Everything Life Coaching: The Positive Psychology and Science Behind Coaching · Lumia Coach Training

The New ICF Code of Ethics: What Coaches Need to Know

·32 min·2 clips

Bonnie says the biggest ethics violations are setting the agenda, giving advice, and judging the client.

Noelle welcomes Bonnie, one of her coaches and a longtime partner in the work. The conversation turns to ethics with real energy, because both hosts treat it as a living part of coaching rather than a dry rulebook. Bonnie explains the new ICF Code of Ethics through the questions coaches actually face in practice. She keeps coming back to client agency. The coach should not set the agenda for the client. The coach should not slide into giving advice. The coach should not judge the client. Those moves, she says, take power away from the person who came for coaching. She also names professional conduct, conflicts of interest, and the commitment to delivering consistent value as part of the same ethical frame. The discussion narrows to what ICF assessors may be listening for in recorded sessions. Bonnie says the central question is whether the conversation is client-focused or coach-focused. If the focus is on the coach's wisdom, the work drifts. If the focus is on the client's wisdom, the coaching stays aligned. She describes good coaching as drawing out rather than pouring in. That distinction becomes a recurring thread as they talk through mentoring and the broader credentialing landscape. Bonnie also notes that the core competencies may be revised over the next year alongside the new code. She suggests the profession is building an ecosystem in which ethics, competencies, and assessment all point in the same direction. Noelle and Bonnie close by bringing the conversation back to practice, not abstraction. The takeaway is less about memorizing rules than about noticing how a coach holds the client, the conversation, and the role in every exchange. The episode ends with an invitation to be the best version of yourself as a coach, not as a mentor or consultant, but as an advisor and coach.

As heard by us

A grounded look at ethics, client agency, and what assessors listen for.

The discussion puts the new ICF Code of Ethics into practical terms, showing how coaching can stay client-led or slide into advice, agenda-setting, and judgment.

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Why you'd press play

Hear how assessors listen for advice, agenda-setting, and judgment in coaching recordings, with ethics front and center.

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