COLLABORATION: Ethical Partnership in Action →

 

COLLABORATION: Ethical Partnership in Action

The 2025 update to the ICF Core Value of Collaboration invites us into deeper relationships, not just with clients, but with each other, across cultures, roles, and experiences.

This value now emphasizes partnership as a dynamic process. It calls us into shared power, mutual respect, and ethical connection—not only in coaching sessions, but in how we approach systems, organizations, and our coaching communities.

Here's how the 2025 update shapes and strengthens this value:

 

 

• Partnering and cooperating with others to achieve shared goals: True collaboration honors each voice. Are we inviting the client to shape the session moment to moment? Are we, as coaches, co-creating or subtly directing?

• Engaging in ethical relationships, including clear agreements: Collaboration isn’t just about being nice—it’s about being clear. Setting and revisiting agreements ensures alignment, especially when circumstances shift.

• Cultivating mutual respect and equality: Superiority and savior-hood have no place in coaching. Our clients are experts in their lives—we’re simply facilitators of what already lives inside them.

• Communicating and interacting with honesty and openness: What happens when we pause to ask: “What’s not being said right now?” Openness invites the unsaid to be seen, and transformation to unfold

 

 

✨ Reflection:

What practices help you stay attuned to shared opportunity in your coaching? Where might you need to clarify collaboration, especially across cultural or organizational contexts?

Final Thoughts:
The ICF Values are no longer silent values that live in the background. They are alive, embodied calls to how we show up and how we relate. They ask questions like: Can you hold both your role and your humanness? Can you stand for clarity and shared influence, without losing connection?

I would love to hear your thoughts and how you honor Collaboration in coaching and in life.

With Love,
Marilyn ox

✨If you would like to explore further:
✔️ ICF Ethics Updated Course: HERE
✔️ ICF Update Code of Ethics: HERE
✔️ ICF Core Competency Bootcamp, July 22, 2025: HERE
✔️ Next Live Morning Coaching, The Coach’s Mirror: August 14, 2025: HERE

🗓️ Schedule a time to Chat → HERE

 

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PROFESSIONALISM: The Quiet Integrity That Speaks Loudest →

 

PROFESSIONALISM: The Quiet Integrity That Speaks Loudest

As part of the 2025 ICF Code of Ethics update, the Core Value of Professionalism has been deepened and refined, not just as a standard of conduct, but as a calling to consistency, clarity, and congruence.

In the updated framework, Professionalism is defined not only by our conduct with clients and colleagues but also by how we hold ourselves when no one is watching. It asks us to reflect: What do I bring into the space, knowingly or unknowingly, and how does it align with the promise of ethical partnership?

Here's how the 2025 update shapes and strengthens this value:

 

 

• Acting with consistency and reliability: Are our behaviors predictable in ways that build trust? When clients know what to expect from our presence, safety is established, especially for those who may carry trauma or uncertainty.

• Being congruent in words, actions, and behaviors: A coach once said, "I can't expect my client to show up with courage if I'm hiding behind performance." Congruence asks us to model alignment within and without.

• Being clear and accurate with information: From marketing to contracting to reflecting, clarity is ethical. No more vague coaching buzzwords. We owe it to our clients to make our work, and its impact transparent.

• Being accountable for one's behaviors and actions: Accountability isn't punishment—it's a path back to trust. Taking responsibility without defensiveness is one of the strongest expressions of Professionalism.

• Maintaining and respecting boundaries: Boundaries protect relationships. Whether around time, emotional energy, or roles, when we model healthy boundaries, we empower our clients to do the same.

 

 

✨ Reflection:

Where might you revisit your coaching agreements or presence to ensure greater consistency and congruence? How does Professionalism live in your daily practice?

Let's continue to coach with presence, humanity, and courage, together.

With Love,
Marilyn ox

✨If you would like to explore further:
✔️ ICF Ethics Updated Course: HERE
✔️ ICF Update Code of Ethics: HERE
✔️ ICF Core Competency Bootcamp, July 22, 2025: HERE
✔️ Next Live Morning Coaching, The Coach’s Mirror: August 14, 2025: HERE

🗓️ Schedule a time to Chat → HERE

 

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Equity: From Intention to Embodied Action in Coaching

 

Exploring the Updated 2025 ICF Core Value, Equity

As I continue to reflect and explore the newly released (April 2025) ICF Code of Ethics, the value of Equity stands out as both a call to action and a deepening of ethical presence in our work. More than just a principle, it's an invitation to examine the world, the assumptions we carry, and the ways we partner with our clients.

The 2025 Definition of Equity (ICF) - A commitment to use one's power, privilege, and resources to create opportunity and to dismantle barriers, within self, coaching, systems, and society. Equity honors individuals' rights to be seen, heard, and valued for their humanity, identity, and lived experiences.

