Certification

ICL Certification in Leadership Complexity Coaching

A credential for coaches who help leaders work through problems that have no single right answer.

About the credential

The ICL Certification in Leadership Complexity Coaching is awarded by the Institute for Contemporary Leadership to coaches who have completed Contemporary Leadership Advisors' Coach Certification Program and met the Institute's standards. Certified coaches are trained in the Leadership Complexity Toolkit — sixteen diagnostic and decision tools anchored in systems thinking — and in how to use them with leaders facing adaptive challenges.

Designation: ICL Certified Leadership Complexity Coach

Standards and requirements

  1. 01

    Program completion

    Complete every core module of the Contemporary Leadership Advisors Coach Certification Program, a self-paced curriculum of approximately ten hours covering all sixteen tools of the Leadership Complexity Toolkit.

  2. 02

    Demonstrated knowledge

    Pass the assessment that accompanies each module.

  3. 03

    Applied certification case

    Complete the program's capstone coaching case, including its ethical dimension, to the standard set by ICL faculty.

  4. 04

    Professional conduct

    Commit to practice in line with the Institute's standards of professional conduct and with recognized coaching ethics.

Competencies assessed

Diagnosing complexity

Distinguishing technical from adaptive challenges and matching the response to the nature of the problem.

Systems thinking

Helping leaders see the patterns, structures and mental models beneath events.

Developmental perspective

Coaching with an understanding of how leaders make meaning and grow in complexity of mind.

Applying the toolkit

Selecting and using the right tool from the Leadership Complexity Toolkit for the leader's situation.

Ethical practice

Holding confidentiality, boundaries and multiple stakeholder interests with integrity.

Maintaining the credential

Certification is valid for three years. Certified coaches renew by completing continuing education through the Institute and its communities and by affirming their commitment to the standards of professional conduct.

Verification and digital badge

Each certified coach receives a verifiable digital badge, issued by the Institute for Contemporary Leadership, that can be shared on LinkedIn and links to a record of the credential and the standards behind it. To verify a credential, contact Contemporary Leadership Advisors.

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How to become certified

The certification is available to coaches who complete Contemporary Leadership Advisors' Coach Certification Program.

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