Certificate in Leadership Coaching

Leadership Coaching

Application deadline for Summer 2012: February 24, 2012

Download Summer 2012 Schedule

Download Spring 2012 Schedule (Application period has ended)

This International Coach Federation (ICF) accredited program examines the links between coaching and organization development while emphasizing coaching skill development on three levels: learning about self as a coach and instrument of change, creating productive and fulfilling relationships in the coaching role, and understanding coaching within systems dynamics. This rigorous program prepares participants to the Professional Certified Coach level of proficiency as established by the ICF.

Coaching is needed today more than ever as a critical tool for organizational change. Change is essential for an organization to grow and adapt to today's rapidly shifting marketplace, but people and organizations are naturally resistant to change. Coaching can facilitate productive change in persons, teams, and systems by enabling leaders, managers, and employees to uncover potential that might otherwise go untapped.

The ability to coach leaders is a core competency for those helping organizations to develop. Through coaching, leaders learn how to optimize the value of human capital. Coaching helps them clarify their visions, beliefs, and values, and stretches their capacity to lead and influence. They can then become catalysts for change within their organizations. In changing from old hierarchical models to relational models for leading and influencing, businesses are creating coaching cultures that encourage organizational learning. Coaching has emerged as the best way to help individuals learn to think and work together more effectively.

Core Competencies:

The Leadership Coaching certificate is designed to help you:

Learn how personal transformation occurs, through your own experience of transformation
Increase your ability to reflect, notice, and self-correct
Gain fluency in the domains of language, body, and emotion
Understand leadership coaching as organizational intervention
Define and practice elements of the coaching relationship
Assemble a coaching toolkit
Apply the concepts of adult development theory to your coaching and use of self as coach
Understand and practice team and group coaching

Designed for:

Currently practicing coaches and consultants seeking certification from the International Coach Federation, either internal or external to an organization
Accomplished organizational leaders seeking a career transition that will build on previous experience
Experienced human resources and performance management professionals seeking to expand their portfolio of skills
Coaches already certified by the International Coach Federation who would like to be more skilled in specifically working with leaders in an organizational context

Format:

This program includes 152 hours of instruction. Classes meet from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM (4:30 PM on Friday) on three consecutive days, Wednesday through Friday, approximately once a month. (Please note, that the third course session is four days long). Additional meeting times with learning team coaches are arranged to fit the schedules of participants. Classes cannot be taken independently of the certificate program. This certificate is a cohort program; participants are required to complete all courses to earn their certificates.

Supplementing the 19 days of in-person classes, participants will complete significant outside reading and written assignments throughout the program, complete supervised coaching of 3 clients for a period of 3 months each, and receive individual coaching by an assigned faculty member for 6 months. Estimated level of effort outside the classroom is 10 - 20 hours per week throughout the 6 month program. The program culminates with a written examination, a final coaching performance examination, and a final written paper of 20 to 25 pages in length. In addition to the amount of study of coaching content outlined above, participants are required to engage in significant reflection and self-examination to better prepare them for the deep, personal work they will be learning to do with their clients.

Required Reading (subject to change per term):

Students are required to read all of the following texts. In some cases specific pages will be assigned for particular courses. All books are available through major booksellers and online retailers.

Co-active Coaching, by Whitworth, Karen Kimsey-House, Henry Kimsey-House, and Phillip Sandahl, 2nd edition
On Becoming a Leadership Coach: A Holistic Approach to Coaching Excellence, by Christine Wahl, Clarice Scriber, and Beth Bloomfield
Be Your Own Coach, by Barbara Braham and Chris Wahl
Executive Coaching with Backbone and Heart, by Mary Beth O’Neill
Fierce Conversations, by Susan Scott
Language and the Pursuit of Happiness, by Chalmers Brothers
Holding the Center, by Richard Heckler
Anatomy of Change, by Richard Heckler
Coaching: Evoking Excellence in Others, by James Flaherty
The Extraordinary Leader, by John H. Zenger and Joseph Folkman

