Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
The Least Defined Coaching Concept
53 Plays6 days ago
In the Season Four premiere of PRIME SPACE, Elias Scultori, MCC, explores one of the most essential and misunderstood foundations of professional coaching: the coaching mindset.
With the evolution of the ICF Core Competencies, coaches around the world continue to ask: What does it really mean to embody a coaching mindset? In this solo episode, Elias offers a clear, experience-based perspective that goes beyond definitions, checklists, and skill execution.
This episode unpacks five core principles that define the coaching mindset, including why coaching is client-centered rather than solution-driven and is rooted in the belief that clients are capable, resourceful, and whole. Elias also examines power, hierarchy, partnership, and why coaching must be lived—not turned on and off during sessions.
More than a professional framework, this episode positions coaching as a transformational movement—one that has the power to reshape individuals, organizations, and how we relate to one another as human beings.
Whether you are a new coach, an experienced practitioner, or preparing for ICF credentialing, this episode invites deep reflection on who you are being as a coach—and why mindset is the foundation from which all coaching skills emerge.
Quotes
“Solutions are not the goal of coaching; they are the consequence of awareness.”
“The client is always the expert—our expertise is the coaching process.”
“Mindset is the hardest part of coaching—and the foundation of every skill.”
Chapters
01:04 – Why “Coaching Mindset” Still Feels Unclear
Reflections on the evolution of the ICF Core Competencies and why the concept remains elusive.
04:47 – Coaching Is Client-Centered
Why coaching focuses on the *who*, not the *what*, and prioritizes transformation over transactions.
06:17 – Coaching Is Not Solution-Based
How solutions emerge naturally as a byproduct of awareness, not the goal of the process.
07:32 – Clients Are Capable, Resourceful, and Whole
The foundational belief that there is nothing to fix—and how this shifts the entire coaching relationship.
08:49 – Coaching Is Client-Led and Adult-to-Adult
Ownership, responsibility, and the coach’s commitment to “not knowing.”
09:57 – Partnership, Equality, and Power Awareness
Why minimizing hierarchy is essential—and why the client is always the true expert.
11:11 – Coaching as a Way of Being
Why mindset can’t be turned on and off, and how coaching becomes a lived set of values.
13:51 – A Call to Embody the Coaching Mindset
An invitation to reflection, practice, and contribution beyond the coaching conversation.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Season Four
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to Prime Space, a Prime Coaching Academy podcast with your host, Elias Scultori. Hello, coaches.
00:00:15
Speaker
Welcome to season four of Prime Space. i am very excited about the journey ahead, the topics, the guests that I'm going to bring to this conversation.
Listener Engagement
00:00:30
Speaker
Thank you so much for being i crucial part of Prime Space for your listening, for your comments, for your emails, for your questions. Please continue to bring them to me. And I am committed to bringing relevant topics for your development, for your growth as a coach and for our profession in general as well.
The Coaching Mindset: Introduction
00:00:54
Speaker
So for today to get started i wanted to bring a question that has been on my mind for quite some time What is a coaching mindset?
00:01:08
Speaker
We were so thrilled that in the 2019 version of the ICF Core Competencies This competency was introduced, was first introduced. The competency embodies a coaching mindset.
00:01:25
Speaker
But as excited as we were about the competency itself, we were very clear that the competency needed to mature and more conversations needed for it to grow and to flesh out the concept of a coaching mindset.
00:01:42
Speaker
It was new, we were happy that this competency was introduced, but something was missing.
00:01:51
Speaker
Now we have a new version that the ICF just released last year and definitely this was the competency that that we edited the most and yet when you look at this new version of this competency It feels very convoluted. We doubled the size of the definition. We added a bunch of words. But when you look at everything and you squeeze everything, very little substance comes out of of all of that soup of words that this competency became. There is a lot of conversation about reflective practice.
00:02:31
Speaker
And it's wonderful. wonderful. we need to have reflective practice. But if we pay close attention to this idea of reflective practice, that's not unique to coaching.
