WHY THE BOARD ?

Our Story

The Africa Board for Coaching, Consulting and Coaching Psychology (ABCCCP), a board that a couple of passionate people about coaching created in 2012. The purpose of the board is to ensure the credibility of coaches and consultants across the African continent.

We were concerned about the fact that at that time, anybody can pick a card and call themselves a coach, or consultant and there was no quality assurance mechanism.

But most importantly, we were concerned about the development of leaders within the African continent, and we knew as credible coaches and consultant with years of experience and a passion for a growing Africa, that the role of coaches and consultants is crucial in this growth.

Finally, with all of us having practiced globally for many years, we wanted to heed the answer to the question: Is there a way to consult to African leaders or to coach African leaders that is unique to Africa?

Is there such a thing as an African coaching model?

WHO DOES THE BOARD SERVE ?

The primary customer of the board is the buyers of coaching and consulting services. They want to answer the question: how do I know that the practitioner I am dealing with is the best person for the job, will have my interests at heart and will offer the highest level of service.

How do we achieve this?

We do this by accrediting or credentialing practitioners against standards of practice and ethics and supporting continuous professional development of these practitioners. The membership to the board is not perpetual but is renewable every two years, based on continuous professional development principles. So each of our members is guaranteed to represent quality at their designation level.

What are the member categories?

Coaching Psychology

There is currently no official category within the Africa professional landscape for coaching psychologists. We are however seeing more and more psychologists who also want to do coaching as a specialist area, following the international trend in Australia, Europe and Americas. We are using these global standards to establish a credible platform for these practitioners to transition from a particular category of practice (Educational, organisational, research or clinical) to a coaching modality. Based on our experience and research, we know that a great psychologist does not necessarily translate to a great coaching psychologist.

Coaches

Coaching is a growing practice area in the world. With this growth the credibility challenge always develops. How do you know that the coach you are working with is great at what they do, follow the highest ethics and have the best credentials for who they claim to be? There is currently no protection for the title of coach, and neither do we think there should be, but as a result anyone can call themselves coach, whether they did a two hour, two day, two months or two year “credibility” process in coaching. Also, given the variety of practice spaces for coaches, how do you know that whatever practice space, the coach meets at least the foundational standards of coaching credibility?

Consultants

Consultancy can take different forms from the simple to the complex. What is always the case is that they get to work with critical elements of organisational transformation and as such tend to be in a position of trust for the organisations within which they work. It is therefore important that the buyer of consulting services has certainty about what they are getting and the credibility of the practitioner.

Corporate Members

Since this is a Professional Board, corporate membership is on a sponsored basis- and the membership status is still that of the individual professional at a discounted rate. Corporate can use this as a benefit and a talent value proposition for their professional staff members.

Training/Academic institutions

The accreditation of academic institution has the advantage that their programmes and students are automatically accredited if the institution is accredited. To the buyers of training programmes, it gives the sense of comfort that the training programme is designed to a certain high standard.

Coaching in Africa Symposium

The ABCCCP hosts every year a “Coaching in Africa” Symposium. At the core of the symposium is the question: How is Africa giung to be in the 22nd Century- And what is the role of coaches and consultants.

For more on the symposium Click Here!

The refined ABCCCP Competencies

At a meeting on the 28th of June 2019, the ABCCCP discussed the competencies that had been adopted by the institution when it was formed. This was in answer of the question: What’s so African about the ABCCCP competencies.

This is what we came up with early this year as a board after discussions. We are very excited about this new set and how they can contribute to evolving coaching practice, in a way that is aligned to the indeginous practices on the continent while underpinned by modern research.

The competencies remain the same across different designations, with varying knowledge and experience elements per designation.

What is Coaching?

A process of supporting a person in a way that they discover their unused potential and use it to achieve accelerated success.

What is Consulting?

Consulting is a process of engaging with a client by an expert with competencies related to a client challenge, with an intention to co-create a bespoke solution thereto.

Our attitude to the way we do things is underpinned by the following

7 Principles

Our members are at the core of what we do
We exercise Leadership all we do
We put our people first so that they put YOU first
We continously review and enhance our processes to serve YOU better
We take a System approach to management – We realise everything is connected!
We take Values and Facts when we make our decisions.
We aim to have Mutually beneficial supplier relationships

Our Board members have extensive experience in the areas of coaching, consulting and coaching psychology and are passionate africans who have a deep concern for the competence and reputation of Africa.