all viable paths that don’t require running a business. An accredited certificate and ICF credentials open more doors.
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Assuming your own life has to be fully sorted out first: What the job requires is expertise in the coaching process, not in other people’s lives, and not even fully in your own. A well structures ICF credentialing program will teach you to control your mind and harness your skills.
Making these mistakes can cost you months of delays, additional expenses, and frustration. ICF credentialing process is tumultuous and unforgiving. The reason every graduate of our program who has taken the ICF exam has passed it is that we take ownership of our students’ success, leading them through the turbulence of the ICF credentialing process. Like choosing a reliable guide to traverse a jungle, choosing a reliable ICF training program will help you reach the destination faster and in one piece.
