Coaches’ Field Guide to the 2025 ICF Core Competency Updates

Your map and compass for the 2025 ICF updates: simple tools, clearer routes, better coaching.

Coaching evolves; so do the rules of the road. In September 2025, the ICF gave the Core Competencies a tune-up—not a remodel, a refinement.

Think sharper edges on a familiar tool. If you’ve been practicing inside the 2021 model, you’re still on home turf. The map didn’t change; the legends got clearer.

What Stayed vs. What Shifted

What didn’t budge first: the backbone. We’re still working with eight competencies that revolve around ethics, agreements, trust and safety, presence, listening, evoking awareness, and client growth. Ethical practice and confidentiality still anchor the relationship. The coaching mindset and a client-centric partnership still set the tempo. The structure stands.

So what did shift in the updated 2025 ICF Core Competencies? Language, mostly—and the expectations that language quietly carries. There’s now a glossary, which sounds unsexy until you realize it trims the wiggle room. Shared terms mean fewer “it depends” debates and more clean partnering. Several indicators were added or tightened, and one competency definition got a subtle polish. Nuance, not upheaval.

Summary of the 2025 ICF Core Competency Updates

Want to read more?

Subscribe to cindyhosea.com to keep reading this exclusive post.

Subscribe Now