This update is not subtle; it's transformative. It shifts Equity from a passive ideal to an active ethical commitment. It's no longer enough to say we "believe in" Equity. It is now a call to embody it, live it, and challenge ourselves and our perspectives toward it.

What Does This Look Like in Practice?

 

 

🔹 Using Power with Awareness
Are we aware of how our language, frameworks, or silence may uphold systems of inequity? Coaching with Equity means pausing to ask: Am I creating room for this person's entire experience, or am I filtering it through my lens of comfort or normalcy?

🔹 Honoring Identity and Lived Experience
Do we partner in a way that respects, not dismisses, a client's expression of personal identity? Equity in coaching isn't neutrality; instead, it's a commitment to seeing our clients fully, including the layers that may be invisible in dominant spaces.

🔹 Creating Opportunity & Dismantling Barriers
How do we use our platforms, practices, and pricing to open doors rather than reinforce privilege? Equity is lived not only in sessions but also in how we design our offerings, how accessible we are, and how we use feedback to grow.

 

 

Equity Is Not Comfort. It's Courage.

Equity challenges the notion that ethical coaching is neutral coaching. It asks us to stand for, not just stand by. To listen with openness when we've misunderstood.

As coaches, we are being called to stretch into ethical maturity, not to be perfect, but to be brave, reflective, and responsible.

Equity can be seen as 'sameness,' but I believe that view misses the mark; equity isn't about treating everyone the same, it's more about honoring what makes each person unique. It's a value I strive to live by, and it emerges through how I hold space, listen, and co-create safe, brave, human-centered spaces where individuals are invited to bring all that they are.✨

My Final Thoughts

Whether it's offering flexible access, embracing neurodiversity, or softening my certainty to hear what's unspoken, equity calls me to lead with humility, curiosity, and care. It reminds me that transformation doesn't happen in sameness, but in spaces where all voices, identities, and experiences are held with dignity and presence. This is the heart of my work and life, and the foundation I continue to embrace and expand.

Where in your coaching practice and life does Equity already live? What are some areas that are calling for growth?

Let's continue to coach with presence, humanity, and courage, together.

With Love,
Marilyn ox

✨If you would like to explore further:
✔️ ICF Ethics Updated Course: HERE
✔️ ICF Update Code of Ethics: HERE
✔️ ICF Core Competency Bootcamp, July 22, 2025: HERE
✔️ Next Live Morning Coaching, The Coach’s Mirror: August 14, 2025: HERE

🗓️ Schedule a time to Chat → HERE

 

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Coaching with Humanity: It's Presence in the New Code of Ethics

 

The International Coach Federation (ICF) released the newly updated Code of Ethics (April 2025). Reading through them, I was struck by the depth and direction of the changes that continue to invite deeper exploration regarding the meaning of code itself and within me.

Among the many updates, the one that stands out most today is one of the four ICF Values, Humanity. The words reflect a core driver of how we show up as coaches and in our lives.

Humanity is now framed not just as kindness, but as a call to imperfection, reflection, humility, and authentic connection, and now includes:

 

 

• Embracing imperfection as a bridge to openness and self-acceptance. In coaching, we often celebrate our clients' journeys, but how often do we allow ourselves to be seen amid our personal journey? Sharing an "I don't know" moment in a coaching session (without triggering distraction or self-doubt) can model partnership, safety, and trust.

• Knowing there is always more to learn and staying open to other perspectives. A mentor once shared that she was reminded to step back while becoming curious whenever she felt her expertise or "knowing" rising. True learning begins where assumption ends. Humility can shift a tense dynamic into a space for mutual growth.

• Creating relationships rooted in honesty, transparency, and clarity. Whether with clients or colleagues, naming the energy sensed, or a misalignment in expectations, can create repair and depth, rather than disconnection. Clear agreements are ethical and relational.

• Continuously developing self-awareness. Coaches are called to be mirrors, but the clearest mirror is one we've looked into ourselves. Ongoing reflection, learning, and feedback aren't luxuries but necessities for ethical maturity.

• Willingness to acknowledge and own mistakes. One of the most powerful moments I observed in mentoring was a coach pausing mid-session, reflecting, "I think I just made this about me. Let's come back to you." That pause? Humanity in action.

• Accepting responsibility and learning from our actions. Taking responsibility opens the door and invites us to recognize harm, not as shame, but as an opening to respond with greater alignment and care moving forward.

• Being modest about achievements. In coaching and in a world where credentials and accomplishments matter, humility and this bullet remind us that our presence, not our performance, is what creates change, letting our presence and impact speak louder than our accolades.

• Avoiding any behavior that suggests superiority. Superiority closes doors; empathy opens them. Humanity in coaching is about meeting clients as equal partners in the process, regardless of titles, identities, or life paths.

• Committing to inclusivity, dignity, self-worth, and human rights. This bold invitation and daily commitment challenge us to step beyond neutrality while advocating for spaces where all voices are valued and respected. Whether it's making our practice more accessible or questioning our blind spots, it's a daily commitment.

