03/09/2020

The Big Restructuring Behind a Small Name Change

Behind modest changes lie substantial conversations

What’s in a gerund? Last month the International Coach Federation announced that as part of its 25th anniversary celebrations, it had changed its name to the International Coaching Federation (ICF). A small change, it would seem, but the path to that -ing took three years and a lot of sober discussion about ICF’s direction.

According to ICF CEO and executive director Magdalena Mook, the move was the result of its observations of ongoing changes in its industry. Though there has always been a robust core of professional coach practitioners who do life and career coaching around the world, she says, ICF was missing consultants, advisors, and internal staffers that the association could also serve. That was particularly true outside of North America: In Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, ICF was noticing growth in coaching activities among staff within organizations, a dynamic that ICF hadn’t been reaching.

“We observed that the coaching was market changing, that coaching was being accepted and utilized in corporations and most more recently in the social sector,” she says. “We were touching upon very important pockets in the coaching market, but we were not very actively present there.”

Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.