Articles can be ordered online from Harvard Business Review at: Harvardbusinessonline.org or 1.800.545.7685

“What Makes a Leader” by Daniel Goleman (Product#: R0401H)
“Teaching Smart People How to Learn” by Chris Argyris (Product#: 4304)
“The Real Reason People Won’t Change” by Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey (Product#: 8121)
“Seven Transformations of Leadership” by Rooke and Torbert (Product#: R0504D)
“The Making of a Corporate Athlete” by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz (Product#: R0101H)

Faculty:

Faculty for the Georgetown University Leadership Coaching program come from across industry and academia. For a complete listing of currently active faculty please click here.

Admission and Registration:

The Leadership Coaching certificate program has a competitive admissions process. For each cohort, a faculty selection committee chooses a collection of students who represent a variety of backgrounds, occupations and goals for the program in order to enrich the classroom experience. In order to insure that there is a baseline of knowledge and experience in the cohort, the following pre-requisites have been established by the faculty:

Openness to feedback, a large capacity for self-examination and challenging one's own beliefs are pre-requisites for acceptance into the program
A bachelors degree
At least five years of education, training and/or professional experience in coaching, human resources, leadership, organization development or a related field.

Application Requirements:

A completed application form.
$35 application fee.
Updated resume or CV.
Send Two letters of recommendation in which the recommenders specifically address the following points:
- How you know the applicant.
- The applicant's self-knowledge and capacity for self-reflection and challenging his or her own beliefs.
- The applicant's receptivity to feedback from others.
- The applicant's commitment to his or her own development, with examples.
- The applicant's commitment to the development and growth of others.
Individual Essays in which you address the following questions:
- Why did you choose the Georgetown Leadership Coaching Program and why now?
- What have you learned about yourself in the last three years?
- What activities are you currently engaged in to foster your own development?
- Describe a situation from the past three months when a) you examined or challenged a belief you held; or b) you were open to feedback.
- What's next for you in terms of your personal or professional learning? How do you know that?
- What challenges to completing this program do you anticipate you will have to overcome?
- Use five adjectives to describe yourself.

Application Process:

Prospective students interested in applying to the Leadership Coaching program must submit an application online. Note that only complete applications will be considered. Applicants are responsible for tracking the status of reference letters and for ensuring that application packages are complete.

All letters of recommendations may be uploaded directly by the recommender, emailed directly to dp293@georgetown.edu, or they may be mailed to:

Center for Continuing and Professional Education-Admissions Office
Leadership Coaching Program
3101 Wilson Blvd, Suite 200
Arlington, VA 22201

Admission:

The faculty selection committee will begin reviewing complete applications after the assigned application deadline. Only complete applications will be considered for admission. Late applications are accepted and will be considered for admission following a review of all applications that meet the priority deadline. As this is a cohort program, each applicant will be evaluated as an individual and as part of a well-balanced group of students. Due to the complex nature of the selection process, we are not able to provide individual feedback to applicants on their applications. Notification of admissions decisions will be made a month following the application deadline via e-mail. Please insure that your e-mail provider is configured to accept e-mail from the @georgetown.edu domain.

International Students

All courses within this Certificate program are taught in English. Students must be comfortable reading, writing, speaking and listening in English, the language of instruction. No TOEFL is required.

Admission Deadline:

The deadline for each successive cohort is listed at the top of this page. Three cohort programs take place each academic year - one beginning in the Spring semester, one beginning in the Summer semester, and one beginning in the Fall semester.

More Information:

For more information or to speak with a program advisor, please complete the Request More Information Form, send an email to ccpecoaching@georgetown.edu, or call 202.687.7000.

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ACTP logo
Georgetown University, Center for Professional Development's Leadership Coaching Certification program is certified as an Accredited Coach Training Program (ACTP) by the International Coach Federation.