00:02:42
Speaker
Every professional who is serious about their craft, will have a reflective practice. A doctor will be thinking about, how can I best relate to my clients?
00:02:57
Speaker
A teacher will be thinking about, how can I better explain this topic to my students next time? craftsperson will think, oh, maybe next time I can do this a little bit differently. Reflective practice is essential for anyone who really wants to excel in what they are doing.
00:03:17
Speaker
So yes, coaches need reflective practice, but that is not unique about coaching. So therefore, does not really represent or defines coaching mindset. The other thing is that reflective practice is a practice, not necessarily a mindset.
00:03:37
Speaker
So there are still some points here that have not been formally defined yet.
Defining the Coaching Mindset
00:03:45
Speaker
In every coaching conversation, whether if we are talking with the assessors of the ICF or coach educators around the world or an ICF chapter or whatever gathering of coaches, there is always this concept of the coaching mindset. We are always talking about the coaching mindset. whoop What does that mean?
00:04:05
Speaker
So I thought that I would address this in this episode. The other thing that I want to say is that this is my perspective based on my experience. And the wonderful thing about the ICF job analysis is this attempt to bring as many coaches from diverse backgrounds and different parts of the world with different experiences so that the result of the job analysis is rich and coming from different perspectives and becomes more solid, right? That's at least the attempt of these job analysis by the ICF. So what I'm sharing here, I'm not saying that this is the truth, but at least it's my perspective as far as coaching mindset. The first point
00:04:53
Speaker
Coaching is client-centered. The focus is on the person of the client. The client is in the spotlight, not the topic, not the situation.
00:05:08
Speaker
Coaches focus on the human being and on the development of that human being. The situation that the client brings, sometimes is even a problem, but not necessarily a problem, whatever the client wants to discuss in that coaching conversation,
00:05:23
Speaker
or whatever the client is searching for or looking for or as an outcome of that conversation, those are conduits. Those are ah tools or bridges for us to support the client into this noticing and the exploration of who they are and how they are relating to this situation so that with deeper self-awareness, the client is able to make better choices for themselves.
00:05:52
Speaker
So that's why we say in coaching that we are focused on the who not the what. We are focused who this individual is, not what the situation is presenting.
00:06:06
Speaker
And that you've you've heard me say several times, and you've heard this in other venues as well, this idea of the transformation versus the transactional process. In that coaching, we are...
00:06:19
Speaker
committed to this transformational process, which means this continued evolution and development of the individual, not necessarily finding a solution or finding an answer for a situation that the client is um experiencing in the moment.
Client-Centered Coaching Philosophy
00:06:38
Speaker
So coaching is client-centered. And that brings to the second point, which is coaching is not solution-based. We are not focused on finding a solution for the client. Solution happens, but solution is a consequence.
00:06:54
Speaker
It's the byproduct of this exploratory process that we brought to the client where the client was able to see themselves, learn more about themselves, develop themselves, and therefore with more resources, with broader view,
00:07:10
Speaker
of themselves and the situation, they are able to then find us a solution. The solution becomes almost obvious based on this clarity that the process brought to the client.
00:07:25
Speaker
So we are not focused on solution. We are focused on the exploration, on the discovery. And we do this because, third point, our clients are perfect.
00:07:38
Speaker
This is one major concept, foundational concept of the coaching mindset, that there is nothing to fix. Our clients are on this journey, and we believe that our clients are capable, resourceful, whole. They are doing their best with the best resources that they have, and they are just trying to navigate through this world and through the situations on this world with...
00:08:05
Speaker
the best possible ways that they they can navigate. So with this core aspect that there is nothing to fix in this individual, this is just an an individual that is trying to learn and grow and and move forward. And because this individual is resourceful, capable and whole,
00:08:28
Speaker
We believe that coaching is client-led. The client is the one who is taking ownership of this process.
00:08:39
Speaker
The client is the one on the driver's seat, and the client is the one who is owning what is happening in the coaching development in general. Because coaching is focused on the individual, it's important for us, part of the coaching mindset is this idea that I don't know.
