What is Coaching? A Complete Guide
Coaching is one of the most widely used and least precisely understood words in professional development. This guide sets out what coaching actually is, how the two main professional bodies define it, and how it differs from related disciplines. It is the starting point for anyone new to coaching and a useful reference for anyone thinking about coaching training.
The professional definition of coaching
Two organisations set the professional standard for coaching globally: the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC). Both have formal definitions of coaching that underpin their accreditation standards and credentialing requirements.
The ICF defines coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximise their personal and professional potential. The process is client-driven. The coach's role is to support the client's own thinking, not to provide advice or answers.
The EMCC defines coaching as a professionally guided process that inspires clients to maximise their personal and professional potential. The EMCC places coaching and mentoring as related disciplines within the same framework, describing both as focused on facilitating change and development in the client rather than directing it.
Both definitions share the same core principle: coaching is a process in which the coach supports the client to think, decide, and develop for themselves. The coach does not tell the client what to do. They create the conditions in which the client thinks more clearly and acts more effectively.
How coaching works in practice
A coaching engagement is a structured series of one-to-one conversations between a coach and a client. The client brings a topic, a challenge, or a goal. The coach listens carefully, asks questions that deepen the client's thinking, and helps them arrive at greater clarity, new perspectives, or a clearer sense of what they want to do next.
The coach does not provide solutions, share opinions about what the client should do, or draw on their own expertise in the client's field. This is deliberate. Coaching is built on the principle that the client is the expert on their own situation. The coach's job is to help them access that expertise more fully.
This makes coaching distinct from consulting, training, or advice-giving. It also distinguishes it from mentoring, which explicitly draws on the mentor's direct experience. The coach's value comes not from what they know about the client's world, but from their skill in asking the right questions and holding space for the client's thinking.
The ICF publishes eight core competencies that describe what a professional coach does: establishing and maintaining agreements, embodying a coaching mindset, establishing trust and safety, maintaining presence, active listening, evoking awareness, facilitating client growth, and working with ethics. These competencies form the basis of ICF accreditation standards and are assessed as part of credential applications.
What coaching is not
Coaching is frequently confused with adjacent disciplines. The distinctions matter, both for people considering coaching and for those training to become coaches.
The main types of coaching
Coaching is practised across a wide range of contexts. The core skills and principles are consistent across all of them. The context shapes how they are applied.
Coaching focused on senior professionals and organisational performance. Works with leaders on challenges of complexity, decision-making, team dynamics, and personal effectiveness at the highest levels.
Coaching focused on professional performance, business challenges, and commercial goals. May work with entrepreneurs, senior managers, or teams on growth, strategy, and execution.
Coaching the team as a single system rather than coaching individuals within a team. Focuses on how the team works together, its collective performance, and its relationship with the wider organisation.
Coaching focused on personal goals, values, and life choices. May address career transitions, personal development, confidence, or major life decisions.
Professional coaching and accreditation
The ICF and EMCC are the two principal bodies that set professional standards for coaching. They accredit training programmes, set ethical codes, and credential individual coaches. Neither has legal authority over who calls themselves a coach, but their frameworks define what professional coaching looks like in practice.
The ICF issues three individual credentials: the Associate Certified Coach (ACC), the Professional Certified Coach (PCC), and the Master Certified Coach (MCC). Each requires a combination of training hours, coaching hours, and mentor coaching. The ICF is the larger global body, with members across more than 140 countries. Its credentials are the most widely recognised standard in corporate coaching markets.
The EMCC was founded in 1992 and covers both coaching and mentoring. It accredits both training programmes (through the External Quality Award, EQA) and individuals (through the European Individual Accreditation, EIA). The EMCC is the primary professional standard across Europe and is often preferred in UK public sector and third sector organisations.
TPC Leadership's training programmes are accredited by both bodies. For a full comparison of the two, read our guide to ICF vs EMCC accreditation.
Coaching at TPC Leadership
TPC Leadership has been at the centre of coaching's development for 30 years. Our founder Charles Brook worked alongside Sir John Whitmore, the pioneer who brought coaching from elite sport into the boardroom and developed the GROW model, one of the most widely used coaching frameworks in the world. We worked with the EMCC to establish the accreditation framework that underpins professional coaching across Europe.
Our view of coaching is grounded in that history and in the evidence base built over three decades of practice. Coaching, done well, is a psychologically informed discipline that requires specific skills, deep self-awareness, and the ability to hold space for another person's thinking under pressure. These are not innate qualities. They are developed through structured training, supervised practice, and reflection.
If you are new to coaching and want to understand what the work involves before committing to training, our free Coaching Readiness Assessment gives you a personalised picture of where you stand. For a view of how to move from this starting point into professional coaching, read our guide on how to become a coach in the UK.
The Fundamentals of Coaching programme is the starting point for anyone who wants to develop real coaching skills. Three days. EMCC EQA Foundation accredited. You learn the core models, practise coaching conversations, and leave with the confidence to apply what you have learned. It is also Module 1 of the Coach Practitioner qualification for those who want to go further.
Not sure where to start? Book a call with the team or use our course selection guide.
Further reading
This article is the starting point in our coaching insights series. From here, the most useful next reads are:
How to become a coach in the UK covers the practical steps from training to qualification. Coaching qualifications explained covers the ICF and EMCC credential systems in full. Coaching for managers covers how coaching skills apply in a management context. For the full list of TPC Coaching Academy programmes, visit our coaching qualifications page.