Leadership Coaching
The application deadline for the Fall 2013 Leadership Coaching Program has passed. Applications will be available soon for the Spring 2014 cohort.
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Leadership Coaching Program FAQ
Program Description
The highly competitive and ICF-accredited Certificate in Leadership Coaching program examines the links between coaching and organization development, while emphasizing coaching skill development on three levels: (1) learning about self as a coach and instrument of change; (2) creating productive and fulfilling relationships in the coaching role and; (3) understanding coaching within systems dynamics.This rigorous program prepares participants to the Professional Certified Coach level of proficiency as established by the International Coach Federation (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
Program 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, with the exception of the the third course, which is four days. Additional meeting times with learning team coaches are arranged to fit the schedules of participants. Classes cannot be taken independently of the certificate program. The certificate is a cohort program and participants are required to attend and complete all courses to earn the Certificate in Leadership Coaching from Georgetown University.
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 - 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 themselves for the deep, personal work needed to guide and support clients while in the program.
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
- 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:
- What Makes a Leader by Daniel Goleman
- Teaching Smart People How to Learn by Chris Argyris
- The Real Reason People Won’t Change by Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey
- Seven Transformations of Leadership by Rooke and Torbert
- The Making of a Corporate Athlete by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
Program 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 highly competitive and selective admissions process. For each cohort, an application review committee offers admission to a diverse group of students to enrich the classroom experience. In order to insure that there is a baseline of knowledge and experience in the cohort of students, applicants should have completed the following program prerequisites:
- 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.
- Openness to feedback; capacity for self-examination; willingness to challenge one's own beliefs.
Leadership Coaching Admissions Process
Prospective students interested in the Leadership Coaching program are strongly encouraged to view our program webinar. During the application process, students are responsible for tracking the status of reference letters and required application materials. Students will be notified of their admission decision via e-mail within 4-6 weeks after the application priority deadline. Please ensure that your e-mail provider is configured to accept e-mail from the @georgetown.edu domain.
In reviewing applications, the committee takes a holistic approach in order to create a well-rounded and diverse learning community. Below are just some of the considerations, in alphabetical order, the committee uses when reviewing applications.
- Academic coursework and degrees earned
- Community engagement
- Coaching experience
- Essay Response
- Geographic location
- Leadership roles (professional and personal)
- Letters of Recommendation
- Life experiences
- Personal development
- Work Experience
Admissions Philosophy
The applications review committee is tasked with choosing applicants that can create a learning community that includes students who bring diversity, a desire to learn, and the time and commitment at this point in their lives for their own transformational learning. The interaction and contribution of our students is an important part of the learning in the cohort. With that in mind, we carefully choose qualified applicants who share our focus on coaching leaders and being attuned to the systems within which they lead.
We believe that to be effective, coaches as well as leaders must engage in self-reflection and self-mastery as ongoing practices - for development is a lifelong process. We hold that coaching must address the whole person: their mind, emotions, body, and spirit. Each of these is a source of wisdom and each domain is enriched by the other. We believe that each human being has a wellspring of innate intelligence from which deep qualities like presence, wisdom, common sense, resiliency, and peace of mind can emerge. From that belief, we coach leaders to see and respect the same wholeness in those whose lives they impact.
Application Checklist
A complete application must contain all of the required items and be submitted by the priority deadline in order to be reviewed. A complete application includes:
1. The completed application form
2. A $35 application fee
3. An updated resume or CV
4. Leadership Coaching Essay (approximately 1,000 words). The essay should answer the following:
- 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.
5. Two letters of recommendation. Recommenders should specifically address the following:
- How you know the applicant.
- The applicant's self-knowledge and capacity for self-reflection and challenge to 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.
All letters of recommendation should be submitted directly through the application portal.
International Students
All courses in the Leadership Coaching Certificate program are taught in English. Students must be comfortable reading, writing, speaking and listening in English at a professional level. No TOEFL is required.
Application Deadline
Below are the priority deadlines for the three program cohorts. For best consideration into the program, students are highly encouraged to submit a complete application by the deadline. Applications received after the priority deadline will be reviewed on a space available basis. Priority application deadlines for each semester are as follows:
- Spring: August 1
- Summer: December 1
- Fall: May 1
More Information
Tuition for this program is $11,995.
For more information or to speak with a program advisor, please complete the Request More Information Form, send an email to ccpeprograms@georgetown.edu, or call 202.687.7000.
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Georgetown University, Center for Continuing and Professional Education's Certificate in Leadership Coaching program is certified as an Accredited Coach Training Program (ACTP) by the International Coach Federation.
