A coaching conversation is more than asking good questions; it can become a powerful catalyst for transformative change. Many approaches struggle to create lasting impact because they lose sight of coaching’s fundamental purpose: enabling meaningful change in how people see and respond to what they are facing.
Foundational Advantage is where you begin. You learn a clear, practical way of coaching people that helps them see their situation differently and move towards meaningful change — at work, at home, and in everyday life.
Who it's for: People new to coaching, or leaders who want stronger coaching skills in their role Time commitment: About 70 learning hours over approximately 16 weeks. Certification Pathway: This program provides the ICF Level 1 education required to apply for the ACC credential.
You begin by unpacking the science behind real change, so your coaching is grounded in more than tips and techniques. You gain a clearer view of what drives people’s responses and why some conversations open new possibilities while others keep people in the same place. Starting here sharpens everything you learn next.
You experience coaching as a different kind of conversation — one designed to shift how people see and respond. You explore what makes a coaching partnership work, how patterns of thinking show up in what people say and do, and how reflective dialogue helps them put words to what they have been feeling but could not yet express.
Key Insights You Will Explore
Here, your skill development begins. Using our proprietary narrative analysis, you learn to notice what a person highlights and how their story reveals what truly matters to them. This gives you a clearer way to support someone when they need to step back, see differently, or consider new possibilities.
Key Insights You Will Explore
Here you bring everything together. You work with our proprietary Awareness–Clarity–Choice (ACC) Conversation — a simple, proven, science-based coaching process that helps people slow down their thinking, see their situation more clearly, and recognise what is really influencing their reactions.
Key Insights You Will Explore
This is where you build the confidence to use and adapt it in your real-life context.
Practical Lab: Applying the Approach in Real Conversations
In the Practical Lab, you put the approach into practice through real conversations and structured case studies. You see how the method actually unfolds in practice, build confidence using it in your own context, and receive guidance from an experienced coach supervisor. This helps you link the concepts to live coaching moments and notice the subtleties in coach–client interactions.
Enrichment Lab: Witnessing Mastery in Action
In the Enrichment Lab, you have the rare opportunity to watch mastery in action. You observe the same approach applied at a highly skilled level in a real conversation, with space to reflect on what you are seeing. This gives you a clear picture of how the method works when executed well, and a concrete sense of what to aim for as your own practice grows.
In the Mentoring Lab, you receive focused feedback on your coaching conversations. Your mentor helps you notice what you did well, what you missed, and how your way of thinking shapes your questions and responses. This kind of guided reflection strengthens your awareness and supports progress that is hard to achieve on your own.
You learn to hold coaching as a series of connected conversations rather than isolated sessions. You design how an engagement begins, how each conversation builds on the last, and how it concludes with clarity. You work with simple structures that help leaders, internal coaches, and practitioners start, sustain, and grow a coaching practice with confidence.