Why I Sat the ICF Coaching Exam a Decade Into My Career
10 Aug 2026
Anyone can call themselves an executive coach.
Anyone can call themselves an executive coach.
One year ago today I decided to do something about that. I sat the ACC exam with the International Coaching Federation and passed.
Not because it changed how I coach. It did not, not really.
Because my clients make career-defining decisions in our work together. They deserve someone held accountable to a professional standard, not just someone with good intentions and a confident LinkedIn presence.
There are a lot of those already.
I love this profession. I would sit that exam again without hesitating.
If you want to read how I think about coaching, leadership and the messy middle of real change, I write about it biweekly here: https://www.thechangerepublic.com/#subscribe
What keeps you committed to quality in your work?
What accountability actually looks like in coaching
The coaching industry has almost no barrier to entry. A weekend certificate, a confident LinkedIn bio and a good testimonial are often the entire qualification behind someone charging senior executives for their time. I do not think that is dishonest on its own, but it leaves clients with no way to tell the difference between someone trained to hold a hard conversation and someone who has simply had a lot of them.
The ICF accreditation process tests something specific: whether a coach follows a defined ethical standard, whether they can be held accountable when something goes wrong, and whether their process can be reviewed by someone other than the client in the room. For clients making decisions about their career, their team, or their next move, that accountability matters more than charisma.
Most of what makes coaching work well still cannot be certified. That includes listening well, reading a room, and knowing when to push and when to sit in silence. The credential is the part that protects the client when my judgment alone is not enough of a guarantee.
If you want a sense of where the coaching profession itself is heading, I have a free 2026 ICF Coaching Futures Report podcast, a fifteen minute audio summary of the ICF's own research on where the industry is going. Leave your email here and I will send it over: https://www.thechangerepublic.com/free-resources