World-class programs
built on an evidence
based model

Conscientia. Acceptatio. Fiduciam.

Our motto (Awareness. Acceptance. Assurance.) speaks to the approach we take to the study and teaching of coaching practice and advanced coaching as well as what we expect of our graduates as they take their learning out into the world.

Self-awareness

At the core of any advanced coaching is self-awareness. Self-awareness is the ability to see yourself clearly and objectively through reflection and introspection. Self-awareness theory is based on the idea that you are not your thoughts, but the entity observing your thoughts; you are the thinker, separate and apart from your thoughts (Duval & Wickland, 1972). The first step in any meaningful advanced coaching accreditation is to improve our self-awareness and our ability to practice it.

There are many benefits to practicing self-awareness:

• It can make us more proactive, boost our acceptance and encourage positive self-development (Sutton, 2016).

• It allows us to see things from the perspective of others, practice self-control, work creatively and productively, experience pride in ourselves and our work, and improve our general self-esteem (Silvia & O’Brien, 2004).

• It leads to better decision-making (Ridley, Schutz, Glanz & Weinstein, 1992).

• It can make us better at our jobs, better communicators in the workplace, and enhance our self-confidence and job-related wellbeing (Sutton, Williams & Allinson, 2015).

Self-awareness is a tool and a practice that can be used anywhere and anytime to ground yourself in the moment, realistically evaluate yourself and the situation and make good choices. Self-awareness is the foundation of advanced coaching.

Self-acceptance

Accepting ourselves is a regular part of living our day-to-day lives but it is not an automatic or default state. Many of us have trouble accepting ourselves exactly as we are but that is exactly what advanced coaches need to do. True self-acceptance is embracing who you are, without any qualifications, conditions or exceptions (Seltzer, 2008) and it is a necessary pre-cursor to beginning the process of meaningful self-improvement. In other words, we have to acknowledge that we have undesirable traits and habits before we can start the journey to improvement.

An advanced coach helps others to learn how to accept themselves and provides a framework that can be used to build up unconditional self-acceptance and begin to focus on improvement. Unconditional self-acceptance is an understanding that we are separate from our actions and qualities (Grieger, 2013). It is an understanding that we make mistakes and we have flaws, but they do not define us. When you practice unconditional self-acceptance, you begin to embrace your authentic self and work on improving your less-than-desirable traits and qualities. Self-acceptance is the framework of advanced coaching.

Self-assurance

The goal for any advanced coach is to guide their client to a state of self-assurance. Self-assurance is a combination of outcomes – self-efficacy, self-confidence and self-esteem. Most people tend to think of self-confidence and self-esteem as the same thing and most would rarely think of self-efficacy, but all three are different and all three are related.

Self-efficacy is the belief that an individual has the ability and capacity to influence the events in their own lives (Bandura, 1977). This differs from self-esteem in an important way. Self-esteem rests on ideas about an individual’s worth or worthiness, while self-efficacy is rooted in beliefs about an individual’s capabilities to handle future situations. Self-esteem is therefore a belief focused on the past while self-efficacy is a belief focused on the future.

Self-confidence is an individual’s trust in their own abilities, capacities and judgments to successfully face day-to-day challenges and demands. Self-confidence is a belief focused on the present.

The advanced coach seeks to imbue their client with all three – a quality we summarise as self-assurance. Self-assurance is an essential human need that is vital for both survival and normal, healthy development. It arises from within, based on a person’s beliefs and consciousness. It occurs in conjunction with a person’s thoughts, behaviours, feelings and actions. For an individual to fulfil their potential, they must achieve self-assurance – a strong and valid belief in their past, present and future capacities and worth. Self-assurance is the goal of advanced coaching.