“He cares enough to confront”.
This is how the leadership author John C. Maxwell once described me.
A piercingly accurate observation.
Many perceive someone who is confronting to be confrontational. It ain’t necessarily so.
Speaking the truth doesn’t have to be confrontational, although it may confront. ???????? That’s a line worth reading several times over.
Which brings us back to the continuation of my exchange with Benny.
By way of a quick recap, a couple of weeks back I sent out a brief message asking a simple, yet revealing question:
Are you still interested in becoming a professionally qualified Coach?
In amongst the responses, plenty came in from individuals I served during my decade-long association with the John Maxwell Team.
Benny was one of them, and, if you recall, his initial response went like this:
“I am a professionally qualified Coach, and growing.”
Intrigued, I replied:
Great, Benny! With whom did you train and get your professional qualification with?
To which he replied:
“I trained with Tony Buzan, Robin Sharma, John Maxwell (including your coaching system as part of JMT), Success resources, and Success Gyan coaches and trainers like T Harv Eker, Blair Singer and alike.
In addition, we have a coaches group where we continually work on improving ourselves to the best practice globally.”
To which it became very apparent that Benny wasn’t the Coach, and student of my body of work, he seemed to think he was.
As I mentioned in Part 1, if he was, he’d know all the names he referenced – aside from mine – are not professionally trained Coaches and do not have the means to train and professionally qualify credible Coaching practitioners.
Again, not a statement made in any disrespect towards the people concerned, or their body of work – on the contrary I respect the work they do – it is, however, the truth of the matter, in the same way I’m in no way qualified to train and qualify professional counsellors, psychotherapists, architects or lawyers – let alone call myself one.
Yesterday’s message signed off with a promise to share the continued exchange between Benny and I after I sought to clarify how aware he was of what I’ve just shared with you by this response:
Ok, Benny, help me understand where, in what you describe, you believe you’ve earned a professional Coaching qualification?
As I pointed out in the preceding post, his response revealed a broadly held yet deeply damaging misconception which needed addressing in order to serve him for the rest of his career.
It would also serve those who were part of the community Benny and I were once part of (well, at least those who can handle the truth), anyone else currently in the Coaching profession, those planning to join it in the future…
… and certainly those wise enough to invest in the genuine (???????? operative word) experience of the most transformational process known to mankind.
Now, you’re all caught up, here’s his subsequent response:
“Please help me understand, if the JMT coaching systems I learnt from your material and videos were not professional?”
Clearly, not only was Benny under the aforementioned misconception, the terminology within our exchange was being misinterpreted as a consequence.
Time to put the record straight:
Benny,
Your JMT Certification is not a professional Coaching qualification – and never has been.
It was never assessed, critiqued or recognised by either of the professional assessment bodies of the Coaching profession.
It has no merit whatsoever in the Coaching sector.
Whilst my body of work at JMT was worthy of industry accreditation, there were no quality control measures in place.
You could just turn up for the three day IMC and announce yourself as a “certified coach” without embracing a minute of my curriculum, all the resources and the additional trainings I built in mentorship.
I have no idea how many times you or anyone else watched the curriculum, or how many hours you put into Coaching partnerships or practice elsewhere.
I have no idea how much you internalised the practice, I don’t recall mentoring you on your Coaching ability in a live session, neither do I have a record of any reflection you did on practice.
What I can guarantee is all of the above wouldn’t have been done enough for you to be a qualified Coach.
Why do you think the very best of the JMT community – who are the real deal when it comes to Coaching – immediately joined my Conscious Coaching Academy TM ️ when I launched it after I departed from JMT?
They wanted the integrity which comes from being professionally qualified via our Elite Influencer Coaching Accreditation™️ – which is formally assessed, critiqued and awarded the prestigious European Quality Award by the oldest assessment body in the profession, the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC).
In essence Benny, without a formal, professional qualification in the Coaching profession, you are like the unqualified lawyer or doctor providing a service they are not credentialed to provide.
Your JMT certification allows you to teach some of John Maxwell’s content, be a certified speaker in his name, and teach additional intellectual property such as DiSC and The Leadership Game etc.
But in the professional Coaching world? It has no recognition or standing for all the reasons I’ve described. Neither does what is positioned as “Coach training” by the organisation the JMT became.
Is this now clear?
I appreciate this is clearly news to you, so I’m glad we had this exchange to put the record straight for you.
I sense integrity is important to you.
The question only you can answer now is do you want to do anything about it?
Because if you want to be a highly sought after and credible expert in transformation through Coaching – to be the very best this profession will ever produce with the formal credentials to prove it, I’m happy to have the conversation with you.
Let me know.
I often speak of how this industry is rife with charlatans, pretenders and imposters.
The untrained, unqualified, unfit-for purpose individuals masquerading as something they are not, violating profession and public alike.
Is Benny one of them? In some ways yes, in others, no.
I’m not questioning the purity of his intentions. And he’s clearly been willing to invest in himself and his ability to offer value to others.
These things are commendable and contribute enormously to credibility.
And he can’t be blamed for what he clearly wasn’t aware of – until now.
I can understand how, like many of his fellow John Maxwell Team members, he’s under the impression of being appropriately qualified in the Coaching field, because of the quality of the body of work I created and delivered in my time there.
Yet, for all the reasons outlined, the fact is he remains unqualified in the service he claims to provide.
Not only that, it’s very likely he’s far less fit-for-purpose than he likes to think is.
Why?
Because when I enquired as to the source of his professional Coaching qualification, aside from yours truly, he cited names who, like Benny, are not only not Coaches, they consequently don’t offer any credible professional Coach training and qualifications.
Which tells me Benny embraced my body of work far less than he makes out. If he had, he’d be very clear on the boundaries between teachers of content, mentors, trainers and Coaches.
Which brings us full circle back as to why his certification is not a professional Coaching qualification – because of zero quality control or assessment.
Yes, I brought Coach training of the highest standards to the table for all those years – yet the truth is, thousands of people out there claiming to be “certified coaches” never went near a minute of it – or only partially embraced it.
Would you hire a lawyer, engineer, electrician, plumber, accountant, medical practitioner, architect, financial advisor etc, etc., on that basis?
Not if you were in your right mind, you wouldn’t.
Anyone operating in those professions – as Benny is in this one – would be struck off. Think Mike Ross in the TV drama“Suits”.
Truth is truth. At times it’s not ideal, pleasant or comfortable… but it is, still, truth.
I didn’t hear back from Benny. That, in itself, speaks volumes.
Was I surprised?
Hardly. I get it, I really do.
I’ve had many exchanges like this over the years, and, for reasons mentioned above, the truth is often a great silencer.
Warmly,
Christian
P.S. If the revelations of my exchange with Benny have opened your eyes to how the unregulated industry of Coaching has opened up the doors to a plethora of sham, fake or irrelevant so-called qualidfications…
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