Becoming A Coach: The Essential Icf Guide, Third Edition

How can you become the very best coach you can be? Becoming a Coach all the knowledge and inspiration needed to reflect on who you are, what you do, and how you can develop as a professional coach. Drawing on the latest ICF coach competence framework and up-to-date coaching research, the authors set out a wide range of contemporary coaching models and techniques and show how they can be integrated in order to deliver an evidence-based coaching service to the very highest professional standards.

Deepening readers’ understanding of core competences and broadening thinking on how to apply them in practice, Becoming a Coach is the only book to align directly with the world’s most widely accepted and up-do-date professional coaching guidance. As such, it is a perfect foundational resource for any coaching practice, and the ideal textbook for any coaching education programme.

Jonathan Passmore is a Professor of Coaching and Behaviour Change at Henley Business School and a globally recognised, award-winning thought leader in organisation and people development. He is one of the world’s most published coaching researchers, with 45 books and many chapters, journal papers and articles. In 2025 he was named a Thinkers50 Coaching Legend in recognition of his profound and lasting contribution to the coaching field.

Tracy Sinclair is a Master Certified Coach with the International Coaching Federation (ICF), and a specialist in the field of coaching. She co-founded and leads Coach Advancement, where she provides training programmes and services for professional coaches and organisations building coaching culture. In recognition of her efforts, she was a winner of the ICF Coaching Impact Award for Distinguished Coach in 2023 and one of the Leading Global Coaches winners of the Thinkers50 Marshall Goldsmith Coaching Awards of 2019 and 2021. She is also a member of the Marshall Goldsmith 100Coaches. In addition, Tracy was an ICF Board member for nine years, including serving as ICF Global Chair in 2018.