00:08:59
Speaker
i don't know where to go. i don't know what the answer is. i don't know what is next for this for this client because it's their process. It's who they are. It's who how they are developing.
00:09:12
Speaker
So therefore, that's why the client is taking ownership of the process, because they are the only ones who know where to go and how to grow into this level of self-awareness that they are seeking for themselves.
Empowerment and Partnership in Coaching
00:09:27
Speaker
Coaching is an adult process. It's where we focus on the idea that the client takes full responsibility. The coach is not there to guide yourself. or to direct, or to lead in any way during the conversation, simply because we can't, if we believe that this is a client-centered process.
00:09:50
Speaker
And with that comes the idea of partnership, the idea that we are equal partners in this process. Hierarchy is a major deal when it comes to coaching. Yes, just by the fact that we are the professional and the client is the client, there is a tendency to look at the professional and the client in a hierarchical manner. But as professionally trained coaches, we are very sensitive to this difference. And we are constantly showing up in this relationship in a way that minimizes or it eliminates this difference as much as possible.
00:10:30
Speaker
We as coaches don't rely on our expertise of the subject matter. Because if coaching is client-centered, the only expert there is the client themselves.
00:10:44
Speaker
We are not relying on our knowledge and what we know to support the process. Our only expertise is in coaching and in the process of coaching and in the skills of coaching and in the coaching framework that creates this space for the client to explore, be curious about themselves and grow into that development.
00:11:11
Speaker
All of this comes to one core essential point for me. These concepts that I mentioned here today are not concepts that we can turn on or turn off just for the moment of coaching.
00:11:27
Speaker
We either believe that we are equals. We either believe that every human being is resourceful. We either believe that every person is trying their best with the resources that they have, or we don't.
00:11:45
Speaker
It's why we say that coaching is who we are. Because these are concepts that we need to reflect, and here comes the reflective practice, for us to be mindful of this on our daily basis. How are we treating each other?
00:12:01
Speaker
How do we see the other human being? How do we relate to our neighbors? What are the values that we have towards humanity at large?
Coaching as a Movement
00:12:13
Speaker
And this is why you hear some coaches, including myself, say that coaching is truly a movement, not just a skill set, because this concept of looking at every human being as equal and being able to respect this other person for the their capabilities, for the gifts, for what they bring to the world,
00:12:36
Speaker
you can see how this can truly be transformative not only to the individual, but to organizations in the world at large. This coaching mindset is something that we need to embody and commit to embodying it on a regular basis on our lives. It's part of our values and not just something that we turn on or turn off during the coaching conversation.
00:13:04
Speaker
So those are the unique points of coaching for me that I think make coaching so essential and so beautiful and defines this coaching mindset. And hopefully next time we have a revision of our core competencies, we are going to be able to formalize these points in our primary document for our profession.
00:13:27
Speaker
It's a mindset a coach needs to develop to fully embrace the essence of our practice and perhaps the hardest concept to acquire. And the reason why I say is because all of the skills come from this mindset. And therefore, if we fully embody this coaching mindset, the skills are going to be a consequence. It becomes easier for us to develop those skills if we are truly living and embodying these concepts that I just mentioned here today.
00:14:02
Speaker
So there you have my interpretation of the coaching mindset, perhaps a challenge for all of us, a challenge for myself, a challenge for every coach in this world to explore, to embody, to practice, to reflect on these concepts so that we can bring this not only to our clients, but to the world at large.
Call to Action and Engagement
00:14:26
Speaker
Thank you so much for listening to this episode. Thank you so much for listening to Prime Space. Don't forget to subscribe if you are not a subscriber yet. Please write us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Don't forget to share these podcasts and let other coaches know that this is available to you. Please feel free to send me an email with your questions, with your comments. I'm always here, ready to listen to you and to partner with you on this journey.
00:14:59
Speaker
Otherwise, everyone, enjoy your week and I will see you next time.