 

 

✨ My Final Thoughts

Humanity is no longer an optional sentiment in coaching. It's a core ethical commitment asking,
"How can we meet ourselves and others with grace and growth?"

With presence and possibility,
Marilyn ox

✨If you would like to explore further:

✔️ ICF Ethics Updated Course: HERE
✔️ ICF Update Code of Ethics: HERE
✔️ ICF Core Competency Bootcamp, July 22, 2025: HERE
✔️ Next Live Morning Coaching, The Coach’s Mirror: August 14, 2025: HERE

🗓️ Schedule a time to Chat → HERE

 

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Invisible Bridges: Building Trust Without Fixing

Some of the most life-changing moments in building trust in coaching aren’t filled with the perfect question or a dramatic breakthrough. They’re the quiet ones, the ones that whisper, not shout; where deep listening and presence create invisible bridges between coach and client. They happen when we stop reaching, stop steering, and simply be. These are the moments where invisible bridges are built; bridges of trust, presence, and possibility. Let's explore four core coaching reflections, designed to deepen your awareness and elevate your presence as a coach and human being. Because at the heart of it all, who we are is how we coach.

 

1. Building Trust by Being With, Not Doing To

"To be with someone in silence is to offer them the space to hear themselves more clearly." – Unknown

The power of coaching and presence lies in being with our clients, not doing to them. This means releasing the pressure to perform, solve, or lead. When present, we invite our clients to do the same, cultivating trust and safety in coaching relationships.

ICF Core Competency 2 and 5: Embodies a Coaching Mindset and Maintains Presence invite us to stay grounded, spacious, and emotionally regulated in the client's service, not driven by our discomfort or need to perform. In life and in coaching, when we allow ourselves to simply be, we create more room for authenticity, connection, and clarity.

Refection:

• Where might you still feel the urge to "add value" by doing rather than being?

• What would it look like to trust the presence you bring, even in silence?

2. How Trust Deepens When We Release the need to help

"Help is the sunny side of control." – Anne Lamott

Fixing erodes trust. It signals to our clients that we may not believe in their capacity to access their own wisdom. Building trust in coaching requires us to release the urge to help or save and instead foster client empowerment and self-leadership.

ICF Core Competency 4, Cultivates Trust and Safety encourages us to co-create an environment where the client feels safe, accepted, and fully capable. As unique individuals and coaches, our well-meaning desire to help can often override the client's pace, power, and process. When we believe and see others, they have the space to expand and begin to believe and trust themselves.

Reflection:

• How does your need to help intersect with your identity as a coach or as a caretaker?

• What changes when you offer support without needing to "save" or solve?

3. Deep Listening in Coaching: Building Authentic Connection and Presence

"Listening is an attitude of the heart, a genuine desire to be with another which both attracts and heals." – J. Isham

As we practice this as coaches, we also become better listeners in our relationships, families, and communities. This is at the heart of embodying the coaching mindset as defined in the ICF Core Competencies.

Deep listening isn't just a skill, it's a way of being. It goes beyond hearing words and moves into sensing energy, emotion, and meaning. It connects us through presence, not performance.

ICF Core Competency 4 and 5 Listens Actively, Maintains Presence calls us to listen beyond the surface, to tone, body language, energy shifts, and deeper meaning. As we practice this as coaches, we also become better listeners in our relationships, families, and communities.

This is at the heart of embodying the coaching mindset as defined in the ICF Core Competencies. It reminds us that listening is the greatest gift we can offer others and ourselves.

Reflection:

• When was the last time you truly felt heard, not just 'listened to?

• How do you return to listening when distractions (internal or external) arise?
  

4. Coaching with Neutrality and Detachment: How Letting Go Creates Client Transformation

"Hold your client's potential with open hands, not clenched expectations."

When we let go of what we think should happen, we make room for what can happen. Neutrality is not passivity, it's powerful clarity. Detachment is not indifference; it's compassionate freedom. It allows us to notice and support without holding to an outcome, pace, or pathway.

ICF Core Competency 2 and 5, Embodies a Coaching Mindset and Maintains Presence, ask us to trust the coaching process, not our agenda. Detached involvement invites humility, acceptance, and receptivity. It reminds us that growth looks different for everyone and that our role is to partner, not prescribe. The more grounded we are, the more space we allow for wisdom to whisper and others to rise. This is a key practice for deepening trust and presence in coaching.

Reflection:

• In what ways do your hopes for the client's progress impact your neutrality?

• How does your presence shift when you practice non-attachment?
  

Final Thought:

Coaching is not about being the bridge; it's about holding the space where trust, presence, and deep listening can build invisible bridges between coach and client. Let your presence, trust, and listening create the conditions for your clients to discover, lead, and walk themselves.

What do you imagine changing if you detached from outcomes and embraced the unfolding instead?

With presence and possibility,
Marilyn ox