What's New in the IAC's Coach Certification System?

by Barbra Sundquist, IAC-CC (source: IAC VOICE, Jun 07 issue)

The IAC Certifying Team is excited to announce that as of July 1, 2007 we will be using the IAC Coaching Masteries™ to evaluate certification submissions (and for the balance of 2007 you can still elect to be evaluated using the 15 Proficiencies - more about that below).

To bring you up to date…

When the draft Coaching Masteries™ were released in January 2007, the Certifying Team began doing "dual" scoring. This means that we scored tapes twice – first against the 15 Proficiencies, and then against the Coaching Masteries™. The score that applicants received was the 15 Proficiencies score (because the Coaching Masteries™ were not yet the official scoring system).

Why have we been doing dual scoring?
For the past six months we've been doing dual scoring to compare the scores received under the "old system" (the 15 Proficiencies) with scores received under the "new system" (the Coaching Masteries™ ). We wanted to determine if there were any problems with the application of the Coaching Masteries™ and if the scores obtained under the two systems would differ significantly in any way.

What did we discover while using the Coaching Masteries™?
The certifiers found that they could score quite easily using the draft Coaching Masteries™. Each of the nine Masteries has a full page description that gives specific indicators of the behaviors and results that would occur when the Mastery is used at a masterful level. We used the same 1 – 5 point scale as we have been using with the 15 Proficiencies, with 5 points indicating "highly effective" use of the Mastery.

Generally speaking, the scores between the Coaching Masteries™ and the 15 Proficiencies were consistent to within a few percentage points. Although we weren't necessarily aiming to have consistency between the two scoring systems, the results do underscore our belief that "great coaching is great coaching", no matter what scoring system is used.

Having said that, we did notice a few places where there is some variability based on scoring of specific masteries vs. specific proficiencies. For example, in the Coaching Masteries™ there is a greater emphasis on appropriate use of silence than in the 15 Proficiencies. So a coach who has a problem with silence may only see that reflected to a minor degree in their 15 Proficiency scoring, whereas it would "score them down" more heavily under the Coaching Masteries™ . On the other hand, under the 15 Proficiencies there is a specific Proficiency that measures "navigating via curiosity". An applicant could blow an entire Proficiency (and many do!) by failing to demonstrate a curious attitude. In contrast, while the Coaching Masteries™ do measure curiosity, it is just part of one Mastery and does not have as great an effect on the applicant's overall results.

We did make some recommendations for changes
During the past six months while the certifiers were doing dual scoring, we noticed some areas of the Masteries that needed tweaking. For instance, there were some behaviors that were duplicated in two or more Masteries. The problem with that is that it tends to "double-credit" or "double-penalize" an applicant. We wanted to avoid that.

The certifiers spent many hours testing and discussing these types of application issues and made recommendations to the IAC Board for changes in wording (most of the recommendations were minor wording changes). We're happy to report that the Board has accepted and endorsed all of our recommendations.

We're now ready to do "real" scoring using the Coaching Masteries™
Yippee! Starting July 1, 2007 the Coaching Masteries™ will be the official IAC scoring instrument. That means that unless you specify otherwise, your tapes will be evaluated using the Coaching Masteries™. You do have the option of being evaluated under the 15 Proficiencies until the end of 2007. If you want us to use the 15 Proficiencies in scoring your tapes, you must specify that in writing at the time of your application.

And since I know someone will ask… no, you can't have your tapes scored under both systems and then pick the highest marks!

All members have access to the same descriptions of the Masteries that the certifiers use. As a result, we feel that it will be easier for applicants to choose which of their tapes to submit for certification.

Best of luck to everyone!

About the author: Barbra Sundquist is an IAC Certifier and Certified Mentor Coach who enjoys demystifying the whole certification process! To pre-register for Barbra's brand new 11-CD IAC Masteries self-study program, please go to www.BecomeACertifiedCoach.com.