18/08/2026
PAYING IT FORWARD
Preparing the next generation of credible coaches
One of my greatest professional passions is training, certifying, mentoring and evaluating coaches as they work towards professional credentialling.
There is something deeply moving about watching a developing coach begin to recognise:
I can do this.
I have found work that matters to me.
I am becoming the coach I hoped I could be.
But becoming a professional coach requires more than completing a training programme or learning a collection of coaching tools.
It requires the development of presence.
Self-awareness.
Ethical discernment.
Coaching competence.
The ability to listen beneath the words.
The courage to remain curious rather than rush in with advice.
The humility to recognise one’s limitations.
And the commitment to place the coachee at the centre of the coaching relationship.
For many coaches, the credentialling journey can feel overwhelming.
They may be confident in a coaching conversation but become anxious when faced with portfolios of evidence, reflective essays, coaching-hour logs, competency frameworks, ethical requirements and formal evaluation.
Some fear that they will be judged.
Some fear that they will fail.
Some know that they can coach but struggle to translate what they do naturally into the evidence required by a professional body.
This is where good mentoring matters.
A mentor coach does not manufacture evidence or carry the candidate through the process.
We help coaches understand what professional competence looks like.
We help them recognise and articulate the learning already present in their practice.
We identify gaps that require further development.
We prepare them to demonstrate their coaching against professional behavioural standards and ethical expectations.
And sometimes, we help them trust the coach they have already become.
Evaluation is also not simply about passing or failing someone.
Done responsibly, it protects the coach, the client and the credibility of the profession.
Credentialling communicates that a coach has met an independently recognised standard of training, practice, ethical awareness and professional competence.
It helps organisations and clients know that the person they are trusting with vulnerable conversations has been appropriately prepared.
Standards are not there to make coaching cold, rigid or mechanical.
They create a safe and ethical foundation from which the coach’s humanity, intuition, creativity and unique presence can emerge.
After more than twenty-one years of coaching and developing coaches, I experience this work as part of my legacy.
Every lesson learned through my own training, practice, mistakes, supervision, evaluation and professional growth can be paid forward.
Not by creating another version of me—but by helping each coach discover and develop the most ethical, congruent and capable version of themselves.
Because when we prepare one coach well, the impact does not end with that coach.
That coach may go on to support a leader who transforms an organisation.
An educator who changes the life of a child.
A caregiver who learns to honour their own wellbeing.
A woman standing at the threshold of a new life.
A person who reaches for support before burnout becomes breakdown.
A team that learns to work with greater trust and humanity.
Training one coach can touch hundreds of lives we may never personally meet.
That is why I care so deeply about professional training, mentoring, certification and evaluation.
It is not merely about helping someone place another credential after their name.
It is about protecting the people they will coach.
Strengthening the profession they represent.
Honouring the work they have done.
And paying it forward to the next coach—who can then help another human being change the course of a life, a family, a team, an organisation or even a community.
That is work worth doing.
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