The guest for today’s show is Teresa Pool and we’re going to be picking her brain today to find out all about what it takes to become an MCC (Master Certified Coach), which is really a pinnacle that many people reach for.  There are a lot of different parts that go along with that, some of them really deep and subtle, so listen in carefully as Meg and Teresa unpack all of the steps that you might take if you’re looking to become an MCC.

In today’s episode, Teresa, who began her career as a Computer Programmer, starts out by talking about what she was doing prior to becoming an Executive Coach and why she eventually decided to quit that career.  She also discusses what brought her into the field of coaching in 2001. Listen in now, to get some really valuable tips about becoming an MCC.

Show highlights:

* What brought Teresa into the field of Coaching.

* Teresa’s way of deciding about the kinds of clients that she wanted to work with as a Coach and also, what she wanted her path, as a Coach, to look like.

* A lot of her current work is around Executive Performance and Career Development growth.

* The Two Phase Process of the required practices that are necessary for somebody looking to reach the level of MCC. 1) You really have to be extremely competent in the ICF Core Competencies. 2) You need to experience a mindset shift, to make the final shift into becoming an MCC.

* Teresa helps a few PCC’s every year, to make the shift to becoming MCC’s, by helping them to discover the missing internal thing, that allows them to embody what Teresa calls the ‘ICF Walks On Water Model’ of being an MCC. It’s really an internal way of being and thinking differently.

* Some of the more difficult skills and ways of thinking that Teresa and her clients have had to incorporate. Coaching Presence is really the basis for all the others and Trust and Intimacy form a wonderful container for the client to be in. You really have to internalize though, that as a Coach, that every time you have helped a client, you take away their power. This really requires a lot of faith in the process, as a Coach.

* Coaching as a process has an amazing power. You need to take both that power and the client’s power and put them together. You’re really just there to hold the container!

* It’s really the internal work that can ultimately help to let go and learn to trust the process, in that second phase. This is about discovering where you still feel that it’s about you and also, working on active listening and powerful questioning– and not being satisfied with the surface thing that the client brings to the table. This is what differentiates an MCC from a PCC.

* Really solidifying your skill set through unlearning it in order to relearn it, to make the next leap to becoming an MCC.

* A commitment to the profession and also a real willingness to explore both your dark spaces and everything you’ve learned so far, to make it as an MCC.

* Some of the things that Teresa might listen for in a coaching call if she was looking to give some really concrete guidance to someone.

* Being responsive to what the client has just said in the moment and staying in the place of curiosity.

* What are the PCC markers, that were created by the ICF?

* Looking at the markers can also be a great muscle building tool, for the MCC, so you can download them from coachfederation.org

* The really scant information that’s available about what happens behind the scenes, once you’ve released the necessary requirements to the ICF for an MCC. The ICF is, however, trying to change that.

* What you really need to look for, if you’re going to hire a Coach to mentor you to get to MCC level.