Why We Celebrate Our Wins (and Get Coach Training)

Last week, I received my coaching certification from Fluxify. This means I’ve completed 76 hours of coaching training, via nine different courses and 10 hours of mentoring by a senior coach. This puts me on track to get my ACC credential from the International Coaching Federation, or ICF.

The final step in the certification process was recording a coaching session with a client (with their consent, of course) and having it evaluated by Fluxify. Last week Fluxify let me know I passed this final part of the process, so I’m officially certified.

I share this news for two reasons.

First, I believe coach training is important. In the United States, coaching as a profession or professional service isn’t regulated by the government. Which means that any of us can wake up one day and say we’re a coach and start practicing. This is unlike–for example– medical doctors, who are members of a licensed profession that is regulated by (mostly) state laws and oversight.

Short of a legal framework, the coach training, certification, and credentialing process is one way for people who are seeking coaches to know that the person they may hire has some grounding in the basics of the practice.

And in my experience, that grounding really matters!

As I transcribed the recorded session that I submitted for evaluation, I was struck by how different I was in that session than I was when I coached people before I had any training (yes, I was one of those people who woke up and just decided to be a coach!). I think I did a good job before I was trained, but I know I did a lot more talking rather than listening. In other words, I assumed I knew what was best for the client and often just told them what to do. Sometimes that’s appropriate, but it's often the least effective way to get someone to adopt new ways of thinking and behaving. There really is an art and science to coaching, and training programs help you understand and learn about both the art and the science.

Sunset over the fall dunes in Provincetown, MA.

If you want a coach, find one who has taken time to undergo at least some training and education. You owe it to yourself and whatever budget you’re using–yours or your organization’s–to pay for the services.

The second reason I share this news is that I have always been awful at celebrating milestones. My approach has been to do the thing and then move on. But I learned in coach training– coincidentally–how important it is for humans to celebrate our accomplishments. For one thing, having someone acknowledge that we’ve made progress or attained a goal–and letting ourselves receive that acknowledgement–helps us feel seen and supported by others. Which not only makes us want to keep learning and growing, but it strengthens our relationships and sense of social cohesion.

And letting ourselves acknowledge these things is empowering in a different way–we’re sharing with the world that we did something that is important to us. This can feel rather one-way when it’s done digitally–as I’m doing here in this post and on LinkedIn–but at the same time I’m letting myself take credit for this accomplishment simply by saying it out loud. That takes a degree of self-confidence that I lacked for a lot of my adult life.

Of course, there is something to be said about humility and not being arrogant. But sometimes we use the excuse of humility to hide ourselves, which I know that I often did at one time.

So thank you for letting me make this small announcement here. I’m proud of what I did. And if nothing else, I hope if you decide to ever get a coach that you seek one who has invested some time and money in their training and development. You won’t regret it.